Disabled and vulnerable people please be aware of BT

Disabled and vulnerable people please be aware of BT.

Important please read if you are a BT customer and disabled.

Myself and my wife have just moved into a disabled bungalow. I have caudia equine syndrome affecting my mobility. We had movers, family and friends helping and all went to plan accept BT.

As a existing BT customer in contacted BT a month before to advise them we were moving home, this was the instructions from their website. I advised how essential it was that all services were transferred over as myself and my wife work from home and not having this service would effectively leave me socially isolated.

Everything was in order we were set to be activated on the 28th March the day we moved in.

Come the 28th nothing happens, I contact BT only to be advised they failed to put then order through correctly, even after I followed their instructions. So now we are being told we have to wait a week. With no WiFi, tv or phone. Being disabled I do everything over the internet, as most people do. I order prescriptions, personal medial equipment, food shopping as it difficult for me to get out.

A week passes and by 9pm nothing has been done. I try calling but line close at 9pm I then spend 2.15hrs waiting to chat to BT over the instant chat service only to be told they close at 11pm and now my data on my phone has ran out. Best of all I have my mobile through BT. So now I have to pay BT extra money to contact them for a problem they have failed to resolve.

To top this all off I’m advised that I need a new rooter in the living room which is a standard charge of £10. Seriously it is impossible to make this up.

(It would be interesting to see the difference in server performance as the old one is just a year old)

So after following their instructions online, after not putting the order through, failing to activate the order, now being charged for data and for a new server by the company who cause the issue in the first place.

I contact them again the following morning over the phone only to be told they need to send out an engineer but the first available appointment is the 23rd April, three weeks away.

So we now have to look at getting carers in for me as my wife assist with personal care but is unable to work from home because we have no internet, tv or phone in the house. We can’t even play the radio as it is through the internet like everything these days.

It should be noted that from the day we notified BT we were moving house. We had no communication from BT no phone call, email or letter to say the order was not processed, nothing to say it was not going to be activated and nothing to say they needed to send out an engineer. Nothing.

So through contacts I send a letter to BT CEO advising him of the situation.

Strangely I get a quick reply stating the following:

(Thanks very much for your email to Gavin Patterson and for chatting with me. I’m really sorry for the delay in getting your fibre service working. With the expertise of our fibre specialist team, we’ll do everything possible to put this right as soon as we can.

What’s happening – Fibre

Our fibre team will escalate this matter and your fibre case handler will be in touch with you by 9PM on 09 April. They’ll give you a direct point of contact for them and will set the next date they’ll speak with you accordingly. Our fibre team will be in charge of this case until we’ve got the service issues resolved, and they’ll then pass things back over to me to wrap things up. They’ll have the ability to escalate within their team and will case manage things until resolved.

My role

I will be your specialist case manager for your fibre issue, I’ll be working directly with the consultants in our connection and field teams to get this back on track as quickly as we can. I have a direct contact number available for you to contact me on at any time this is 01277 326141 I’m also available on e-mail and can be mailed at any time on yvonne.brinksman@bt.com

What next.

I’ll be next in touch with you once everything is working. Thanks again for your patience.

Yvonne

Mrs Yvonne-M Brinksman

Executive Level Complaints

01277 326141

yvonne.brinksman@bt.com)

You would think that this is great news but today is Thursday. They can’t get anyone to speak to me before Monday.

It is safe to say I have raised this issue with OFCOM.

I have also advised them I am a disabled journalist and asked for an official reply to a number of follow up questions.

The reason for this is because although I am disabled I am fortunate to have an amazing wife and family around me. I know a lot of people less fortunate than myself who would struggle with this kind of situation as their only form of communication is over the internet. This is how they do their shopping, how they speak to friends, the doctors ect.

I do not understand how BT can operate in this manor.

We are getting to the point we do not want to be in our new home as we can’t do anything.

I am still awaiting for an official reply to the story and the questions I want answering.