topic Re: Out of hours - reporting faults in Home Phone

Out of hours - reporting faults

jorvikmik — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 21:28:18 GMT

Person at risk with personal alarm living in remote location.
Elderly lady with serious health problems living alone and no immediate neighbours.
Phone line is completely dead.so alarm system inoperative. Usual checks back to master socket done.
Is there anyway of reporting it that would get the report through to openreach.

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

SammyM — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 21:49:07 GMT

Hello @jorvikmik,

We are sorry to hear this and would be happy to get the line tested. Please can you private message me her postcode and name the account is under.

Once we have this we will get this picked up as quickly as possible.

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

DS — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 22:02:12 GMT

The following won't help out now, plus it must be a very worrying time for you.

It might be worth looking into this should it happen again

https://www.plus.net/help/legal/support-for-customers-with-disabilities/

Under the Mobility and Dexterity section it gives this information

Free priority fault repair (phone only)

We do our best to keep all our services up and running at all times. However, it's not possible to guarantee a completely fault-free service and occasionally, we know that some customers may experience problems with their phone line.

For customers who are dependent on their phone service, we operate a free priority fault repair scheme, which offers enhanced support and speedier fault resolution for eligible customers.

Who can receive priority fault repair?

If you register as disabled and/ or vulnerable with Plusnet then you may be entitled to priority fault repair. We can only provide the service to those who need it most, so if you tell us about any disabilities or vulnerabilities we can assess if we're able to offer you the service.

You can let us know about any disabilities or vulnerabilities by calling 0800 432 0200 or via the Additional Support Form in Member Centre.

Need more help?

If you have any questions about our priority fault repair scheme, please contact our customer support team on 0800 432 0200 or by using our online chat service.

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

jorvikmik — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 22:44:14 GMT

I am sure she is already on the Plusnet priority at risk register but she doesn't have any number to contact out of hours

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

DS — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 00:10:27 GMT

I've spent just over an hour in trying to locate an out of hours number for vulnerable and/or disabled customers and came up with nothing.

If Plusnet have such a number, then it must be well hidden or private or on documentation they might send to such registered customers.

I've read many forum posts, from 2007 onwards too.

BT, whom own Plusnet appear to have 24/7/365 means.

It's even mentioned in an Ofcom public document

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/108425/BT.pdf

Page 27:

Priority Fault Repair -free priority repair, 365 days of the year, for someone in household who has a chronic long-term illness or disability and unable to leave the house without the assistance of another person.

A bit baffled if I'm honest

I can understand them not openly posting such a number, if Plusnet have one, so customers not in these categories can't call at all hours when they've exhausted 'normal' means, but surely Plusnet's business division (24/7) could step in when the residential teams are not working - just my opinion

I've also read about persons not qualifying if they own a mobile phone, but personal alarms ('life lines') appear to work on the landline too - this could now include mobiles....?

Sorry I can't be of more help, you must be terribly worried. I have no idea if you can call her 'life line' provider to see what they can suggest.

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

MasterOfReality — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 08:43:36 GMT

Hi @jorvikmik

@SammyM asked me to pick this up early doors as I start at 7.30 today.

I've tested the line - there was an Exchange fault detected.

The fault has now been raised with Openreach. An initial estimated response time of 06/03/2019, however, I have raised this as a Priority Welfare Fault Repair case due to the circumstances and therefore this should be completed much sooner. I've emailed our suppliers making them aware of this and I am now just waiting on a reply.

Further updates will be provided accordingly.

Kind Regards,

MoR

*edit - date had typo

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

Gel — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 08:40:25 GMT

6/2/19???

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

MasterOfReality — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 08:44:07 GMT

@Gel - good spot. Sorry, fat fingers.

Edited

Re: Out of hours - reporting faults

jorvikmik — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 11:38:28 GMT

Thanks for your assistance.
Always a bit of a problem here though (microwave connection to island) and exchange usually reports an exchange fault when it's the cables on the island.
best regards & thanks again - Mick