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Phone kaput

gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Phone kaput

Angry My phone line went kaput on 18 Feb. I left a message online giving the details after carrying out the checks they advised . I then discovered that it would be almost  24hrs before they would take any action on this message so decided to ring them on my mobile. I do not have a contract with orange so the call was going to be expensive, but i have a elderly relative  and my land line phone is top priority. I have now been informed by Plusnet that it will be almost two weeks to get my land line restored they blame Openreach, but as most of us know Openreach, BT and Plusnet are all in the same group, so much for privatization. I certainly will be leaving Plusnet at the end of my contract.  Crazy
67 REPLIES 67
Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: Phone kaput

Plusnet operates as a separate company and other parts of the BT group not allowed to favour Plusnet in any business operations.
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RJM
Rising Star
Posts: 186
Thanks: 21
Registered: ‎28-01-2013

Re: Phone kaput

My elderly mother had a recent fault on her line.
She is with the Post Office and it took 19 days before an BTO engineer could
go to the exchange to make the repair.
It really is so frustrating in the year 2013 that things cannot be resolved more quickly.
gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Re: Phone kaput

I was not implying that I wanted favoritism in my post. My point is that a company of this size should be able to sort out  a line fault in a period shorter than two weeks. Its the same old story with company's of this size, maximum  profit minimum service.
BenTrimble
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,106
Registered: ‎06-02-2008

Re: Phone kaput

Hi gerden - repair times are dictated by BT Openreach, regardless of which ISP / telephone provider bills the End User*.
*Except Virgin Media cable lines, I think.
Jaggies
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 1,700
Thanks: 34
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎29-06-2010

Re: Phone kaput

To those with elderly and infirm relatives, if they are registered as Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (CSDP) you need to get in touch with your local Council who can get this status logged with BT - faults are then prioritised and should be repaired in much quicker time.
BenTrimble
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,106
Registered: ‎06-02-2008

Re: Phone kaput

We can prioritize a fault under similar circumstances too at the point of reporting it to BTO.
gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Re: Phone kaput

Ben, I'm surprised you used a word like dictated, as a member of the BT family. But your absolutely right no compromise with the BT group. Its a disgrace that this sort of problem takes so long to resolve. My mother is not chronically sick, she is a elderly lady who lives alone and enjoys the phone calls she gets from friends and family. 
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Phone kaput

Hi Gerden,
Just to clarify - Openreach are not allowed to give any supplier any preferential treatment (this includes BT Retail). It's an Ofcom thing called Equivalence.
I do completely understand the frustration on how long it can take to fix things though.
Anotherone
Champion
Posts: 19,107
Thanks: 457
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Phone kaput

Well I hope all those that have had their lines out of order for more than 48hrs got a rental rebate at least!
gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Re: Phone kaput

You guys at Plusnet just don't get it, do you. I am not asking for preferential treatment. I just think that it is a disgrace that a company the size of BT with all its resources is going to take almost two weeks to fix a line fault. And reading a lot of the posts on this forum that's if I am lucky. 
BenTrimble
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,106
Registered: ‎06-02-2008

Re: Phone kaput

gerden - we do really get it and I'm sorry that you're clearly frustrated, but what would you like us to do?
gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Re: Phone kaput

Cheesy Ben I am flabbergasted by your reply. What do I want us to do, I want you to rectify my telephone line. I would have thought that was obvious from my comments. I think its a disgrace that this sort of problem should take so long to rectify. We were told that privatization would lead to a better service but this is obviously not the case.  
BenTrimble
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,106
Registered: ‎06-02-2008

Re: Phone kaput

I can see that your fault was raised on ticket 66042660 but you have closed this ticket. This doesn't close the fault on Openreach's side so could you please raise a new ticket referencing the old one so we can keep track of your fault? Openreach's estimated repair time for this fault is the end of 01/03/13.
Ofcom's regulation of BT Group ensures that BT Openreach (who have responsibility for repairing your line) are a completely separate company and give no preferential service, regardless of retailer (BT Retail, Plusnet, Post Office, etc.). As such, there's nothing that we can do to speed up this fault. May I suggest you raise your complaint to Ofcom if you feel that their actions have resulted in a poor end user experience? I'm not a company structure / legal expert but if you think that the privatization of BT Group in 1984 is the cause of the slow repair time then I suppose the best course of action would be to complain to the Government?
Personally, I feel that your situation has nothing to do with 'privatization', more to do with a massive infrastructure improvement project (FTTx), repeated MBORCs due to the weather over the last 12 months and significant demand for new products. I know that this doesn't help you but hopefully we can all look forward to a future where the UK has a world class broadband infrastructure.
gerden
Grafter
Posts: 31
Registered: ‎19-02-2013

Re: Phone kaput

I am not asking for preferential treatment. I would expect the same service from the BT group who own Openreach to repair my phone line promptly whoever supplied my phone service.
Openreach has a monopoly on this service. And as you stated in a earlier post they dictate when they supply this service. I reiterate it is totally unacceptable for this service to take almost two weeks.  Angry