Fault at exchange

[#1]

My mother has her telephone and broadband with Plusnet.
Yesterday the telephone went down, and the broadband - she had to go round to a neighbours to contact Plusnet. They eventually told her it was an exchange fault and that it;ll take at least four days to fix.
Elderly woman, living alone, all communications cut off and it'll take 4 days.
OK you say, if its an exchange fault its an exchange fault - the thing is her exchange is ORPINGTON and when I check Plusnet's own tool ( http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/ ) it says that everything on the exchange is fine.
Can someone from Plusnet please tell me what is happening, and when my Mother can expect to have her communications restored? Is there anyone I can call to get her prioritised/speed things up?

[#2]

Perhaps a slight misinterpretation of terms here.
It's not that the exchange in general is 'faulty' - just that the fault on this particular line has been located to within the exchange. Plusnet's exchange checker to which you refer will only show major service outages affecting many customers.
I agree that four days is a long time to wait, but that's the way that Openreach deal with residential faults these days - it's outwith Plusnet's control.
As far as I'm aware, it's possible to pay a premium rental to receive priority maintenance for future faults; one of the Plusnet staff would be able to advise on that.

[#3]

Mdc1966, maybe someone in her family could lend her a mobile phone, just in case of an emergency. 

[#4]

Hi mdc1966
Thanks for getting in touch.
I'm really sorry to hear your mums line is having an issue. When we test the line, we are given an "Estimated Repair Time". Sometimes this completes before the date given, sometimes it takes longer. It all depends on where the fault is, how easy it is to fix and what resource Openreach have at the time to fix it.
I know it's quite worrying your mum being without any telephone for 4 days. Unfortunately, we have to work within Openreach lead times in this instance.
Fingers crossed it's resolved quickly for you.
Alex

[#5]

Thanks for thereplies everyone.

[#6]

My sympathies mdc, I've been in this situation myself. BT has a priority scheme for vulnerable people http://www.bt.com/includingyou/redesign2012/assets/downloads/FreePriorityFaultRepair.pdf
Surely Plusnet, which is owned by BT, has something similar? If not, why not? I accept that we're all at the mercy of Openreach but customer service should be better than this.

[#7]

Hi longliner.
You're right, they do have a priority route for vulnerable end users however Openreach will only accept cases and there is a very strict criteria. If there was anything Plusnet could do to help fast track this, we could do this for his mum.
Thanks for the feedback though. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Alex