Noisy line that BT are taking ages to resolve

[NoisyLions]

My mother has been a customer with IDNet for a couple of weeks (I spent ages researching a good provider for her and IDNet came highly recommended). I'm typing this on her behalf.

My mother is a pensioner and is hard of hearing, and over the past few weeks she has been experiencing a lot of noise on her telephone line which is making her telephone calls something of a chore. The noise is intermittent but is present more often than not.

Up until a couple of weeks ago her telephone provider was TalkTalk - a fault was raised with them, they got BT Openreach to do some work but the fault wasn't resolved. A couple of weeks ago we got so sick of TalkTalk (for various reasons) that I transferred her to IDNet, so they are now her telephone provider.

On 20th July I raised a call with IDNet on this bad line noise issue - they raised a call with BT and an engineer visited my mother on July 22nd. The engineer reported that there was water in a box somewhere along the side of the road some distance from my mother's house and that he would have the problem resolved by Saturday 24th July. The fault was not resolved by this date. I have contacted IDNet a number of times this week and each time they check with BT and are informed that BT are waiting for permission from her local council to do the work on the side of the road (traffic lights or similar are required).

Information from BT is though somewhat lacking, although IDNet informed me that BT told THEM that they were waiting for council permission to do the road work, BUT my mother knows someone at the council who has made enquiries with the highways department today (July 30th) and has been told by the council that BT have NOT made any request for road works (signs, lights, whatever) to the council.

So something is sorely amiss.

Can this be escalted somehow please? Surely IDNet have a way of escalating troublesome faults such as this one?

Meanwhile my mother has to suffer with a very poor quality phone line. I'm not at all happy about this, to put it mildly.

By the way, who is in charge at IDNet? What is his email address?


Many thanks

[Simon]

Hi, and

Just to clarify, IDNetters, the forum, and IDNet, the company, are not one and the same.  The forum is run by a group of volunteers, who are also IDNet customers.  

We understand the frustrations when issues seem slow to be resolved, but we cannot escalate problems on your behalf, so you will have to pursue the matter with IDNet, at support@idnet.com, or on 0800 701 2000, during support opening times.  We can't give out the staff's and / or owner's personal email addresses on the forum, for obvious reasons.

This certainly wouldn't be the first time that BT haven't done what they say they are going to do, when they say they are going to do it, and IDNet will be anxious to get this resolved for your mother too, so will be doing all they can to help.

[NoisyLions]

I see, thanks for the clarification.

Oh well, back to chasing support I guess ...........

Thank you.

[Simon]

No problem.   We are happy to try to offer support where we can, but where an issue has been identified, the fault found, and it's just a matter of getting BT off their arses to do the job, there's nothing we can actually do to make it happen any quicker.  Do let us know how you get on, and feel free to drop in to the forums any time.     

[Lance]

I wonder if a email to the BT CEO is in order here, seeing that IDNet support have seemingly been lied to re the council permission.

[NoisyLions]

But IDNet are my supplier so I'll need to go to them. There's no way that BT will deal direct in this case (believe me, I speak from experience having contacted them when having problems with BT's lines via other suppliers in the past).

BT will only deal with the customer if the customer is using BT as their direct supplier, even though BT of course actually own the network and are the ones that end up fixing the fault.

This fault is a real mess -

- I contact IDNet
- IDNet contact BT
- BT tell IDNet that have contacted the council and are waiting for permission to put up traffic lights (or whatever) - <rinse and repeat for a few days>
- a friend of my mother's (who works at the council) checks (today, Friday 30th) what's going with two people in the Highways department at the council, they tell her that BT haven't contacted them
- I contact IDNet again (this evening) and update them with the above council info, but the IDNet conversation just boils down to the 'fact' that I'll have to be patient (at least, that's how I interpreted it)

I'm really not blaming IDNet, but I do wish they could do more to get BT's backside in gear

[Lance]

You are of course, right, that BT will only deal with IDNet. However, there is plenty of evidence that a polite email the the CEO briefly explaining the situation as gained a result. Particular examples I recall include getting engineers out at weekends and having senior managers ring the customer from home at the weekend.

Unfortunately, getting BT's backside in gear is near impossible.

[NoisyLions]

I do believe that all of BT's gears are broken, except for reverse. It's most unfortunate that they are responsible for such a large network that so many people rely on, plus their frontline customer 'service' (I use the term advisedly) shoud be vastly improved. They could learn a lot from IDNet, who at least do their best under trying circumstances.

There ARE some good people within BT, I've met (and talked to on the phone) some first rate engineers, but sadly they seem to be becoming increasingly rare.

Here's a classic example of a bad BT experience - a few years ago my phone line died, although curiously enough my Broadband was still working just fine. An engineer was called out, spent a few hours in the road working on the fault, eventually left it and declared it 'fixed' (via a text message to me) and when I went to check the line found that not only was the phone line still dead but he had also disconnected my previously working Broadband. It took over two weeks and many engineer visits to eventually fix the fault, and that was only speeded up by me calling BT's chief exec's office and them 'kicking some arse'. The engineer who eventually fixed it said that the guy who had initially attempted the repair had made a real mess of it and that the subsequent visits entailed trying (and eventually succeeding) to undo said mess.

The thing is, if I hadn't contacted the CEO's office I'm sure that the fault would have taken a lot longer to resolve. That's not the way it should work - BT's customers should get first rate support all of the time, not just when the customer is so ticked off that he/she has to contact the CEO's office to get something positive done. A naive view in this day and age? Why? People pay for a service and should be treated well all of the time.

[Rik]

Couldn't agree more, sadly though, in larger businesses, it just doesn't seem to happen.

Welcome to the forum.

[Glenn]

Could the delay be, that although BT tell IDNet that they are contacting the council, it is in fact the contracting company that would need to do it?

[Simon]

Yes, and they would obviously need to co-ordinate any road works to coincide with other local road works, so as to cause maximum traffic disruption.  

[NoisyLions]

Could the delay be, that although BT tell IDNet that they are contacting the council, it is in fact the contracting company that would need to do it?

In that's so, isn't this a lack of communication, ie IDNet aren't getting the whole story as whoever they are talking to at BT doesn't appear to be in possession of the complete facts either?

[Rik]

That would not be a first, unfortunately.

[NoisyLions]

Surely IDNet have a 'high up' contact at BT who could get the whole story and hopefully move things along?

[Rik]

They can escalate, but it doesn't always mean things get done faster - sometimes it just means that more information can be gained. Sadly, as you're not an IDNet customer, it's impossible for us to talk to IDNet on your behalf (ie, we can't identify you).

[NoisyLions]

I'm not the customer, but my mother is and it was me who selected IDNet as her telephone (and Broadband) provider.

[Simon]

But IDNet wouldn't know who NoisyLions is. 

[Rik]

I appreciate that, but we often talk to support on a member's behalf, but that only works with customers as we can then identify them to IDNet anonymously, using the IP address.

[NoisyLions]

I can PM you my mother's IP address if that helps.

[Rik]

It would, though we can do nothing till Monday now.

[NoisyLions]

That's okay, PM on the way. Many thanks.   

[Rik]

Received. 

[cavillas]

a friend of my mother's (who works at the council) checks (today, Friday 30th) what's going with two people in the Highways department at the council, they tell her that BT haven't contacted them

I hope your mothers friend has covered her tracks as she is in breach of the Data Protection ACt by disseminating information of a confidential nature to third parties.  This information cannot be used by Idnet legally, unfortunately.

[Bill]

I hope your mothers friend has covered her tracks as she is in breach of the Data Protection ACt by disseminating information of a confidential nature to third parties.

Utter rubbish. Planning applications and the like aren't confidential.

The DPA is used as a shield for all sorts of cases these days, in 99% of them it's not applicable.

[Simon]

Must admit, I couldn't see a data protection issue either. 

[Bill]

The DPA is a valuable piece of legislation, but (in essence) if it doesn't concern personal data relating to an identifiable living person then it isn't applicable. And it often isn't even when it does!

It makes my blood boil at times to see the ways it's misused or misquoted... if I'd typed what my original thoughts were, it would have been my last post for a while

[coreservers]

When I 1st moved across I had mucho troubles with BT, and was offline for 2 weeks... I personally emailled dan moss and ian livingstone at BT.... it got resolved.
I've pm'ed you an email address to try.

[Rik]

Utter rubbish. Planning applications and the like aren't confidential.

The DPA is used as a shield for all sorts of cases these days, in 99% of them it's not applicable.

True. OTOH, handing out information without going through the proper procedures could be a disciplinary issue.

[cavillas]

True. OTOH, handing out information without going through the proper procedures could be a disciplinary issue.

That's what I meant.

[Rik]

I'm just here to translate, Alf.

[Lance]

True. OTOH, handing out information without going through the proper procedures could be a disciplinary issue.

True, an FOI request could have been made but the council would have taken 20 days to reply most likely.

[NoisyLions]

True. OTOH, handing out information without going through the proper procedures could be a disciplinary issue.

That'll be two disciplinary procedures then against 'high ups' in the planning department, as it was they who gave the information to my mother's friend.

I honestly can't see a problem, all my mother's friend asked was whether BT had applied for traffic management on a stretch of road for BT to repair a fault. Not really a big deal, especially as it seems to be the case that no such application had apparently been made by BT, despite BT telling IDNet otherwise. So who is in the wrong - my mother's friend, the people that gave her the information, or perhaps BT for dragging their heels and allegedly giving incorrect info to IDNet?

Remember, I'm only going on what I've been told - I've emailed (and telephoned) IDNet a few times on this issue and each time they have informed me that BT told them that they (BT) have applied for planning permission to the council for traffic management and the like, yet my mother's friend got a different story from the highways department within the council.

[Rik]

We can't say who's right - I was merely commenting on the fact that the information wouldn't fall under the DPA, but a 'backdoor' request for it could result in disciplinary charges against those who supplied it.

[NoisyLions]

That's okay, I'm just befuddled by the whole thing to be honest.

Thanks for all of your help so far.