My elderly aunt, who lives alone, has been unable to receive incoming calls for more than two months after BT switched her analogue service to Digital Voice.
Her care is overseen by a rota of relatives who check on her and arrange medical appointments and in-home help.
We are trying to keep her living independently, and it’s essential she can be reached by phone.
She has missed her regular social meet-ups because no one could get through and, as a result, has not seen her friends for weeks.
We have called BT more than 20 times, but it seems unable to resolve this.
GG, London
The saga began when it was noticed that your aunt was paying £97.50 a month for her phone line. When her nephew asked for her to be moved to a cheaper tariff, BT insisted she be switched to the Digital Voice internet-based service and turned up unannounced to install it. It then repeatedly warned that her new line was about to be cut off.
BT managed to dispatch a technician as soon as I questioned its insouciance.
A botched installation of the new digital service was discovered and subsequently rectified.
Telecoms customers are entitled to £10.34 compensation a day if a line is not fixed within two working days of a complaint, and BT, when prodded, agreed to pay. It has also paid an additional goodwill sum.
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