Failure of BT to provide repair service

[Metallic]

In my area of Dul Vill we have been told by BT that there are about 500 lines affected by an unknown problem. The line gets restored, then it breaks again, and so on. Broadband also affected. The BT guys open all the cabinets in Half Moon Lane, Burbage Road, Dulwich Village etc., fiddle about for a couple of hours, open a conduit near Gail's Bakery - but nothing has been repaired permanently. And a couple of times they don't even replace the cabinet cover so it is open to any individual to mess about with it.

BT will pay compensation as long as you deduct weekends from the time your service is off. Big deal if it is Thursday! Every BT techie has a different story and none of them one knows what is happening here. This last 47 days I have had minimal service. Don't they realise that older people with help bracelets (not me) if they fall, the call needs a land line to get through to the registered helper. Or lines that go direct to burglar alarm companies, calls which are immediately passed to police. At this time of year many are on holiday and if they had this service and were burgled - forget it!

[James Barber]

Complain to OFCOM.

[Metallic]

Thank you. I also have the direct phone number to the BT complaints.

[Penguin68]

If the fault lies in the local network (between you and an exchange) then it is BT Openreach and not BT Retail that has an issue - BT Openreach is obliged to act at arms length to the rest of BT Group. If it is network supplying a third party (another thread suggested a problem with Skye Broadband) then your point of complaint needs to be with your service provider who liaises with BT Openreach and not with BT as a company. The fault (if it impacts 500 lines) may be with the exchange equipment (your 'retail' provider looks after that). Do remember that this is not like a fault with electricity or water or gas supply - every customer has unique equipment which connects (through interconnect points) their 'lines' directly to dedicated equipment in an exchange. It's not just like repairing a leaking water or gas pipe, where one repair can then give back supply to everyone 'on route'. If a multi-pair cable is cut (which can happen) every pair within that cable has to be reconnected to the correct other end. Although clearly having no service is very frustrating, it's often not that simple to identify and then correct a problem. Intermittent electrical faults (which seems like what you are describing) are a complete pain to locate and clear.

[Metallic]

Very grateful for this Penguin68. Onwards and upwards!