My 90-year-old mother was sent home from hospital to die at the end of last year. Since she lives alone, and I’m her sole carer, it was essential that she get broadband so a personal alarm could be fitted.
BT told her she’d have to have a temporary phone number while Openreach carried out the work.
Three months on, her original number still hasn’t been returned, cutting her off from family, friends and doctors.
BT had the wrong address on her account at one point, so, for a period, she had no functioning phone at all.
We’re told the original number is showing as “active” somewhere in the depths of Openreach and everyone seems to be incapable of marking it “inactive” so it can be transferred back to her.
We have spent most of our limited remaining time together begging BT to get this sorted out. She has hospital appointments due to be conducted by phone and she is terrified they won’t be able to contact her.
She still doesn’t have a personal alarm, so I am basically trying to act as one for her, when I’m not losing my mind speaking to BT.
GP, Dundee
Cases such as this enrage me. For BT, it’s a boring “system error”; for the customer it’s life changing. Life threatening, even.
Evidently, BT could have resolved this at speed if they had paid attention. I know this because they managed it within five days after I demanded to know what was going on.
It says: “We’re sorry that the customer’s experience fell below the high standards of service we strive to achieve. We can confirm that she now has her original number back and we deeply apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
It has also offered a goodwill gesture.
This is not an isolated incident. RS’s elderly in-laws have lived in the same house with the same phone number for 70 years. Until, that is, their analogue line was automatically switched over to BT’s internet-based service, Digital Voice.
First their landline, which is quite literally their lifeline, was cut off for a week without warning. Both are in their 90s with chronic health conditions.
The digital line eventually went live with a temporary number, and BT has variously blamed “procedural issues” and “system time-out” for its three failed attempts to port back the number held by loved ones and, most crucially, by the hospital and GP services.
When RS wrote to me, BT was allowing itself the best part of a fortnight before trying for a fourth time to retrieve the number, and it couldn’t guarantee success.
It told me, as though the mistake was not of its making, that it can never promise that a particular phone number can be added to a line.
Perhaps the media spotlight was a lucky charm, for that fourth attempt did the trick. It has apologised and offered £50 in compensation and a free backup battery in case a power cut affects the new line.
Companies that keep their promises
Many companies confine their goodwill to a mission statement. A few astound customers by enacting their promise.
“A long while ago my wife bought me a pair of Serengeti sunglasses in the US, which came with a lifetime warranty,” writes GT. “Years later, in England, they fell into the spokes of a moving bicycle wheel and broke.
“I asked Serengeti how much a replacement pair would be, explaining it had been entirely my fault, and they shipped me a pair from the US free of any charges.”
CD was similarly incredulous when the bag company Mulberry showed the human face of big business.
“I had lost the dust cover for a leather bag, and emailed the company to see if I could buy a new one,” she writes.
“They replied with a warm, personally worded email, sourced a new one and sent it express delivery within a couple of days, all at no cost.”
The outdoor company Berghaus says: “We’re committed to keeping your kit going over land, not into it.” CW found it lived up to it when a wheel on her Berghaus travel bag cracked after more than 10 years of demanding camping trips.
“I asked the firm if they could suggest a repairer,” she writes. “They asked for photos, then wrote to say they would repair it for us free of charge.”
Three weeks later, the bag has been returned as good as new, ready for new adventures.
