Back again...

Well, I’m back, and I will write more later about the trip and the party, but the problems about the phone were just something else.

After what I wrote on Thursday about changing the tariff, on Friday morning at 8.00 am, they disconnected the phone.

Now this is something that I had specifically said should not happen, but unfortunately the munchkin at the other end, not only failed to comprehend this and pressed the wrong buttons, but he pressed them in such a comprehensively wrong way that he then “lost” the account.

I was trying to change the account from business to residential. He terminated the business tariff but failed to activate the residential tariff, and the problem with this is that business helpline assistants can only access business accounts and residential helpline assistants can only access residential accounts and because of what this gut did, the account now fitted into neither category.

I discovered that the phone was cut off about half-nine Friday morning. At 10 am, I had assurance from BT that it would be on by lunch. At lunch they said it would be on by tea-time. At tea-time it would be on by the morning.

The next day, the same programme. By Saturday evening I have probably talked to twenty to thirty different people and accumulated at least two or three hours of on-hold time.

On Sunday, they weren’t even open, so I got a day of rest.

Half-eight Monday morning I made a breakthrough. Instead of ringing faults or customer service I rang the complaints line. Complaints are obviously given more attention than faults or service. Within two hours he had the account back up.

But the real irony? He had re-instated it as a business line, so after hours of effort and days of disconnection, I was right back exactly where I had started.