Hi there. Was hoping if somebody could advise....I have been a BT customer for 30 years and on Thursday evening
my phone line went down. Having called BT I was told this was not a priority and would be fixed on Monday (today) by 5pm.

I called them again today and have been advised it will be another 48 hours before the fault which is "at the network" is resolved.

Any advice would be much appreciated!!

Many thanks

What advice are you looking for?

Have they said where in the network it is ie is a u/g engineer required? Do they need access to any part of the highway?

You haven't really put a lot of information on which we can offer any advice.

Well excue me timboy, but it's not every day I require assistance on here and not every day my phone breaks down.

I would like to know what i can do in order to speed this process up, my rights etc etc. they have offered very limited imformation other than their system stating in the notes that they are "awaiting ties".

A few days of outage out of 30 years isn't bad. You'll just have to wait, use your mobile for a couple more days. I don't think that's bad service.

Depends on the circumstances don't you think, intheknow? You are not aware of mine and who is dependent on the phone. I asked for advice not opinion.

Well I don't think there is any advise, seems that they are dealing with it within a reasonable time period, especially if it involves digging up the road or tracing the fault.

Could you use a mobile for any urgent calls ?

It makes you wonder how people coped before we all had phones, life still went on ! It's not your right arm!
Last edited by intheknow : 20-03-2007 at 02:31

I think LIFE went on aswell (Git you edited it before I hit submit )

As to your problem JJ theres no advice anyone can give you to be honest, if they said they'll have it fixed within the next 48 hours then you'll just have to wait and see, if you were a priority they would have to restore service within 24 hours (This is normally for vunerable people / special needs etc...)

If your circumstances mean that you really cannot be without a phone for more than a day or so then you should contact them about being placed on a priority list (not sure how you go about this to be honest and only know about it because of my mothers circumstances as she is on a guaranteed 4 hour service reinstatement contract ( not that they always manage to get it back on within 4 hours, but thats another issue))

So basically theres nothing much you can do other than keep badgering them on the phone until it's sorted.

And can I suggest you try and be a little more friendly when asking for advice, if someone asks for more info it's normally for a good reason, no need to get shirty cause they asked for more info.
Last edited by Delvious : 20-03-2007 at 02:41

Sorry if I came across as being arsey, that certainly wasn't my intention but as I said earlier you haven't really made us fully aware of the situation.

The reality is you have no rights, the fault will take as long to fix as it takes. You may be able to get the Chairmans Office to exert some pressure if you contact them but with all the variables that are there they may not be able to offer assistance either.

If you have an elderly/ill person at the address it may be worthwhile calling 150 and asking for a Free Priority Fault Repair leaflet. Get it filled in by a doctor and send it back to BT. Although it doesn't guarantee the fault will be rectified quicker it normally means it will get looked into sooner.

Can't say as it came across as arsey to me , whereas his/her reply to you certainly did !!!
Last edited by Delvious : 20-03-2007 at 02:44

Cheers, I didn't think I was being arsey but different folk can read things in different ways on the internet.

Normally when people need advice they ask a question but there was no question asked by the OP hence why I asked for further information!!

"Arsey" Timboy?! You haven't seen arsey you ****.

Complain to www.ofcom.org,uk (020 7981 3000)

BT should divert all your calls to your mobile free of charge. You are also entitled to compensation but I'm not 100% sure how much it works out at

Many thanks Alex and Dean.

I am also having the same problem with BT. Due to heavy storm and wind my main BT line got broken and now its hanging like tramp outside of my home

BT will send an engineer today so lets see what happens...

In the mean time they have diverted all my calls onto mobile for FREE

They should have offered this as a matter of course.


Yep, unlike some other comms companies , BT still offer compensation - although you have to pro-actively ask about your entitlement under the Customer Service Guarantee Scheme (CSGS).

Have a look here for the details, but you should get rental back for each day you're out of service.