Home Phone line repairs in the 21CV world. What is the disability 'priority'?

[andybundy]

Hi

I'm separating this question from my other raised issue. 

Come 6th June, disabled people who are double- or triple-play customers with VirginMedia will have gained a new single point of failure with their home phone lines being dependent on their Superhubs and the hybrid fibre/coax broadband network.

In simple terms, a fault in the broadband network can now stop the phones working too.

In this circumstance, repair times become suddenly a lot more important.  In earlier years, VM used to have a four-hour fix target for telephone outages, such was the perceived importance of communication. 

In recent years, there has been only vague mention to 'we will prioritise your appointment over our standard level of care'.  As your standard level of care can see faults taking some days to resolve, this is not reassuring.

Would you please elaborate over your standards for broadband and phone line restoration moving forward, given that losing both at the same time has a greater impact than losing any single one previously.  Are your agents at least properly trained according to your policies and standards?

Thanks  😀

[Ryan_N]

Hey andybundy - I can see you have another post in which an agent has responded to. 

Cheers, 

Ryan. 

[goslow]

---

@andybundy wrote:

Hi

I'm separating this question from my other raised issue. 

<snip>  

---

Try this recent topic for some VM terminology which describes a VM 'Lifeline Service' for all services (although this priority service is 'subject to availability' when needed!)

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Managing-Your-Account-Cable/Disabled-Customer/m-p/4952222

The whole issue is a great big mess IMO which is, no doubt, why BT have paused their own rollout.

FWIW, I recently experienced a power cut which covered a wide area and went on for about three hours. During that time, all telecoms services stopped with the exception of low-level text messaging (which operated slowly and unreliably). Presumably 999 calls would have still functioned. So even having failover options to mobile services may still not work.

Without some further changes to this digital switchover plan, all that will happen is that users of careline services (or carers from amongst friends and family) will not be able to get through to their normal contacts during outages and will end up having to call 999 and put further pressure on the already-overstretched emergency services.

[andybundy]

VM is legally obliged to provide a priority resolution service according to OFCOM.  I note that there, too, there is no time specified however it is certainly NOT supposed to be 'subject to availability'.

The Equality Act also requires this under the 'reasonable adjustment' banner to reflect the greater dependence a disabled person would have upon such services.

I would hope, on reading the other post, that customer services were not asking for information to 'quantify' or justify the customer's disability, and thus measure her justification for the service? Not only would that breach VM's own policy, but would breach the line for 'harassment' to boot.

Finally, for the customer, if environmental controls are of importance or critical need, the NHS still has an obligation to provide, as they used to do with Possum equipment.,.. Now I'm showing my age.

[andybundy]

Note my first comment - this is a separate issue (if related).

[nodrogd]

I would point out that VM is also not immune to problems with its fixed line services during power outages. Unlike BT, where the copper lines go all the way back to the exchange, cable telephones have always operated on a hybrid system. The copper pairs go back to a fibre street node where the calls are converted to optical signals which travel over fibre to the headend exchange, which can be 15-20 miles away. These node cabinets are about 1/2 mile apart & control up to 5 or 6 thousand phone lines each. To allow for power outages these have huge banks of UPS batteries with associated cooling systems, some of which can become noisy & annoy the local residents. These batteries have to be constantly maintained, & while the smaller cable companies were always on top of this as time has gone on & the companies merged things have slipped. I have seen quite a few posts where outages have taken out the phone lines as well either immediately or a short time afterwards. I believe this is another reason VM wants to dispose of the old system as the constant replacement of these ageing batteries must be a drain on resources.

[andybundy]

Here's the page for my local EC team:
https://www.uhd.nhs.uk/services/environmental-control-service

[andybundy]

I'm surprised at this, but not massively so.

However, the types of technology here are somewhat irrelevant.  My point is that with the convergence of communication technologies, where an outage in the past would only likely take out either telephone OR broadband, we now have far greater likelihoods that a single outage can take out both! 

Most people see having broadband and phone lined as being very important, but they can live their lives in the short term without either, especially if they have ready access to a mobile phone.  For disabled people, however, ready access to prompt communication is a necessity.

The company has a fairly well written policy with respect to disabled and vulnerable customers, however this policy does not seem to be embedded in their day-to-day activities nor within the plans for the 21CV migration.

I re-iterate my initial question, what does VM consider to be their 'priority' with respect to disabled customers?  What response times do they aim for?

..