Sick and tired of poor service - need to speak to someone with some authority

[KnightsOfNii]

My Dad's landline has been out of action since Saturday. I have been trying to get it fixed for him but keep getting sent round the same loop (at least 3 times now):

1. We report the problem and ask for an engineer 
2. Engineer booked (took me an hour on the chat to get this done yesterday)
3. Dad receives a text later saying appointment has been cancelled because "it's a network issue and we're working on it"
4. Dad receives another text saying "problem has been fixed - reboot hub and everything will be fine"
5. Reboot hub - landline still not working.

Apparently another engineer has been booked for tomorrow - but why should I believe that when three appointments have been cancelled already?

The "raise a complaint" chat is basically useless because anything they do is just over-ridden by the engineers thinking they've fixed the problem. How do I get in touch with someone who has some authority? We need this landline fixed ASAP.

[Adri_G]

Hi KnightsOfNii, thanks for your first post on our help forums and welcome to the VM community.

Sorry to hear about the issues with your father's landline and the frustration this has caused to you, we're here to help.

Allow us to explain, when our customers report a fault we offer a technician visit and also start monitoring the local network for issues.

If we get more reports from customers in the area and find there is some problem on our network we may put your tech appointment on hold until we resolve this.

Once the external work is complete and the service restored, we notify you so you can reboot the hub and test your line.
In the event the issues are still present you may quickly report this online and reschedule your appointment (or book a new one).

To check on any existing appointments you may visit this link, please do let us know if there is one arranged already for your father.

In case you need our assistance with checking the landline for faults and arranging a home visit we can help from here, however if already booked you can view and manage your appointments online.

In regards to complaints, you can raise your concerns here and a senior team will review your case and respond with a resolution offer.

If this does not work for you we can help by raising this complaint on your behalf so please try it and pop back here to tell us how you get on and if you need assistance.

Regards,

[KnightsOfNii]

Thanks for the info Adri.

I'm already more than familiar with the "raise a complaint" chat box - it's how I've arranged engineer appointments for yesterday and today (which were both subsequently cancelled BTW). I have a complaint number, but there's no way to escalate this - I have to go through the same rigmarole with a different person on the other end of the chat each time. 

[Adri_G]

Thanks for your reply KnightsOfNii, I can advise when a complaint case is raised this is reviewed by a senior team meaning it's already escalated.

Please, kindly refer to our complaints code of practice here for more on the step-by-step process to be followed.

When you call our agents, they can only check the progress for you on this, if any, which is something you can do from your online account too.

We understand this is not helping, however as manager is reviewing the case they should be back to you within the timeframes we offer to offer a resolution to this.

Can you tell us what's the current status and progress of your case as seen here and how long it's been since you raised it?

[KnightsOfNii]

An update: Engineer finally turned up at 15:55.

Situation much clearer now - apparently the box at the end of the road was taken out by a drunk driver on Saturday! Engineers have repaired the digital connections, but haven't touched the old analogue ones because they're due to be decommissioned anyway. But that means anyone still on an analogue line in that area (including my Dad) have effectively had their landline cut off. That explains why restarting the hub (as requested by support) made zero difference!

The fix is to convert over to digital. Simple. But incredibly frustrating that it could have been fixed days ago had the right questions been asked.

[Adri_G]

Thanks for the reply and for this update, glad to hear you've had an engineer visiting and that the situation has been clarified now.

We're sorry to hear this fault was caused by a car accident last weekend, there are things that we can't predict or control but always do our best to provide support.

Just to make sure, is the broadband working ok but the landline is still not reachable, at the minute due to what you've explained?

If so, we can assist you with switching the service to fibre optics by arranging this change for you and the landline can work again via the hub.

Please, let us know if you've spoken to our team and scheduled this change already and if you've received an adaptor from us to use for your handset?

You can find more info on our home phone switchover process here, please have a read and tell us whether you need support by an engineer to ensure all is up and running.

Let us know of the above and we're happy to help you.

[KnightsOfNii]

Adri,

Yes - the issue has been resolved.
I appreciate that no-one could predict the box being damaged. What I'm not happy about is that several engineer appointments were cancelled because the issue was reported as "fixed" - when in fact it was anything but for those remaining on analogue connections. This was compounded by helpline staff just assuming it was a digital connection and telling us to restart the hub.

[Nathan_B]

Thanks for confirming, I'm glad to see that this has now been resolved for you @KnightsOfNii 😊

Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this, I can certainly understand the frustration. I'll be happy to log a complaint for you and discuss this matter further.

I'll send you a PM to confirm your details so this can be done.

Regards

Nathan