OK
X

A T T E N T I O N !

Tickets on sale for our own 'Industry leading, highest rated' event out there!

The NEXT GENERATION
Contact Center & Customer Engagement
BEST PRACTICES Conference
featuring 2018 Top Contact Centers / CX Organizations!!
Events taking place in Europe, US, Asia

FIND OUT MORE

United States
Login
Invalid Login
Email
Password

Reset / Forgot Password Link

Register FREE
Become a Basic Member for free. Click on the memberships tab
Memberships
FacebookLinkedInTwitterRSSYoutubeInstagramContactCenterWorld
Exec Menu:
Classic Menu:
Default Classic Sub Menu:
Become a Basic Member for free. Click Here
Menu
  • Advertise
    • Overview
    • Directory
    • Banners
    • Emails
    • Events
    • Awards
    • Certification
    • Added Value
    • FAQ
  • Articles & News
  • Awards
    • Overview
    • Categories
    • How to enter
    • Past winners
    • FAQ
    • My entries
      • Overview
      • Welcome
      • Add Location
      • My Award Entries
      • My Payments
      • Submission Status
      • My Admins
      • Help
    • Judge / Sponsor
    • Industry Champion
    • Employee Engagement
  • Benchmarking
    • Global Benchmarking Study
    • Contact Center Exchange Program
    • Best Practice Conferences
    • Best Practice Awards
  • Events
    • North & South America
      • Americas Overview
      • Networking
      • Certificate/Benchmarking
      • Conference Schedule
      • Book Tickets
      • Contact Us
      • Venue/Travel
      • Gala Dinner
      • Travel Information
      • Useful Information
      • Convince Your Boss
      • Sponsorship
      • Transaltion Services
    • Europe, Middle East & Africa
      • EMEA Overview
      • Networking
      • Certificate/Benchmarking
      • Conference Schedule
      • Book Tickets
      • Contact Us
      • Venue/Travel
      • Gala Dinner
      • Travel Information
      • Useful Information
      • Convince Your Boss
      • Sponsorship
      • Transaltion Services
    • Asia Pacific
      • Asia Pacific Overview
      • Networking
      • Certificate/Benchmarking
      • Conference Schedule
      • Book Tickets
      • Contact Us
      • Venue/Travel
      • Gala Dinner
      • Travel Information
      • Useful Information
      • Convince Your Boss
      • Sponsorship
      • Transaltion Services
    • Global
      • Global Overview
      • Networking
      • Certificate/Benchmarking
      • Conference Schedule
      • Book Tickets
      • Contact Us
      • Venue/Travel
      • Gala Dinner
      • Travel Information
      • Useful Information
      • Convince Your Boss
      • Sponsorship
      • Transaltion Services
  • Groups
    • Aerospace
    • Agent Zone
    • Association
    • Automotive
    • Awards
    • Banking / Finance / Credit
    • Benchmarking
    • Best Practices
    • Charity / Not For Profit
    • Computer Hardware / Software
    • CRM
    • Executive Track
    • Government
    • Healthcare / Pharmaceutical
    • HR
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Management
    • Manufacturing
    • Outbound
    • Outsourcing
    • Performance
    • Quality
    • Retail
    • Service Industry
    • Social Media
    • Tactics & Strategy
    • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Training
    • Travel / Transportation / Tourism
    • Utilities
    • Workforce Management
  • Jobs
  • Resources
    • International Contact Center Week
    • TopPlace2Work
    • Mobile App
    • Social Exchange Program
    • The Learning Academy
    • Find a Career
    • Glossary
    • Link to Us
    • Industry Social Overview
    • RSS Feeds
    • Company Blogs
    • Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Submit Editorial
    • Association Directory
    • Demo's and Tutorials
    • Feeds for Your Website
    • Event Photos
  • Suppliers
  • Tips
  • Tips
  • Articles
  • Events
    • Best Practice Conferences
    • Other Events
  • Awards
  • Benchmarking
    • Global Benchmarking Study
    • Contact Center Exchange Program
    • Best Practice Conferences
    • Best Practice Awards
  • Jobs
  • Suppliers
  • Resources
    • International Contact Center Week
    • TopPlace2Work
    • Mobile App
    • Social Exchange Program
    • The Learning Academy
    • Find a Career
    • Glossary
    • Link to Us
    • Industry Social Overview
    • RSS Feeds
    • Company Blogs
    • Sponsorship Opportunities
    • Submit Editorial
    • Association Directory
    • Demo's and Tutorials
    • Feeds for Your Website
    • Event Photos
  • Advertise
  • Groups
    • Aerospace
    • Agent Zone
    • Association
    • Automotive
    • Awards
    • Banking / Finance / Credit
    • Benchmarking
    • Best Practices
    • Charity / Not For Profit
    • Computer Hardware / Software
    • CRM
    • Executive Track
    • Government
    • Healthcare / Pharmaceutical
    • HR
    • Insurance
    • Legal
    • Management
    • Manufacturing
    • Outbound
    • Outsourcing
    • Performance
    • Quality
    • Retail
    • Service Industry
    • Social Media
    • Tactics & Strategy
    • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Training
    • Travel / Transportation / Tourism
    • Utilities
    • Workforce Management
WHAT CAN WE HELP YOU FIND?
categories
All
Articles
Tips
People
Company
Jobs
Video
Blog
Gallery
Glossary
Store

News : Anger Over BT's Response to Landline Phone Failures

#contactcenterworld, @BT
Sutherland, UK, Jan 23, 2015 -- Serious concern has been raised about the wellbeing of the most vulnerable people in the county, after winter storms left scores of people without phone communication – several for more than six weeks.

Some customers in Sutherland are still waiting to have their phones reconnected.

Anccording to John Thurso MP, British Telecom (BT) should learn from power firm Scottish and Southern Energy’s response to this winter’s huge challenges. He was speaking after taking up the case of more than a dozen constituents who sought his help.

One customer resorted to digging a 70m long trench to help facilitate BT engineers to restore the phone line to his Bettyhill croft.

Unprecedented weather, including a spate of severe lightning storms this month and last, were the cause of the problem.

There is also a lack of mobile phone reception in the area and use of the special signal boosting hubs owned by some families is out of the question because they require the use of a landline.

BT said the worst affected areas have been Bettyhill and Kinlochbervie.

The acting head of Farr and Melvich Primary Schools, Elizabeth Best, who lives in Kirtomy near Bettyhill, has been angered by the lacklustre repair response from BT.

She said: "A lightning strike hit Kirtomy on Christmas Eve morning and it was literally a flash that went right up the valley and all but two out of about 24 telephones were hit. We’ve not had landline, mobile or broadband since then. One resident hasn’t had any landline, mobile or broadband since 10th December because their property was struck by lightning then.

"We contacted BT when we were out of the valley (where we don’t get reception) but tended to get somebody in India. I think the local engineer has been doing what he can, but nobody came to the village, BT didn’t deal with it.

"During all of this as well, when it was the really severe storms, we were without electricity, so you weren’t able to phone in and say you had a problem. We were without water as well. So the two people who had landlines were doing what they could to update the electricity companies."

Elizabeth managed to solve the problem in her own house after getting the number from a colleague for someone involved in "executive level complaints" at BT.

She said: "We just thought ‘enough is enough’. I spoke with her last Thursday and by Friday morning at 9am, my husband had a BT engineer from Thurso knocking on our door, who worked continuously for three hours or more in high winds and snowy weather. He went up the pole and he was digging in a trench and he got us back on to our landline and broadband.

"He is absolutely wonderful, but we shouldn’t have to go to that level to get it sorted. We just wanted to speak with someone in Britain about it."

Ken Starke (76), has also been without a phone at home in Kirtomy since Christmas Eve. He and his wife Joyce get no mobile phone signal at home.

Speaking by telephone from a friend’s house, he said: "I have a heart condition and my wife has asthma. It’s been very inconvenient, especially at Christmas and New Year. My brother Jack (80) died on New Year’s morning. Trying to make funeral arrangements was almost impossible without a phone.

"We keep getting messages that BT people are coming out, but they haven’t."

He has written to BT to complain.

BT Scotland said its engineers were continuing to work around the clock, "responding at a record rate" to repair damage to phone lines caused by the storms.

Farr joiner David MacKay, who suffered two cuts in his home phone line, the first on 12th December, finally opted to use a mechanical digger to drive a foot-deep trench stretching 70m on his croft to speed up the reconnection work.

He said: "They (the BT engineers) didn’t seem to mind at all. I was quite happy to do it so I would get my phone back on again. You’ve no idea the inconvenience phone loss caused."

He waited a further week to have the line reconnected due to the workload faced by BT engineers in the wake of the storms.

John Thurso echoed many in the county who have lost patience with the telecommunications provider. He also offered praise for SSE’s response to the severe weather, particularly regarding its direct contact with customers known to be vulnerable.

He said: "I thought SSE’s reaction was extremely high quality. They worked out where the problems were going to be, they drafted in engineers and got things fixed really very quickly. SSE were ringing people of a certain age in their own homes to check on their wellbeing, which was very reassuring.

"Suddenly you’ve got no telephone and you’re living in a croft house, your nearest neighbour might be half a mile away and the lights go out. That’s very, very concerning.

"I compare that to BT, who just said ‘there’s bad weather — that means we’re going to delay for two, three weeks’. You do wonder what they’re doing.

"I think sometimes that BT regard the provision of a telephone line as a bit of a luxury, whereas it is actually a vital utility on the same par as gas and electricity. If you can’t communicate you are deprived from earning, deprived from accessing services and the ability to access emergency services."

Science teacher Amanda Moseley from Bettyhill is among those who asked John Thurso to intervene after failing to get a satisfactory response from BT.

Her phone and broadband services were cut by a storm on 10th December. Six weeks on, as of Wednesday night, they had not been restored.

2018 Top Ranking Performers Present:

CONTACT CENTER & CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

BEST PRACTICES

BERLIN - ORLANDO - MACAO

FIND OUT MORE!

She told her MP: "Since reporting the fault I have received numerous phone calls to my mobile phone from the BT call centre, all with standard messages giving new dates for the fault to be fixed. I rarely get to answer these calls and speak to anybody as I am either in class teaching, or at home where we have virtually no mobile phone signal and so have to listen to voicemails.

"Not once has BT Openreach tried to call to tell us what is actually happening."

Fraser Rowberry, BT Openreach general manager for Scotland, said: "We foresaw this weather coming and mobilised our engineering teams in readiness. We’ve drafted in more than 240 extra engineers from around the UK to join our 2,500-strong engineering workforce in Scotland.

"Everyone is working flat out, some in treacherous conditions. We’re concentrating resources on where the worst damage is. But very few parts of Scotland are unscathed after a series of storms which one of our engineers described as the worst he has seen in nearly 50 years with BT."

He added: "We’d like to assure the public we’re doing our best and everything possible to reach those affected as quickly as we can and thank them for their patience and support."

#contactcenterworld, @BT

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.northern-times.co.uk

Today's Tip of the Day - Hours Of Access

Read today's tip or listen to it on podcast.

Related Editorial

  • BT Says Sorry After Topping Ofcom's Broadband Complaints League
  • BT Broadband Customers to Pay an Extra £2 a Month
  • BT Hires 1,000 UK Call-centre Staff
  • BT Says Sorry After Complaint Numbers Spike
  • Advanced Payment Solutions Deliver BT Wholesale and Avaya Cloud Solution
  • BT Promises to Bring Call Centres Back to the UK

More Editorial From BT

  • BT to Take on 75 New Tech Apprentices in Scotland
  • EE Trains Customer Service Staff in Online Safety
  • Resilient plc Selected by BT Group to Bring Call Recording to its UK Inbound Contact Portfolio
  • ‘Pay Phone Staff Fair Wage’
  • Protest Held at Lincoln BT Call Centre Over Pay
  • Union Calls for Lincoln BT Call Centre Protest Over Workers’ Pay

About BT:
BT is provider of communications services and solutions for everybody in the UK and for corporate customers in the rest of Europe, with global reach through partnerships. BT provides services for all UK customers, network services and solutions for communication companies, worldwide business solutions, internet services, and advanced research and technology.
         

Published: Monday, January 26, 2015

Printer Friendly Version Printer friendly version

Industry Suppliers

Get Listed
GenesysPREMIUMGenesys
http://genesys.com
Genesys® powers 25 billion of the world’s best customer experiences each year. Our success comes from connecting employee and customer conversations on any channel, every day. Over 10,000 companies in...
(view more)
Bright Pattern IncBright Pattern Inc
Bright Pattern is an effective cloud contact center software which helps businesses to simplify multichannel service. Bright Pattern’s solution features enterprise-grade architecture that offers n...
(view more)
CiscoCisco
Cisco provides Unified Customer Contact solutions that extend customer care beyond simple phone transactions and the traditional contact centre to unique content-rich customer centric experiences. The...
(view more)
Noble SystemsNoble Systems
Noble Systems Corporation is a global provider of contact center, workforce engagement, and analytics technologies, offering premise, cloud, and hybrid platforms. Noble Systems has been providing inno...
(view more)
Get Listed

Upcoming Events

Submit Event
EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA - NEXT GENERATION Contact Center & Customer Engagement Best Practices
2018 Top Ranking Performers from ContactCenterWorld.com showcase the top contact centers and professionals from all over the region! Read More...
 1
 2410 
Share