BT won't engage with me because I'm deaf?

[whycantyouusethephone]

I've just taken out an extra service with bt- who I signed up to, and have dealt with exclusively online with for years.

I have had problems with the new service and having contacted them online as always was told that I need to phone them. I explained that I am deaf and can't do that , could they help me on the online chat? Only to be told no- and asked if I've got anyone that could speak on my behalf?

Aibu- to think that this is ridiculous? They were happy for me to sign up, and pay online. They know I have a disability. I'm insulted to be honest and feel pretty small, needing a fucking grown up to speak on my behalf I'm tempted to leave them tbh, but as I know that I can be a bit over sensitive- aibu?

Thats stupid. Id be cross too op. My dad is deaf. He writes letters and gets anazing results. Right to head person and explain politely but firmly.

YANBU I would complain as well

I feel your pain.

You could try including the following in your emails, "I am deaf. As a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act, I request that you communicate with me in writing about in this matter. I am happy to communicate with you by email, by your online chat service or by letter."

Depending how you feel, you could follow it with something like "If you refuse to do this, you will be in breach of the law."

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/

At the very least, this will probably cause Frontline Numpty to push it up to a manager, who will discover that, yes, they can after all communicate in writing.

Disgusting, definitely complain OP, you are a grown adult and a paying customer, you deserve better treatment.

Yanbu, and I think they are in breach of The Equality Act. They are discriminating against Deaf customers by not providing you with a suitable way of contacting them.

That's bad. Do you have access to the service which you type a reply then a third party speaks, then types the reply back to you? Can't remember what it's called but when I worked for a similar business about 15 years ago we had lots of clients who chose to contact us in that way.

I agree, I think they’re discriminating against you. It’s not like we don’t currently have 101 ways of communicating that don’t involve hearing. It’s infantilising to suggest that you ask someone else to call on your behalf. I’d be really annoyed OP.

I mean here I am reading your message and responding, we didn’t need to have a phone conversation! Inflexible bigots (yeah I’m cross now!)

It could be that the people/teams who do online chat haven't been trained on the extra product you've taken out so it needs to be dealt with by a specialist team.

So it's more to do with their lack of ability to help you with the product than your disability if you see what I mean? Not great, I know, but having worked in contact centres I know not everyone can know everything.

If you email them, they'll likely pick it up and have specialists contact you in your preferred method of communication. And it might spur them to ensure the right training across all communication methods.

That's quite ridiculous.

Its up to the company to make an adjustment. They could supply the go between to liaise between the trained staff and OP.

It's so stupid. Virgin Media were like that for my sister- they convinced her to sign up to a tv catch up package but then none of it was subtitled so she couldn't use the service and they refused to let her contact them off phone and didn't refund her the cost of the package. (They knew she was deaf when they pressure sold to her).

Good luck OP, hopefully BT will see the error of their ways on this one.

Try this? www.ngts.org.uk/

It is shitty of them though, they must have lots of other deaf customers...

That's appaling! I would leave and complain to as many people as you can and tweet about it to!

BT is a very large company and especially in frontline roles (which are usually outsourced to an agency) one dept may be utterly oblivious to the existence of another. I am pretty sure BT has the capacity to deal with your enquiries, but internal barriers/ignorance can make it impossible to figure out the magic words.

If you don't get any satisfaction with that dept, go to the head office/chairman directly. Often a rocket up the bum from on high will suddenly force uninterested middle managers into frantic action. They should have done better. They need a kick up the arse for setting up a service without accessible support.