HELP! BT are impossible to deal with!

[Lilifer]

I need to speak to BT about a landline issue and my home phone - I keep getting directed to text messaging where they only text land line and broadband and then basically leave it at that. There's no way of talking to a human to explain there's an issue with the actual phone handset. Please help as I've been without landline for weeks now, it's fully charged and a new BT provided handset so should be working but it's not and they need to replace it but I can't get speaking to a human to fix this, please help any secret numbers that actually get you through to someone?? The usual customer service number just hangs up on you and tells u to use the texting service 😣

Can you borrow another phone to do some tests ?

Does it receive incoming calls ?

Can you make out going calls ?

Ensure fully plugged into the socket

I can receive text messages on my mobile from them.

Could they have switched you to DIgital Voice without telling you?

I'd be tempted to ask for advice here:

https://community.bt.com/

They’re notoriously difficult to contact. I emailed the CEO. It soon got sorted.

Thanks all. The handset is totally dead. It's fully plugged in and therefore should be charged ok. But totally dead, so not connecting to power for some reason - it's only a year old so shouldn't be playing up.

Can you remember his / name or e mail address???

The CEO has changed since then. I’ve had to contact the CEO on 2 occasions now. My dh is an Openreach employee but even they struggle when contacting BT.

Try googling the CEO’s email address.

I've had the best luck posting on their Facebook page. Somebody usually direct messages pretty promptly, especially if you are disatisfied

I've emailed the CEO before - you get a phone call from a troubleshooter within 30 minutes.

Have also successfully done this with Sky and Apple in case anyone's interested!

If the electricity goes off due to a power cut in a residential property, everyone should still be able to make a phone call.

However, this is not the case if the phone is connected via VOIP (internet) I believe

A BT Engineer can test your phone line from the street cabinet.

However the handset is probably your responsibility, which is why I requested the test

Thank you, I'll try that!

The line is fine according to engineer. But surely the BT provided handset should not just randomly go totally dead within a year?? And if so they should either repair or replace it. I wouldn't even mind if i could get speaking to a human who could tell me if im entitled to a replacement or have to buy my own, but I don't want to go to the expense of that unless I've no other option and I can't figure out my options cos cannot get a live human to talk to! 😣

Can you borrow another handset to test from someone?

Or get another from Facebook market place, Freecycle, Olio or charity shop

Or buy from Argos or supermarket approx £20

Have you tried removing the batteries from the handset, waiting a short while, then putting them back in?

No I've not tried that, never occurred to me but I'll try it thanks