Harassment from track and trace

[VsgKitt]

OK that might be a bit OTT but that's how it feels. We had 5 positive test results back last night/this morning and because its my own test and 4 children all tests have my contact details.

I've had 6 call from track and trace. 4 texts and 5 emails. 3 voicemail messages.

The phone calls all came from 8am, I've been really sick all night and was trying to get to some sleep (DP been tagged in at 7 30am) but they're calling and no one is even there when I answer, just my own voice echoing.

Woman rang again and wanted to go through contacts, and said it was take 30 mins for each questionnaire.. . For 5 people.

I said I didn't feel well enough and she said she would call back afternoon. But since then I've had another 2 calls from them.

Kids have been at school and home. That's its. No visits, no school friend visits or family. We've been keeping to ourselves since numbers risen so I've really not got any names to give them, which I said on one call but they said they have to go through the whole questionnaire.

I just want to sleep.

Am I obliged to do this. Can I ignore them? I feel too ill to do it

They wouldn’t have needed to call you many times if you’d answered the phone.

They are only doing their job.

I did all my contact tracing stuff online, can you do that? They have still called me twice but it’s been a 5 minute call to remind me I need to continue to isolate.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

They wouldn’t have needed to call you many times if you’d answered the phone.

They are only doing their job.

I was throwing up. I did answer several times and noone was there. And twice told them I wasn't well and couldn't do it right now!

If you've got no close contacts to report it won't take anywhere near as long.
I spoke to them last week re dc and was done in under 10 mins. I just answered no to any contact with anyone apart for at school when I explained we didn't know details of school contacts.

I did get a few calls before I finally spoke to someone where there was a delay on the line when I answered the phone which was a bit annoying.

After the initial call I had one follow up text then morning since. If you feel you up to it just get it over and done with but if you're too poorly then they'll have to call back.

@FirewomanSam

I did all my contact tracing stuff online, can you do that? They have still called me twice but it’s been a 5 minute call to remind me I need to continue to isolate.

They sent me link for mine which I've just filled in. But nothing for the kids.

I lost all patience / time for T&T when I did the 30 minute call on behalf of ds. I had all the information ready as we had been away from home in the 48h before his positive test - I had the seat/block numbers of the football match he attended, the times and locations of the restaurants we ate in, the seats/carriage details for the trains we travelled in, the hotel we stayed - they couldn't have been less interested. Despite offering repeatedly she said that it didn't matter; she didn't even want to know which stadium they had been to. It was an utter waste of time and rendered the entire process meaningless. Remind me again of how much the government paid for this ... I am still raging three months later.

OP - I would feel under no obligation whatsoever. It's meaningless.

I did get a few calls before I finally spoke to someone where there was a delay on the line when I answered the phone which was a bit annoying.

I had something similar, the woman’s voice kept glitching and bits of what she said kept being repeated twice. I almost hung up on her thinking it was one of those robot spam calls until I realised it was T&T!

I did the initial call to give them track and trace information but then they kept calling so I have blocked them. I am ill and try to work from home and don't need constant texts, calls and emails from track and trace reminding me to self-isolate.

Block them thats what I done problem solved.

Agreed it's completely ridiculous, especially when they will not deviate from the scripted questions that are irrelevant and wanted to know about my school child's employers🙄 and having to repeat the same details for different household members. Completely pointless anyway when close contacts do not even have to isolate so who are tracing exactly.

Thats why i haven't had my kids do pcr - both had 3-4 positive lft and have isolated accordingly. I have let school know. DH also had 2 positive lft so is isolating - no pcr for him either as all clearly ill so they're defo positive. PCR just triggers T&T - we can alert close contacts ourselves

I ignored them 😂 I did the online form & first call. I then ignored all further calls until day 10. I spoke to a really nice lady who went off script & that was nice! She told me to go take a spa day & relax away from my kids 😂 My kinda person.

I did get texts but I just deleted them.

You don’t have to speak to them.

I've spoken to 2 now. For 2 kids.

They can't do them all at once

And now from each phone call I am getting countless emails to each child from their siblings calls telling us we've been identified as close contacts and may need to isolate. Even though we've all tested positive.

It's ridiculous.

I had a very similar situation. The calls were relentless and lasted 30 mins per person even with DC crying in the background they wouldn't let me go it was always just one more question. By the time DH tested positive I just blocked them.

Under a certain age there isn't the online option, which is bloody great when you're ill and partially deaf.
I was getting calls from numbers different to the official one, and calls that cut off after waking me up to answer the phone.
It was an absolute pita.

A friend, who has seven (!) children, had the insanity of multiple calls for days. She did eventually speak to someone who had listened properly in training, and this is the gist of what my friend reported. Let's call the representative Sarah:

"Sarah said she had no idea why none of the other reps had known you can link the accounts to stop you being contacted again and again. She then proceeded to input all 23 separate account ID codes I'd been given over the past few days and linked them to me, whilst also correcting the spelling mistakes. I received no further calls!"

I haven't yet been in this situation, but it might be worth pushing back and advising the representative that it IS possible to link the records.

This sounds totally ridiculous OP. Hope you're feeling better soon.

Block block block.

Ridiculous system that can’t cross reference with vaccine status!!!

I work for T&T and our phone system is awful, it cuts off and there are always delays, I've taken to apologising in advance for interrupting people, it's embarrassing!

The system doesn't automatically link families together either, sometimes tests and contact cases show up on different pages (you are only meant to have one page containing all previous tests/ contact cases) but sometimes it just doesn't do it for some reason. We have to do digging to find out if there are any other people in the house we need to speak to, but it can be done. I don't think they are letting people fill in the form for children either if they can help it.

I apologise on behalf of TTP lol

@Downtown36 our system is a separate one from the vaccination system, we literally can only see if someone is vaccinated or not, we don't have access to anything else on there nor can we change anything.

It was bad enough just for one person (Ds I’m negative). He had literally been to college and home. They wanted to know all sorts, names and telephone numbers of everyone he was within 1-2 metres of at college, how the hell do I know that. Ds doesn’t even know some of their surnames and they don’t phone/text they Snapchat.

Took over 30 minutes. I can’t imagine doing it when you feel ill.

Yes you can ignore them. You’ll be marked as an unresponsive case- that’s it.

It is ridiculous- I had to speak to them for DS because he was too poorly and had been ignoring them.

When I told them
I felt poorly I was shouted at to call 111. Fuck off and just let me sleep. "Are are you planning on going out?" No I'm not - I'm planning on lying in my bed and doing nothing. And then they tell me it's illegal for me to go out. Honestly, if I had a positive lateral flow again I'd just stay at home for ten days and not bother with a PCR. I'd just tell work I had the flu.

In contrast when my DS tested positive after the initial half hour phone call we only had 1 text message telling him to isolate and none of was were notified separately as close contacts or told to PCR/isolate

@Heartofglass12345 I’m sorry you have to work with such grossly inadequate systems. It’s certainly not the call handlers fault.