Rebellious BT computers refuse to take orders

Can't connect, won't connect

Posted in Telecoms, 14th July 2008 14:25 GMT

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Updated: Hot on the heels of O2's iPhone debacle, the company's former parent BT has spent the last week telling punters who want a new fixed phone line they'll have to call back in a few days, when the computers might be working again.

Not all customers are affected, but whole swathes of account numbers have apparently become unavailable, and support staff have been unable to add new lines or even view the account details for the last week or so.

One customer, who is in the middle of moving house, told us he had been waiting for nine days to order a new BT line, only to be told repeatedly that staff could not look up customer details or place new orders

"It's been down for over 9 days now. Shocking service from BT!" said our evidently frustrated reader.

We contacted BT last Thursday, and the company admitted there was an intermittent problem but told us to "...expect normal system service to resume shortly".

This looks like pushing the definition of "shortly" pretty hard. We called again today and BT had no better timescale to offer.

Nine days seems a long time to wait for the privilege of placing an order for a new phone line, but it's nice to see BT returning to the traditional level of service offered by monopoly holders. ®

Update: BT have been in touch to say their computers are all just tickety boo now, having been fixed over the weekend, so do let us know if you experience anything different.

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