The Diary
of
Anne Ku

28 October 2000 Saturday

dark, windy, rainy

PHONE SERVICE

The whole point about switching back to British Telecom was to get a better Internet deal, provided that I get to keep the same phone number.

I repeated this speech to the BT advisor this morning after discovering that I've been given a new line, without access to my existing Cable and Wireless line which still worked. Why would I want to pay for two working lines when I can only get access to one?

How am I supposed to tell my friends about the new number - which after a month will no longer exist?

Considering the five hours that the BT engineer had spent yesterday, it couldn't have been a more difficult job to connect a pre-existing BT line to a pre-existing socket in my home. When he was leaving, he mumbled something about a different telephone number. I had to call the BT advisor to find out just what that number was.

This would make such an interesting story for OFTEL to savour. Three phone calls - and the customer still hasn't got what she wanted. Not only have I been inconvenienced greatly this weekend, I have even more phone calls to make to get the Internet connection working.

No wonder Cable and Wireless hasn't bothered to offer a more competitive Internet access. No wonder telecom providers in this country aren't enthusiastic about getting new customers. No wonder customers would rather stay with their existing providers. It's a major pain to SWITCH!

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