We eventually got out this morning to Reading town where I signed up with Orange (£10 per month with a longish contract).
I had spent most of the morning on the phone with BT who had managed to cut off the phone service to our prospective sellers at Wells.
When I suspended my existing phone/broadband service on our move day, Thursday Dec 17th, I had to give details of our next house (even though we hadn't exchanged contracts).
BT's systems don't admit the concept of a significant delay in moving so a notional move date (January 6th 2010) had to be entered. Even this didn't stop those over-keen engineers from turning off our sellers' phone service meanwhile.
They were furious.
It took most of an hour to semi-sort-out with five separate BT departments over two continents. Since this was a mistake by BT, there was of course no process to resolve it. I was told time and time again:
"They (our sellers in Wells) will have to apply for a new service. Then we can reconnect them."
"They don't need a new service. They've been with you for years. They just wish to have their service, you know, the one they're paying for, reconnected."
"Well,they'll have to call us. After all, we don't know why their service has been cut off. Perhaps they asked for it to be terminated?"
"They can't call you. Their phone has been cut off. By you."
And so it went on.
