Call 'M' for 'Mother'For years BT have been wanting to close down a number of telephone boxes in the area-Hutton was on the list once but seems to have been reprieved after 'public uproar'-at least two people complained as did the Community Council. We never reached the stage of an official notice in the box itself giving us 42 days notice of closure but the phone had its 'Internet access' removed and was converted to 'no cash'. As I was aware of only one person using the phone in 11 years (a lost White Van driver looking for the Manse, Antrim House, Old Manse, New Manse or Former Manse-his mobile had no signal. Ha!)I doubt if many people were inconvenienced by the dumbing downAt Ellemford, which if not exactly in the middle of nowhere is at least on the periphery, there is one of those...
A BeTter Way? RevisitedBangalore has egg over its collective face I fear and bully for A Berwickshire bloggee. After 4 weeks of badgering, e-mails, filling in on line complaint forms, long distance calls from Bangalore and finally elevation of the 'issue' (BT does not have problems, only issues) to the Chief Executives office, action has been taken .Bangalore has all along insisted that my slow broadband speed was my PC's fault 'I am telling you Sir, your are using the wrong aperture. Or possibly your configuration is not tickety Boo I am sending you long and comprehensive instructions-just be following them and Robert is your uncle'. Blue in face, numb of finger, Huttonian explained that bloggee techie had done all the BT tests- twice at least and there were no inside the house...
DONT TRY THIS AT HOMEThere must be a BeTter Way?0800800152, 01914954600, 084560056156, 08003289642 0800800150These are some of the numbers you need to telephone if you want to cancel any thing installed by BT.Using the Home Moving Help Line Huttonian asked for his land line account to be cancelled from 21 July, his broadband to be transferred to the small house in Duns and his ISDN one to be cut off as well. No problem-its just a click of a mouse in Bangalore. From being sent e-mailed bills for my paperless on line direct debit save the environment from the Amazon Rain Forest account I discovered:(a) My broadband although transferred to the shid was still active in Hutton, and in my name as well as the new owner. (b) ISDN still active although the PC had long since gone.(c) I was being...
Duns Minus twoDay After TomorrowAnd no work started on extension. Stove ditto! 'Sorry we have a few missing parts' (forgot to order) but they have still put a hole in our sitting room chimney and our bedroom floor. Back on Wednesday. Bukra fii Mishmish (Apricots tomorrow) Nocturnal trip to the loo could yet be dangerous but an interesting shortcut to the ground floor. Broadband Installed. 8mb promised by BT. We have 124bps coming through the roof and 64 going up. 'No No not an exchange fault' said yer man in Mumbai. The Wireless router is in the wrong hole. We have tried three routers in all the orifices with the same result. Oh Keep trying said Mumbai and call us again after four days.I...
The Phoney WarEvery so often BT decide to close a number of their 'seldom used' (BT speak) rural public phone boxes and as regularly local people protest-and more often than not the box remains open. The latest proposal by BT is to close 40 of them representing, says the Berwickshire, 25% of all public phones in 'the region'. Usual arguments apply-not every one has a mobile-not everyone can anyhow always get a mobile signal-as in the Old Manse kitchen unless you are on 02. Hutton does not appear to be on the present closure list. We had our lovely old Red Box taken away some years ago and replaced with a modern cabin (see image). It used to be -e-mail enabled but this never caught on and the enable has been removed. Being ad hoc and ad hominem as my classics master used to say it takes no...
Its Not our fault-literally. And Have a Nice DayHuttonian volunteered to help our post mistress with getting a fault repaired on her BT ISDN line-it has been off and on for weeks meaning that on several occasions the pensioners have had to be turned away as the payment of their money is an on line procedure. So I went on to BT.Com to try and speed repairs up.Bt.Com 'report a fault' informed that this was not a BT number so can't help. I confirmed from the Post Mistress that it is.I then went on to the BT interactive chat help facility and after being first in the queue and therefore having to wait only 10 minutes had the following chat:Sean: Hi there, please give me a moment while I review your query. Huttonian: I have just reconfirmed that 01289 386*** is the correct number for the...
