I recently received a letter from BT saying that my landline was being switched to Digital Voice.
As part of this, he said they would upgrade me to full fiber broadband at no extra cost.
Digital Voice won’t work in the event of a power outage, but apparently I can’t refuse to have it.
I am an elderly and disabled person and I find it quite difficult to use a mobile phone, especially in the darkness of a power outage.
I also wear a medical pendant, which has a button I would press to call 999 if something happened to me. This is tied to the phone, so when I switch to Digital Voice it won’t work if there is no power.
Change: This reader was told she should get a digital landline, but was concerned about how her medical emergency button would work.
I contacted BT via online chat and requested a backup battery, which would allow the phone to continue working in the event of a power outage.
BT staff ignored what I had asked for and instead tried to get me to upgrade to a more expensive broadband package, even though it should have been free. They said I could only get the backup battery if I agreed to this.
After an hour and 12 minutes I finally managed to order the backup battery, but it cost me £85.
I want to highlight this because I am concerned that other vulnerable customers are being treated in the same way and some of them will not realize it. S.B., Surrey
Helen Crane from This is Money responds: Digital landlines, which are being adopted by all telephone companies, have proven highly controversial.
BT announced this week that it will delay its deadline to switch all its customers to an internet-enabled phone from December 2025 to January 2027, with other companies expected to follow suit.
The decision was made due to concerns that older and vulnerable customers like you, who rely more on their landlines, would not have been given enough time to adapt.
BT, which also runs EE, also wants to wait for companies making medical pendants to update their technology to work with digital phones and obtain the data-sharing permissions needed for the system to work.
His experience with BT occurred just before this deadline was extended and I think it shows that giving him more time was the right decision.
Update needed: Most devices with medical emergency buttons do not work with digital phones
Customers who are going digital have been offered free upgrades to stronger and faster internet connections, to ensure the phone works as well as possible.
So it was worrying to hear that BT staff tried to pressure him into accepting a more expensive package. They also charged you £85 for the backup battery.
You would be paying more money to switch to a service you never asked for or wanted and that would be less reliable. It doesn’t seem like a big deal.
You sent me some screenshots of your online chat with BT and I agree that the agents were pushy and didn’t listen to what you were asking.
He explained his problem with the medical pendant and in response they offered him an upgrade from his old copper cable connection to full fibre, ultra-fast broadband and a ‘new smart hub 2’ device for an extra £2 a month, giving him would have taken your monthly bill from £37.99 to £39.99.
It’s a small amount of money, but the principle that they are selling upgrades to concerned older people when they get in touch to ensure they will still be looked after in an emergency is wrong.
You were clear: ‘I don’t want an update.’ I just want a backup battery.’
But the agent persisted and also tried to sell him a new calling package for £12 a month.
He requested to be transferred to a manager, who told him he could only get a battery backup if he took the full fiber upgrade.
They said: “We do not have the option to order (sic) a backup unit on regular fiber accounts – the backup unit can only be shipped if you upgrade to full fibre.”
When he explained that this was not what his letter from BT said, they finally relented and said they could ask for it as “an exception”, although he would still have to pay £85.
The fact that they made that exception shows that the full fiber requirement is not a technical necessity for the unit to work, but rather that BT did not want to send them to those in less expensive packages.
Given the reason you need one, which could be a matter of life or death, I don’t think it’s entirely acceptable.
I contacted BT to ask why this happened and what their policy actually is on shipping backup units.
Delay: BT now has until January 2027 to switch all its customers to digital landlines
It said that following the change in deadline, vulnerable customers and those with additional needs will now not be transferred to Digital Voice until spring 2025 at the earliest.
This, it said, would allow it to enter into the necessary data sharing agreements with local authorities and other companies that provide medical pendants, so that they continue to work in times of need.
I hope this gives BT the opportunity to fix these issues and ensure people can get the equipment they need to stay safe, without being forced to make unnecessary upgrades along the way.
However, campaign group Silver Voices told MailOnline that this 13-month extension is nothing more than a “symbolic concession”.
In line with the extension, BT has postponed its switch to Digital Voice.
He is also reviewing his chat conversations and says he will take any learnings into account. He will also reimburse you in BT credit for the £85 he spent on the backup battery.
Although you will eventually have to make the transition to digital, by the time you do, the technology used in your medical pendant will hopefully have caught up.
A BT spokesperson said: “We are very sorry that (SB’s) experience fell below the high standard we strive to always offer our customers.”
‘We have contacted her to discuss her complaint and noted in her account that she has a pending medical attention.
‘(The customer’s) switch to Digital Voice has been postponed due to this, and we have credited the cost of the battery backup unit. “We have now resolved his complaint and he is happy to have it closed.”
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