This prompted my weary brain to remember another example of BT service:
I received a note from a collection agency for monies owed to BT from a previous address we had lived. Although we had transferred our account to our subsequent address, and contacted them fairly regularly they still sent letters to the old address for the outstanding sum before handing the whole mess to a collection agency.... When all they need do was look at their updated record! Heaven only knows what was being referenced when they asked for my account number...
That particular fiasco took 2 hours of my life (on a Friday night at that!) to sort out, over an hour of which was spent holding, waiting to get through to BT. To be fair once they realised (i.e. were made to realise) their mistake, they were sweetness itself.
Tanya Holden
Group Information Governance Manager
Metropolitan Housing Group
Cambridge House
109 Mayes Rd
Wood Green
London
N22 6UR
www.mht-group.co.uk
>>> "Broom, Doreen" <[log in to unmask]> 07/02/2006 11:48:54 >>>
Has BT paid up then - did you all get £25?
D
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tony Bowden
Sent: 07 February 2006 11:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BT Suspends SMS Trial
On Tue, Feb 07, 2006 at 10:55:01AM -0000, Tim Trent wrote:
> That raises an interesting point. Organisations who "accept" bills
> tend to copy them and refuse not to do so.
> So that renders the alleged security worthless.
I was thinking about this some more, and trying to remember the times I've had to actually call BT. Unless I'm misremembering, I don't think they've ever asked me for any information other than my account number, and possibly my address, (i.e. nothing that isn't clearly printed on a
bill) before discussing my account with me.
I could understand this if I was calling from my own phone line, but I rarely even have a phone connected to that[1], so I've often called them from the office.
So it seems the SMS service may have just the same level of security as if you were actually to call 150 ...
Although I do remember an interesting experience once where we'd moved into new offices, and discovered a phone socket that, when we plugged a phone into it, appeared to be working. The company whose offices we were sharing couldn't work out which of their numerous phone lines it might be, so I called BT from the phone and asked "what number am I calling you from?" (this was before 1471, and caller display etc.) They refused to tell me for "privacy reasons". I eventually remembered the number you can dial to have your number read back to you (17070). Always seemed strange that you can get an automated service to tell you information that a human won't.
But judging from some of the responses BT have given people here in the last few days, it seems that the job of BT staff is just to get rid of "problems" as quickly as possible with whatever sounds even reasonably plausible.
Tony
[1] I only have a BT line because I need it for my ADSL.
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