No Christmas phone calls to 'friends and family'.....

I was warned that BT would take forever to fix a fault, and their lack of response is bringing me to complete despair.
I returned home on 7 December to find my landline not working, reported the fault, got no response, reported it again, got no response, reported it again and was told there was no record that I'd reported the fault. Then I got a date for an engineer to come out -- today, 28 December -- but no one has showed up.
I've missed the Christmas phone calls I love so much - long chats with elderly friends and family who don't have mobiles and can't afford to phone me on my mobile - thanks BT for making my Christmas bleak. And now it looks like New Year's Day will be a similar experience.
What can I do? It seems strange that a company can treat its customers so badly that they must resort to a customer forum...
Please help!

Dear Forum,
I want to thank StephanieG for her help getting my phone fault dealt with in early January. She consistently gave helpful replies and, most importantly, actually got something done. I hope that she will also follow up her promise to get BT to refund the caller display low usage charge and the landline charges for December. Compensation for agonisingly slow broadband wouldn't be a bad idea either, since this was also caused by the landline fault. I'm going to write to BT to ask for this, but I've got a feeling I won't get any better response than I did to my numerous fault reports.
It would be helpful to know why BT's faults process works so badly. I've never in my entire life experienced such poor customer service - reporting the fault initially was like beating my head against a brick wall as my fault reports were ignored, discontinued or marked as 'fixed and customer is happy'. Talking to BT's customer service people on the phone was equally frustrating and got me absolutely nowhere. Why does someone have to resort to a community forum to actually get help? How can any company get away with this?
LLS

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If a Friends and Family number is set to forward calls, does it count as a Friends and Family call?

I just want to make sure this is correct and that I'm not misinterpreting what I'm seeing on my call summary (I just started doing this, so haven't gotten an actual bill yet).
I have a non-Verizon Friends and Family number that I set up to forward to my Verizon cell phone.
The on-line call summary list is showing these as coming from the originating number.
I thought that since the number is actually going to my Friends and Family number, and then being forwarded from there, that it would show up as a Friends and Family call, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
If anyone could verify how calls going to a Friends and Family number and then being forwarded to a Verizon phone should be categorized, I would appreciate it.
Thanks.

barts185 wrote:
Not sure why the double post. If you are using IE9, it double posts unless you are using "compatibility mode". Why it does that is another issue.....
I don't see a way to delete it, so am editing it. Hey, that works - and kudos to you for figuring out how to edit a post
Thanks again!
Off topic, yes, and it looks like rcschnoor answered your question. All is well.

Friends and Family--Restricted Calling

When you have a number saved on your Friends and Family list, can you call it through a restricted number (*67) and still have it count towards your "IN Calling"??

Yes.

Have a Friends and Family plan. I have unlimited data and want to keep it. Questions on what I can and can not do with account changes.

Ok,
So I am on Friends and Family 2000minutes and unlimited Text.
4 phones.
My phone has Unlimited Data and Hotspot
Other 3 do not have any data.
I am curious what I can do and can't do that will keep keep the plan as is and not force things to share everything.
I am allowed to have 5 phones under this plan. I am curious about adding and deleting phones.
I did try and add a 5th phone. When I tried to activate a 5th phone online it would not let me do it. Tried to get me to change plans.
Here are a few scenarios that I see coming up in the future.
I would like to add a 5th phone. My father has an account and I would like to roll him into my plan instead of his own account. I have already done this once before many years ago with no problem with 2 of the lines that I currently have. Is this possible or is that enough to trigger the move share everything scenario.
Second. how about removing a line from my plan?
One of my numbers is for an 18YO that wants to be more independent and have their own account. Can I down the road either transfer that line and number to its own account which would be share everything (I do understand that). Or can I delete that line from the account without triggering the share everything scenario?
Also it seems when I look online I can change data plans currently three phones are on data block. Can I actually change them to a data plan within the Friends and family or is the Share everything scenario triggered. What about if I change them to a smart phone from their basic/feature phone. I know I can't get unlimited data but can I still get them on my friends and family tiered data plan?
What is up.
Thank You

yes to everything; you can add a line (up to 5 total for Family Share), drop a line, upgrade a basic line to a smartphone (and then add a tiered data plan) and stay on your current calling plan ... it may be easier done in your local Corporate Verizon store, though ... just be sure they don't try to switch you to Share Everything if that's not what you want

Pending / Approval of Friends and Family -- no warning, no follow up, lost on a technicality?

Hi,
I recently was looking at a Verizon One-Bill (all 21 pages) and saw that we were being charged for going over minutes. I found this odd since my wife and I looked at our calling detail in December and added the top 10 phone numbers.
When I signed on today it turns out that none of the Friends and Family changes were ever applied since I didn't log back in and approve them even though we have 1 userid and password just like every other family account, electric, auto insurance, OTHER ACCOUNTS IN THE ONE BILL PLAN. We made the changes while looking at my wife's phone number since she uses 90% of the family minutes but it appears I had to go back to my phone # and approve.
When I call customer service the woman was nice but when I explained that we were charged hundreds of dollars even though the F&F numbers were sitting there not used and that I did not know nor was I notified that I had to approve the account.  I asked if there was any way we cold be adjusted, again, since the numbers were there in pending status and I could onto figure out why someone would maliciously add phone numbers to F&F so why would there be a reason to approve them.
The CR that we actually had 3 accounts not 1 and when I asked her why the 3 accounts have the same login and password, she seemed shocked that we only used 1 login and password when we could have had 3. Then when I asked if there was a chance for a credit, that we have been customers for over a decade and she explained again that the changes were made on a 2ndary account and the burden was on us to know the process and apparently she thought the real issue was that I could not grasp the concept of multiple accounts under 1 family plan since she explained more slowly 2 more times.
wouldn't say anything if there was a email or text stating I have F&F in pending but there is not and you need to check the F&F to find out.   This is despite the fact that Verizon sends text every other day and my other accounts send text for all of their payment issues, as well as emails.
Has this happened to anyone else?    Can someone explain to me how, as the CR later stated, multiple accounts for each family member is the norm and not the exception even though every internet payment account we have has 1 user id and password.. 1 account for ever other utility, service, loan account we process online.
Thanks in advance

Verizon does let you set up different MyVerizon log ins for each number on your family plan. The account of the primary line/account holder has full access to all of the information on the plan, and the ability to make changes, add F&F, and generally administer the account. The secondary accounts can only access information for their specific line, cannot make most changes to the account, and cannot add F&F numbers (they can only suggest them). What they can do is manage media purchases and back-up assistant entries for the line that the account is associated with.
If you used BA or made media purchases for your secondary lines, you probably created those accounts (or perhaps they were created for you by the Verizon staff who helped you set up your phones?). You may have never logged in to them again, most people don't need them very often.
It is possible for the wrong MyVerizon account to be tagged as the "owner" account, leading to the wrong login having administration priveleges. It's pretty simple to sort out, you just have to call in and ask for the correct MyVerizon login to be designated as the account owner.
It sounds like you were logged in to a secondary MyVerizon account when you made the changes, and since those accounts don't have the priveleges to make changes to the F&F numbers, they would not have been applied to your account. In terms of getting a credit, some reps are nicer than others, you might try again. The long story short though is that Verizon isn't obligated to give you a credit and they may not.

Friends and Family HELP

I can not manage my Frinds and Family list online. I am the account holder, so I log into My Verizon, click the Cell Phone tab, go down and click on the manage toggle for Friends and Family and it takes me back to the My Verizon log in page. I repeat this futile runa round several times, and minutes before I give up. I have done this off an on for about 2 months.
So, does anyone have any suggestions?

At this point, I would call Customer service and find out why you can't manage it from your MyVerizon log in.
When I log in to MyVerizon, I go to the VerizonWireless.com, click to sign in, and on my homepage there is a Friends and Family tab - when I click that, it gives me my F&F list, and I can change numbers, or add numbers, and the button I see is :Save Changes"....
Here's a couple of screen shots to show you what I see on logging in, and what I get when I click on Friends & Family....
(I have taken out numbers for privacy reasons, but numbers would show and be editable in the second image...I can edit, add to, etc..., then click Save Changes)

Activating Friends and Family

For some reason, when I log in as the account owner, and try to add numbers to the friends and family, they always end up as pending. Also there's only 5 slots even though I have a family plan with 2 phones. How do I activate it?

It sounds as if you are not logged in as the Account Owner Role. Only the Account Owner Role can add the friends and family numbers. When an Account Member request to add friends and family numbers, the request is sent to the Account Owner, the account owner would see the request on a status bar on the main page once logged in. The numbers requested by the Account Member remain pending until added by the Account Owner Role. You can tell if you are the Account Owner Role, as the Account Owner Role will see can see the detailed bill for all the numbers on the account, see all the friends and family numbers, and have access to call details for all the phones.
Friends and family numbers take 24 hours to take effect from the time they are added.
Friends and family numbers can be added online by the Account Owner Role, or over the phone though an automated system at 1-800-922-0204 or *611 from the mobile device > Option 2 > Option 5 to manage Friends & Family (follow prompts as instructed).

They eliminated our friends and family plan half-way through the contract without even telling me!!!

Whatever you do get it in writing, and even then, don't believe it! We switched to a 700 minute plan over a year ago and were told it included 10 friends and family numbers. My Verizon two months ago showed us over our minutes so I went in and updated our friends and family numbers to fix the problem. Last month everything was fine. This month it showed us over our minutes again but when I went in it said we weren't on the friends and family plan! I went to the store to figure out what was going on and they said we were never supposed to be on the friends and family plan. We have been on it for over a year now which can easily be seen in our records and it was sold to us that way. That's what we agreed to pay for. Their solution? Take care of overage fees for this month and give us 5 friends and family numbers for the remainder of the contract and that's after arguing for an hour. I'm disgusted with the dishonesty and Verizon will be losing our business when our contracts are up. To add insult to injury when I started discussing the problem with the clerk, she stopped me half way holding up her finger and went to sell something to a customer that had come in three minutes after me. She actually rang him up before finishing dealing with me to get her commission!!!!! RIDICULOUS!!!!! I'm done with this crappy company. We pay out the nose and regardless of how good the network may be, it's just not worth it. They tried to make it sound like they were doing us some grand favor by offering to upgrading us to a 1400 min per month plan at full price so we could get friends and family back! No thank you!!! We already had it!!!! Absolutely unethical. Now to add icing to the cake, I read that they are doing away with the unlimited wireless broadband plan that I was grandfathered in on. Yep, we are SO gone. What a dishonest way to run a company!!!!!!!! Buyer beware!!!!

And just to note, they have slowed down our internet speeds to the point of making them nearly impossible to use so just one more reason to be gone. Oh and did I mention that unless you have a data plan on your phone, to upgrade your phone is actually a downgrade this year??? The phones they are offering for talk and text customers are ridiculous! I went through the joy of trying to upgrade my phone and used my verizon a few months back. While in the process I clicked "only show options that are compatible with my current plan" to save time. I spent hours going through the phones and picked out a great one. When I went to check out it said that phone was not compatible with my current plan. Seriously???? I called and they said no smart phones were compatible. Great! But your website needs fixed and you just wasted hours of my life!!! Went back to look at the other phones that were offered that weren't smart phones and they were AWFUL! I really do hope a LARGE number of customers leave Verizon to show them that consumers won't put up with this kind of treatment!!

BT Friends and Family details obtained by a 3rd pa...

In this article in the Guardian today, I read:
One former reporter claimed that Mulcaire was used on almost every story, if not for hacking into voicemail then for accessing confidential databases: "The paper was paying Glenn Mulcaire £2,000 a week, and they wanted their money's worth. For just about every story, they rang Glenn. It wasn't just tapping. It was routine. "Even if it was just a car crash or a house fire on a Saturday, they'd call Glenn, and he'd come back with ex-directory phone numbers, the BT list of friends and family and their addresses, lists of numbers called from their mobile phones.
How long has BT known about this? How seriously are they taking it? If it's true, then it's yet another piece of evidence that questions the credibility of claims by any organisation that "your PII is guaranteed safe with us".
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Pasha_Selim wrote:
Thank you DS. I am concerned about this alleged leaking of PII, and am considering my options. I'd like to get a few facts first, one of which is whether or not the whole BT Friends and Family list and addresses was compromised. The ball is in BT's court over that one, and I think they should have given a straight answer by now.
I intend to ask the Guardian if they stand by the veracity of that report, and the identity of the former NoW employee who made that claim, although they are bound to protect that source I suppose.
That's a good FoI suggestion. Thanks for the link.
No problem at all and I'm glad to of helped you
I too am slightly concerned for 2 reasons. One was that BT set up F 'n' F on my account without my knowledge (IIRC it's a chargeable service so I had this removed earlier this year). I don't know how long this was set up on my account and I can't remember if I allocated any phone numbers. The other thing is that my in laws still (AFAIK) have F 'n' F set up on their BT phone account and therefore depending on what info was obtained, then my EX-DIRECTORY details may be out there.
As you are the OP of this thread and you still have not received a straight answer, maybe an email to the BT CEO (sorry forum rules prevent me from posting his email address) could be beneficial.
-+-No longer a forum member-+-

Can not make changes to Friends and Family list

I have tried several times now to remove a number from my Friends and Family list and enter in a new contact. Each time when I hit update list I am taken to a page which says "This page no longer exists." I tried to contact a customer service rep throughout the day yesterday, but was unable to do so because of heavy call-in volume. Will try again later today. Has anyone else had problems making changes to their Friends and Family list? Thanks for any ideas, suggestions.

Thanks for the reply. I am the account holder and solved my problem by talking to VW customer service rep Elizabeth in the Albuquerque call center. The problem of not being able to make changes in the Friends&Family list sometimes occurs when you are using Firefox as a browser. Changes can be made when using IE as the web browser. Elizabeth made the changes I requested and was able to answer a number of questions I had regarding Droid phones and calling plans. Today I experienced great customer service from Verizon.

How do I add a few more numbers to my Friends and Family?

How do I add more numbers to my Friends and Family?

Hello lisascv,
I want to make sure we can get your plan updated. The use of Friends and Family numbers is a great way to esnure that the people you call most don't affect your allowance. For steps to manage your Friends and Family list, please use the following link and select Friends & Family: http://vz.to/1n8QjsJ
AndreaS_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

Friends and Family numbers

I can't find where to enter or change my Friends and Family telephone numbers.
Where has this feature gone?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It apparently ended in April 2010.
from user john56: It ended when free evening and weekend calls and any-time call packages became popular as they provide you with free calls rather then reduced price calls from friends ad family.
Friends and family mobile exisits though and gives you reduced prices on all mobile numbers. iirc 7p instead of 13p per minute.
Check your exchange or major service outagesIf someone has given a helpful answer, please click on their Ratings star on the left-hand side. ***

Friends and Family Mobile

I have this feature on my account but does anyone know how I add friends and family to my list please. Thank yiou.

hi it is automatic each mobile you call is added automatically
If you want to say thanks for a helpful answer,please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side If the reply answers your question then please mark as ’Mark as Accepted Solution’

Friends and Family Mobile - Are you being fleeced ...

Is there anyone else out there being fleeced by BT who have stayed horribly silent about their Friends and Family Mobile service which not only increases your calls to mobile costs but also charges you monthly for the priviledge?
It has been going on since at least 2011 and is still happening...
Come on BT - start being honest, repay the sums you have conned out of your customers and recalculate the bills you have charged to your loyal honest customers...

Friends and family mobile is no longer available to new customers as this link shows https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/Does-quot-Friends-amp-Family-Mobile-quot-still-exist/td-p...
if you are still paying for the service you have not renewed your contract for a long time now
If you want to say thanks for a helpful answer,please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side If the reply answers your question then please mark as ’Mark as Accepted Solution’

Friends and Family - (not mobile)

Hi
I've just been viewing my bill on-line...
Is there now no concept of the old Friends and Family where you nominated some landline numbers, a mobile number and an international number to get discounted calls?
I'm happy to be told this was discontinued (probably years ago), but if not where are they listed?

It was discontinued, several years ago.

No Christmas phone calls to 'friends and family'.....

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