Tuesday should have been a good day. I was changing from BT to another supplier. Yippee!! Had meant to years ago, but didn't dare risk it. But eight weeks ago, as part of winding down my business, I e-mailed BT asking for my business line to be transferred to residential.

Some five weeks later after some twenty or so phone calls and e-mails, mostly unanswered, I was "allowed" to "become" a customer of BT Retail, but only after a credit check. I explained I'd been a customer since 1964. "Not with us you haven't" said Miss BT Retail 'Customer Care'.

But last Tuesday morning I was going to be free of BT, Kirsty & her ilk. Unfortunately my pleasure was short-lived. An hour after I had received a welcome e-mail from my new supplier the line went dead. Absolute silence. Not even a hiss.

Phoned new supplier on mobile. Explained problem. "Might be a fault with you micro-filters, the ones that separate broadband and speech". I said it's more likely a fault at the BT exchange. The line was working OK earlier that morning, and we hadn't changed or altered any of our equipment for 18 months. The very pleasant call centre man explained how to remove the front of the BT wall socket and plug a phone into the hidden test socket. Still no joy. Kumahl then agreed to set up an enquiry with BT. 

The following day Kumahl phoned my mobile to say that BT wanted to come to the house to check our equipment. I repeated my earlier remarks, we had changed nothing at our end, but BT had at theirs. Logic, I said, suggests the problem is where the change happened. Or, I thought cynically, with the staff of the company I had just left. OK, I said, BT can come if they want, but not at my expense. "But they say the problem is with you" said polite Kumalh. I said the problem is the same as it has been since the days of the GPO, an organisation I now realise is not known in India.