It does seem that things have been left to the 11th hour Zarjaz. I would have thought, but I realise it is all down to money and who is going to pay for it, that a helpline could have been up and running now. A helpline that would support anyone requiring info on this topic. It could of been decided when the helpline should go active eg a year or 18 months etc before the changes take place.

I know what you mean about the "Pay Grade" aspect of helpline staff Zarjaz and I've always hated it although I know the reason why it exists. But waiting on hold whilst the agent I've managed to get through to who is helpful, then puts me on hold to speak to the technical person who's familiar with this situation. Then the agent relays snippets back to you, but of course you need to clarify x, x, & z, but you feel that you've had your lot and they are asking you "Is there anything else I can help you with today". You know then the "Anything else" really means the subject I phoned up to speak about has been concluded.

I understand why it's setup this way, but I really do hate it. It's as though companies only want your business if the process of getting paid is simple and straightforward.

I'm looking forward to a time, that all the hardware/equipment is in place and transferring your services to another provider is straightforward.

@David,

I haven't gone into great detail studying this website, but I believe this is Tunstall’s Product and operated by them. Apologies in advance if I have got this wrong. I have the page open, but have yet to read it in detail. The headline prices look reasonable.

https://www.tunstall365.co.uk/#plans

most people requiring these products should also get them VAT free

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

A second vote for the new Tunstall kit Vorlon. Seen it in action. Easy to use.

Thirded - it's the basis of the system fitted at my dad's place. Multinetwork if I recall correctly.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

It does seem that things have been left to the 11th hour Zarjaz. I would have thought, but I realise it is all down to money and who is going to pay for it, that a helpline could have been up and running now. A helpline that would support anyone requiring info on this topic. It could of been decided when the helpline should go active eg a year or 18 months etc before the changes take place.

The helpline exists, but it's provided by whoever you pay your phone bill to and whoever supplies the care alarm. Whether you were in favour of it or not, lots of work happened over a few decades to ensure that UK telephone service had competition, and it's not possible for Openreach to answer a question about whether someone's TalkTalk landline (whether provided from their router or their non-BT telephone exchange equipment) is going to function with a council's lowest-bidder fall alarm base station.

In reply to a post by Vorlon:

... although she has given all the information asked of her to her current care alarm provider which is Council operated, she feels to some degree that surely it will sort itself out. However, I'm the sort of person who would just like to get it sorted out and know it's dealt with.

Our district council stopped their service in April last year because they weren't willing to fund the necessary upgrade. We don't know where your mother is but if she is under a two tier local authority, the prospect of local government re-organisation could impact decisions on investment.

My mothers care alarm service is provided by a council (Bracknell) which happens to Not be the council area that she resides in. I've also learnt that the same call centre provides care alarm services for another service provider too.
When I was querying as to what was going on with someone from my mothers care alarm company they did offer a number of councillor names. I didn't get to write those names down as I wasn't thinking along the lines of complaining at that point in time and of course I'd have to check with my mother first as to how she would like to proceed. Hence I posted here to get some advice from the people I know to be helpful with this sort of thing.

So at present, as many will know there is a plethora of personal care alarm companies out there with varying prices and some of those massively out of my Mums price range. I like what Tunstall are offering with their own services but I still need to make some calls for comparison and my Mum is asking friends what services they have if she doesn't know them already. Although some of her friends don't know what systems they've got because their families have understandably arranged it for them.

Of course if anyone can make any other recommendations on UK based Personal alarm providers I could look into those too.

Thanks for all the feedback TB'ers