Sponsored Links

BT phone line fault

rruwalton

ISP Rep
I would be obliged if someone could help me with the following please.

Last Wednesday I was unable to make calls using my BT landline. Internet is ok though!

There's no dial tone, so no calling anyone.
When I call my landline from my mobile and answer it, it doesn't connect properly and I can hear a ring in the background.

I logged a fault on BTs' website and after 3 days of nothing - no email or progress on the fault I had logged, I called them today.

A chap in India said that there were no engineers working Saturday, and that I should test my line as per the website. I'd already done this and even bought another phone just in case it was down to the current one going faulty.

He said if the fault wasn't down to BT I would be charged £130. I said to him, if the fault wasn't BT I'd fix the thing and wouldn't pay £130.

A few minutes after the call I received a text saying the line would be sorted by the 21st April and I'd have to pay £130 if it wasn't a BT fault - so much for their agent listening.

The fault must be down to BT as I've tested the line using 2 phones. I've removed the front plate and used the 'test' socket all to no avail.

Wiring is fed underground. Local patch panel is around 200yds away.

The BT box on the outside of my house feeds my house and next door (their line is fine). The wiring from this box is around 8 inches long and then enters straight in my house and into the BT main socket. So there's very little wiring between the BT box outside and the one inside.

Is there anything I can do? I thought of cutting the 2 wires in the main box in my house by an inch or so and then reconnecting. Also thought of metering the wires in the box outside with those inside to ensure a wire isn't broken.

Thank you
Richard
 
I had the same fault, no phone but internet still live. BT engineer came out one wire off the pole. no charge, but must admit I too was worried I was gonna get stuck with a huge bill
 
I've also had the same fault, although mine started out as a long term intermittent noise issue on my line, and got worse over a few years, until the phone failed completely, at which point the ADSL recovered.

Mine was caused by water getting in an underground junction box, and rotting the wiring, which broke one of the connections. As Captainmouse says, adsl being radio, will work on one wire, but the phone of course won't.

If the fault lies between the test socket and the exchange, you should be ok, unless it was damaged by something like workmen on your property, DIY, or damp getting in your home.
 
Sponsored Links
Had the same sort of problem but found that it had been caused by a loose wire inside one of the BT socket's downstairs, just pushed the cable back in. I got lucky as this sort of issue is really one for BT to check and resolve.
 
You need to see 50V dc from the exch line, which you can easily check with a multimeter. Doesnt matter about polarity. Best to take of front plate from socket entering house and check right on the external wiring pair.

Last week I reported a fault on my line. BT Openreach turned up to check my internal wiring although I specifically told India not to send anyone as I had already proved fault was not indoors.
He told me, if he came inside and found a fault it would be £120 - no way.
I then asked him about upgrading the circa 1970 line socket for a new NTE5 socket to bring the installation up to standard. "Oh, I can do that for you but if cures the fault it will cost you £120", but I retorted this is "your equipment, I am not paying BT to cure it`s own faults
He seemed at a loss as what to do next !
We compromised, he left me a new socket and left.
Later I changed it myself.
 
Sponsored Links
bt hit you with this £120 charge every time you report a fault its as if they want to deter you from reporting faults my parents got it a few months ago they changed phone thiking it was at fault checked wires in boxes all ok finally engineer came out a wire where the line enters the loft area of bungalow was bared and was giving high noise levels and crackiling engineer replaced wire free as it was before it reached master socket
my grey box outside house is about 30 years old and sometimes gets water ingress after heavy rain i just open the box slide cover and spray with wd40 and 5 minutes later any crackling that had developed goes away
 
l remember back in 06 when the whole Fast4 saga was happening, l happened to be with EurISP (which is now the failed Aspire) they were suffering some major problems and the same things were happening to me, tho they denied it till they were blue in the face.. the only consolation was that l was let out of the contract early and that they managed to get rid of a £130 charge from an inept BT Openreach engineer..

long story short, towards the end of my being with EurISP sods law happened and my connection started to drop randomly and l couldnt even stay connected for more than maybe two or three minutes, surprisingly it had only taken a couple of days for an engineer to come out, who promptly decided that my wiring was incorrect while l was out and never bothered to check.. l ended up with two filters on the line!! as l happened to be out when he came it took me like 30mins to work out what the problem was, and another 5mins to enquire about it and be told ld been charged £130 for the callout.. as the problem was still persisting the engineer came again this time while l was present, he said he was the same one who came before and didnt even get any tools out and just told me that my wiring was incorrect and promptly leaving (tho surprisingly he couldnt answer the question as why it wouldnt work with 2 filters) again there was a charge raised and at this point a complaint was lodged with BT.

later on l found out the next exchange over from myself at the time was having intermittent connectivity issues due to someone partially severing a cable, basically a friend had explained his experience and what he had been told by BT and it matched my problem, so l guess the other exchange was causing issues with the one l was connected to, l moved not long after but BT would not admit the problem l even went through retraining of my connection but whatever had happened my IP profile lost a good 2.5meg, it was annoying but l guess 4 was good enough at the time (just a same l cant get more than 2 now lol)
 
Sponsored Links
BT are getting worse. My son recently moved into a flat, the previous tenants had a phone, so it should have been a simple case of reactivating it.
BT "activated" the line with a new number, except it didnt work, no dial tone, no outgoing or incoming calls (although people calling were getting a ringing tone); the only thing that worked was the BT internet.

Phoned - no joy - claimed there is nothing wrong
Phoned again - no joy - claimed there is nothing wrong
Spoke to me, I use the internet to get the line tested - FAULT!!

Super, at least it will get fixed.

4 days later and the phone is fixed.

.
.
.
.
and now the internet wont work.

(Any chance you can add the "Facepalm" emoticon from the Aria website???)
 
Are you sure they're getting worse, I can remember years and years ago having an argument with a BT operator because my phones had all stopped ringing, and they refused to fix it because they only guaranteed that you could use one phone on the line and I'd mentioned that my answer machine was recording the calls (I think there wasn't enough voltage getting through to make any of my phones ring). I particularly remember asking if I was supposed to record a message on the answer machine, asking callers to shout very loudly so I know they're calling as my phones don't ring and BT refuse to fix my line, before the operator agreed to get it fixed :o
 
That was so long ago that I am betting it was the GPO, not BT
 
Sponsored Links
Well that repair didn't last long.

Less than 2mths later I have the same fault on my house phone.

Checked the line and there's no tone. You can ring in but all you here in the earpiece is a ringing!

Here we go again :(
 
just shows you how many cowboys there are in BT atm.. friend who runs a shop down the road had his line disconnected.. turns out the BT engineer was connecting another shop a few doors down and pretty much just moved disconnected my mates shop and connected his broadband and phone line to the shop which was just opening...
 
Some of the excuses they are coming out with now are beyond a joke, a friend of my neighbour was without internet for a=over a month, despite BT repeatedly saying there was nothing wrong with her line; she has spent over £200 calling P.O. tech help and is facing multiple charges for BT callouts.
When they FINALLY fixed it they claimed she was connected to BT and P.O. ISP services at the same time. :confused:
 
just heard another story today from the same guy who told me the above story.. seems it happened again.. come one BT pull your fingers out and get properly trained staff on the job!!
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules