Reporting a line fault to BT

Is this a DIY task or do you have to engage a professional?

Hi, my mother in law's phone line is dodgy, she can hear me, but her voice is breaking up, the advantages are obvious, but I'm afraid it needs to be reported. Done a line test from the internet and two from the phone, and they all say the line is fine, the problem starts when waiting to speak to a human to tell them whats wrong with the phone, the longest we lasted on hold was an hour and a half this afternoon.

Tried phoning the operator, the second time Mohammed got faults, or whetever the dept is called to phone me back. Funnily enough when I talked to someone from faults, they ran a line test, and both times it timed out.

Fault finally accepted.

Anyone know how I can short-circuit the process next time?

I've had a few line tests before, every time they said the line was fine, the fault lay beyond the primary connection, or whetever BTs term for it is, and I'd have to pay for a callout if the fault lay in the house, the fault never has been in the house.

How reliable are the line tests in a rural area, about a mile and a half from the exchange?

Reply to
misterroy
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I know the problem is with getting the fault reported to BT but before getting BT in, I assume you have swapped the phone to rule that out plus plugged the phone direct into a master socket and not an extension ? -Oh, and disconnected any extensions to rule a problem there too ?

Gio

Reply to
Gio

misterroy

If Mother in Law has the 'new' style BT box:

Try using the information given in the following link to ascertain whether the fault is on the BT line or inside the property:

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results will (should) give you a better idea as to where the fault lies.

Cash

Reply to
Cash

misterroy submitted this idea :

That is one I have not yet come across - how do you do that?

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Ring the number from Skype?

Reply to
MikeS

"Your Account" tab heading, then "Think you have a fault" beneath "Phone line problems". You have to do it from another line. It's not infallible -- last time I used it it said my line was OK and I might have to pay for the repair, even though the line was completely dead (0v at the master socket).

Chris

Reply to
chrisj.doran

That sounds more like her *phone* is faulty, rather than her *line* If it's a wired phone then the curley cable might be suspect.

Has she tried another phone? It's important she eliminates this possibility because if Openreach come out and pove the fault is due to her equipment they will charge a three figure sum on her next bill.

Reply to
Graham.

That's likely the phone itself rather than the line. There isn't a send and return on the phone line - the pair carries 'both ends' of the conversation at once.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not necessarily, although getting BT to admit it can be bloody difficult. I live in a rural area and we've had similar problems, most recently last week. Each time it occurs it is because of water in BT's cable ducts.

Although much of the phone network in the area is carried via overhead cables, at some key points these are lead underground. Water gets into connectors, corroding them and leading to similar problems.

Reply to
Steve Firth

The OP says that his MIL can hear him, only her outgoing speech is breaking up. As both sides of the conversation are carried by the same pair of wires, logic would suggest it was her phone.

Reply to
Graham.

And you sound just like the droid at BT. As I pointed out above "we've had similar problems" and it has never, ever been due to our telephone. It only happens when there's been heavy rainfall over several days, the engineers clear the fault by pumping out the water and repairing the connection outside the house. But no doubt you know far better than I what happens with my own phone.

You may want to consider that the OP didn't say that his mother can hear him perfectly. He simply said that she can hear him. My experience is that incoming calls are audible, but may be subject to high noise levels. Outgoing calls are broken up.

Although there are only two wires between telephone and exchange, at the exchange the outgoing signal is compressed. If the line is intermittently noisy, it's possible that the compression leads to the voice being "chopped" as the noise is taken as the peak of the signal. There's no such problem with the audio fromn the exchange to the phone.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Cordless phone with ageing rechargeable batteries? That's exactly what happened with my mum's phone. I guessed that was the cause and sent her new ones, and the fault went away.

Reply to
Bob Eager

Unlike you, I am quite happy to be proved wrong in what I say. It's no big deal to me.

But surly Steven, given what we have been told, you would agree that the phone should be substituted before reporting a line fault.

Reply to
Graham.

Great. Alter what the OP says to suit their theory.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Your symptoms suggest it is most likely a fault with the phone itself and unless the phone is part of the rental - BT will not only NOT repair it for you, but will charge you a vast sum for telling so.

Before complaining about a fault to BT, always make as sure as you can that it is a fault on their line or equipment.

Pull the faceplate out and plug a known to be good phone into the socket behind it, then make some test calls. That makes certain it is not the phone, nor an internal wiring fault, before committing yourself to calling them out. It is not a bad idea even if your line rental includes the extensions too.

I would try to cancel that, if they will let you - tell them you want to conduct some more tests yourself. The line test is not absolute - it might fail due to your own equipment being faulty. Eliminate that possibility as a first step.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

classic case of a dodgy microphone connection..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

You're talking crap, I don't have any problem with being proved wrong. What I don't do is agree with a bunch of sheep just because the sheep all say "Baaaaa."

No, the phone line should be tested first rather than spending money on the phone.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Perhaps you can point out where I have done any such thing?

Reply to
Steve Firth

I sympathize, first my very elderly neighbour over the road had a problem with the phone not ringing in. Given the run around about having to check out all the phones in your house first etc.etc. It would not have been possible for here to have got any service without paying a lot of money to BT.

When the same thing happened to me a few weeks later I was ready. It still took a couple of working days for them to act and then another day with the line completely dead (broadband OK so voip calls OK) before it got fixed.

They really don't want you to have a working phone line it would appear?

Reply to
Ed Sirett

Residential or Business? Residential fault repairing is at the bottom of the list. Fault on the business ISDN is fixed by the end of the next working day, fault on the residential POTS is fixed by the end of the next working week.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

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