BT voice fault support good, copper bad.

Over the last week our phone line developed a crackle which gradually got worse.

Then Thusday it began to affect the broadband and by Friday it was re-syncing about every 30 minutes.

So on Friday 14:05 I rang faults. Queue.... At 14:22 I got a very pleasant-sounding voice came on the line. I described the noise, which had magically disappeared whilst waiting!

John, (that being his name), asked me for an alternative number I could be contacted on so I gave my mobile. Then he asked me to put the phone down so he could do a line test.

A few seconds later there is a faint ping. Then a bit later another one. Next he rang back and confirmed there was a fault, and while he was talking a text came through on my mobile giving an estimated fix time of 17:00 on Monday. Fine I though - quite pleased so far.

Saturday 11:40 the phone goes dead. Well, is it dead or is it being fixed? So I take the dog for his walk.

Return at 13:15 and the phone is working, so reconnect the broadband. 12:20 the engineer on the job rings to tell me it is fixed. When I ask what it was he says the line between the exchange and the cabinet.

Brilliant!

The bad news is! I now sync 500-600kbps slower . Seems I have been swapped to another pair with more underlying crosstalk, as stability (margin variation) is much as it was. (O2 LLU with no change to target noise margin).

Still, 6500 or so sync on 51dB isn't bad. Just not as exceptionally good as I had before.

Overall - full marks to BT .

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 06-Dec-09 15:33:36)

my bt openreach enginneer said he checked line before he came and wiring at fault.

Fitted a line new line box which he said was free but been told a bill is in the post

Fault still present .... glad yours was fixed !

So what's so good about this service?

Your line quality is now worse than it used to be for broadband.

So what's so good about this service?

Reported @ Friday PM and fixed by Saturday PM.

That's pretty good service in my book and compares very favourably to my local doctors surgery, for example.

Edited by deleted (Mon 07-Dec-09 16:24:55)

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Fitted a line new line box which he said was free but been told a bill is in the post

This seems to be happening at the moment!

I have a friend who was in the same situation. After complaining (a lot) CEO etc. the money was refunded...

In reply to a post by JNeuhoff:

So what's so good about this service?

Your line quality is now worse than it used to be for broadband.

Read the Subject.

I wonder if the trick is that the box is free BUT the engineer call out still applies... On one occasion that we dissected the BT price list I got a sense that the charge for a faceplate install (circa £25 unless old/infirm) could be in addition of the engineer's call out fee.

Of course if the lack of a faceplate was causing the broadband problem then that all ought to be a BTO cost. Unless they apply the as far as the test socket rule and blame the customer for not having one, taking the view that their responsibility ends AT the faceplate. Nice ambiguity as you can replace the bottom half of an NT5E yourself.

Really though I think its just BTO management trying to maximise revenue.