Virgin line rental

Deciding to give up with useless, uncaring BT broadband & looking at what's available Virgin look pretty good ( the very fastest we get is 1.1 Mbs)
Question is if I take out a Virgin package which says I also require line rental does that replace the existing BT line rental or is it in addition.
I cannot phone questions as the phone isn't working though broadband still is (after a fashion)

In reply to a post by abandonhope:

Deciding to give up with useless, uncaring BT broadband & looking at what's available Virgin look pretty good ( the very fastest we get is 1.1 Mbs)
Question is if I take out a Virgin package which says I also require line rental does that replace the existing BT line rental or is it in addition.
I cannot phone questions as the phone isn't working though broadband still is (after a fashion)

Hi, I reckon it�s best to start by looking at what is available from your exchange, to find which is your exchange use the Samknows website you input your postcode. Then click on your exchange name to see what services are available from that exchange.

Edited by deleted (Mon 06-Feb-12 21:27:36)

If your phone is not working, have you reported a fault?

Edited by deleted (Mon 06-Feb-12 21:15:37)

Dont sign up for the Virgin National (ADSL) services.

Virgin cable broadband telephone service if available in your area is totally virgin based, does not touch BT.

To make it simple if Virgin is NOT offering you the option of a 50Meg service then don't signup with them

I cannot phone questions as the phone isn't working though broadband still is (after a fashion)

So ring up your telephone voice provider, and have them get the fault fixed. This will doubtless make partially working broadband, work better.

As has been said, Virgin cable perhaps. Virgin ADSL over your existing phone line is a no-no.

If your broadband is going even slower than usual, and the phone doesn't work at all, then one wire of the pair has become disconnected or broken somewhere between you and the exchange.

Report a voice fault and say as little as you can about the broadband. Fixing that will fix the broadband. (Phone needs both wires, broadband can hobble along on one).

Changing ISP as things are has a high chance of being a disaster.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 07-Feb-12 01:16:29)

In reply to a post by abandonhope:

... as the phone isn't working though broadband still is (after a fashion)

Is that using the test socket inside the master socket? Have you tried that? It is best to confirm it fails there as well.

Thanks for the advice, I've actually tested everything going our slow speed is down to being in a rural area. there are 9 other dwellings who share the same postcode over an area of approx 1/2 sq mile & over the years they have all gone on-line. Every time each one does the speed has slowed down.
The fault is with the Hub & Hub-phone but despite all my efforts to get BT to try and address the problem they insist in phoning me despite me requesting that they use email. I cannot use a mobile as we have no signal here and the old 'plug in' type phone we have doesn't ring & the phone socket is upstairs, away from the computer and I cannot get to it being disabled.

Well plug the phone into the same socket as the Hub and answer it there. If it does not ring then either your phone is faulty or the line is faulty - to rectify that, firstly get a new handset and make sure it works and then if the problem remains, report a voice circuit fault - as has been suggested several times already.

yes i tested the inner socket. To be fair to BT they do explain in great detail how to try diy fix-its.
As an update however it seems my actually requesting a MAC number triggered some action, an engineer checked the line, the broadband talk has been re-instated, the home-hub software seems to have had a tonic & best of all they've offered half-price for the next 12 months.

You mean both the phone and broadband are now OK?

I am wondering if the phone problem was just a hub phone, as opposed to an old fashioned POTS phone system issue

Yes we know that our old 'plug-in' phone does not ring, which is why I asked BT not to phone but reply via email.
The nearest place to us where we could try and purchase a new handset is a 25 mile round trip. I'm disabled and don;t get out that often but next time I go I shall visit Argos and get one.
There is no excuse for BT to not understand a simple request to reply by email Not the telephone.

Yes the are now both working & we had a call from 'someone' ( one of my kids took the call) to confirm the fact.
Cannot tell exactly what time of day it all came back as we have been without electric due to planned maintenance on the grid.
One further thing I had already tried prior to this was removing & replacing the Hub phones batteries (it didn't work for us) which is a recommended 'fix; on the BT forums

So, you are making an assumption that the BT team has external email available to them. There is a good chance they do not.

You call them so why can they not use the same to respond to you.

BT Contact Us forms do have fields for

• Phone #
• Email addy
• Preferred method of contact (Phone/Email)

Tho' to be honest they don't often obey it and I get calls at inconvenient times when I asked them to email .

As the phone was not working I emailed them and requested that they email back 'as the telephone is not working I can only receive email'
Finally, but only after I requested a MAC number (again by email), they responded.
Surely even you can understand that!

So was it the Home Hub phone didn't work, and the upstairs phone did?

I had filled in my preferred method of contact. In fact I 'told' the operative I was communicating with via the on-line 'Chat' facility that they could only contact me via email.
I did this twice and still they tried to phone me leaving messages on 1571.
Its a case of BT internal communications not understanding simple requests.
Today an engineer contacted me (via the now fixed phone) to see if I needed a new line fitted.