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.