BT voice-only line problems

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but...

I found out yesterday that some elderly friends, he's 91 and she's 90 in 2 months and currently in hospital, have had problems with their telephone line for 3 years. There's no broadband involved. I'm assured that they're with BT.

Someone can ring their number and get different outcomes depending on who knows what: number temporarily unavailable, ringing tone but phone doesn't ring, unobtainable, whatever. BT engineers have been out 4 times and have said everything's ok. Clearly it isn't. I don't have chapter and verse on each and every problem, when and how long. But essentially it's totally unpredictable and therefore, arguably unusable.

The fact that the engineers have been perhaps suggests that the home wiring is ok, so presumably could be a cabinet or exchange issue. Oddly I've just put their phone number in SamKnows and it has no data for it.

Any suggestions on how to progress this.

Does the broadband checker recognise the number?

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 07-Jun-16 21:31:38)

No,

There is no data available for this number. This could be either because it is not a BT line or it is a new BT number that has just been provided. Most new numbers will appear on the checker 24 hours after BT has installed the line..

I'll double check when I can that it's a BT line, may be a few days, but when we visited her in hospital yesterday she said it was BT.

It's an 0161 612 xxxx number. Don't know which CP may nominally own that number.

Edited by cheshire_man (Tue 07-Jun-16 21:50:59)

I wonder how they got the engineers out. If by dialling 151 then if a non-BT line I think it goes to the actual provider. They might have moved to the Post Office in the past, which IIRC was BT Wholesale White label, but is now TalkTalk. I don't remember Tesco's history on the subject.

Who do they pay the line rental to? And you do they pay for phone calls?

There is a chance its a BT line but with a CPS provider over the top.

Engineers will usually verify to the master socket, and thus may not have gone checked whether the phone itself is the cause of the issue.

so presumably could be a cabinet or exchange issue.

It's not going to be the cabinet, nothing funky happens in the cabinet on a standard DEL, it's just a big joint.

If I had to be pushed, *maybe* duff exchange equipment, but tricky to prove.

There is a harsh question to be asked here, all these reported problems, are they just anecdotal from the couple, or have independent 3rd parties actually experienced them ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

so presumably could be a cabinet or exchange issue.

It's not going to be the cabinet, nothing funky happens in the cabinet on a standard DEL, it's just a big joint.

Fair enough.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

There is a harsh question to be asked here, all these reported problems, are they just anecdotal from the couple, or have independent 3rd parties actually experienced them ?

Yes, I have, and I know of others.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Who do they pay the line rental to? And you do they pay for phone calls?

I'll ask the question next time I see her. May be a few days.

Yes, I have, and I know of others.

OK, good ..... sorry to have suggested the notion, but it does happen.

So that takes me back to my original diagnosis, a problem with the LIC in the exchange.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Yes, I have, and I know of others.

OK, good ..... sorry to have suggested the notion, but it does happen.

So that takes me back to my original diagnosis, a problem with the LIC in the exchange.

My awareness of the problem arose because I'd tried to ring her husband Monday teatime to see how she was, I repeatedly got This number is temporarily unavailable, that was from my (BT) land line; I got unobtainable when trying from my mobile. So I rang the hospital ward to check she was able to be visited. While visiting her I mentioned the problem I'd had and she said they'd had phone problems for 3 years.

Oddly some other friends arrived while we were there and said they'd rung her husband before coming and got through. So whatever the fault it would seem to be intermittent - often the hardest of faults to trace IME.