BT fault reporting

stupideejay_2

What a nightmare I've had tonight on behalf of a friend.He asked me to report a faulty line via the 0800800151 number.I was on hold for 15/20mins and again after I hung up and tried again
ABSOLUTE DISGRACE BRITISH TELECOM-Get your act together

krisskross

I had to report a fault like this earlier this week. Had to go outside as can't get a mobile signal inside.

I never spoke to a person, it was all automated. The line was tested, I was told there was a fault at the exchange. That was about 7pm. All fixed and back up and running by 6 am next morning. Seemed a good service to me.

spike7451

When I originally got BT BBand in some years ago,they discovered a fault on my line that I had been complaining about for years previously.
The people on BT's end did'nt believe me & insisted the was no fault,even tho the automated line check said the was.
Mind you what was funny was listning to the girl on the phone backpedal like crazy when I informed her what I did for a living..
A telecomms engineer!!

aliasojo

I tried to report a fault on my line once. I got through to a foreign call centre. The chap kept asking me for an alternative mobile number. I told him I didn't have a mobile (true at that point) but he kept insisting he could not process the report without a mobile number. It didn't matter how many times I said 'I do not have a mobile phone', he just kept repeating his script. Eventually I made one up and we moved on.

Some time after that incident, I also had an issue with crackling on the line. BT kept telling me there was no problem but thankfully an engineer remembered something about a problem someone else had with a loose connection at the box and he checked mine whilst he was doing other work and sure as heck, that was the problem. It's such a shame big companies use office staff instead of trained 'experienced in the field' staff to handle their tech calls. I'm sure even a retired engineer would be more of an asset than a youngster who is only trained in script work.

clarabombshell

Hi,

I am so frustrated with BT. We have had a intermittent problem on our line for the last 3 years where we hear intense crackling and echo so loud we cant hold a conversation. The last 6 months it has been so bad that it knocks out our internet connection too. It is pretty much a problem now for 90% of the time now so not really intermittant any more.

We had an engineer out last Sept and they said could hear a crackle/ noise on the line but yet couldnt find a problem, he changed the plate/filter on the box inside our house. This didnt fix the problem so we called again in Oct and the engineer came out and said the problem was on the telegraph pole. Our cable was apparently wired round the outside of the pole on an extra piece of cable, kind of like an extension. This actually fixed the problem, but BT charged us £125 for the1st call out, even though there was obviously a problem rectified at the 2nd call out.
But we managed to get a refund as it had actually fixed the problem in the end.

But Lo and behold the crackle and echo reappeared in Jan again and now its so bad we cant get a dial tone and the internet barely works.

I want to get someone to come out again but they won't send anyone unless I verbally agree to being charged the £125 call out fee. I wont agree because, I know from the previous experience that the noise may not be bad enough for them to detect it with their noise level devices and then they say there is no problem and we'll get charged and be back at square one.
I feel like I am being held to ransome, we have a terrible service that we cant use and doesnt work most of the time but they somehow cant find the problem and I dont want to end up with a charge as I really cant afford it.

Sorry about this being so long - but I really dont know what to do and I hope someone can help if I give plenty of information.
Many thanks,

BT_company_representative

Hi Clarabombshell

If you email me at the address in my profile I can have this looked at for you.

Stuart

pawnbroker_2

Last weekend I reported a fault and unfortunately got the Indian call centre. Predictably of course they ignore error messages produced by the HUB (V2 in my case) and all faults as usual are cured by dismantling the phone socket and leaving the faceplate dangling whilst you use the test slot. I did ask if I would get a new face plate then, no I was told put a piece of furniture in front of it to cover up the dangling piece !! Needless to say the fault I reoprted is still there .

However I find it very coincedental that today I took a phone call from an Asian/Indian who knew my name and wanted me to do a survey which I of course declined. He was clearly in some very noisy public area as I could hear other voices.

The phone number was 041 0000 0000 0000 0000 whick apart from coming from India looks very suspicious. One has to question the security of our data in the Indian Call Centres.

The sooner BT gets proper people and proper UK based technical assistance that really understand problems then the quicker it's business might grow.

macman

If the problem is solved by using the BT test socket, then the fault is clearly in your own equipment or internal wiring, which is not the responsibility of BT. That's the whole point of doing the test-it's not supposed to 'cure' the fault but to indicate where it lies!

pawnbroker_2

The problem was not solved by using the test socket as it came back after a few hours. Unfortunately BT do not seem to do any pro active monitoring on lines to detect repeated failures and act accordingly. When we Users tell them the "call centre" always assumes it's our fault. All the telecomms equipment I use is BT supplied but the "call centre" ignores diagnostics etc. .

Am I supposed to run indefinitely using the test socket with just a gaping hole in the wall ?

iniltous

pawnbroker wrote: »

The problem was not solved by using the test socket as it came back after a few hours. Unfortunately BT do not seem to do any pro active monitoring on lines to detect repeated failures and act accordingly. When we Users tell them the "call centre" always assumes it's our fault. All the telecomms equipment I use is BT supplied but the "call centre" ignores diagnostics etc. .

Am I supposed to run indefinitely using the test socket with just a gaping hole in the wall ?

Not true, most lines are tested overnight, and a record kept, even of the lines that test okay, then if you report a line faulty, they test the line again, compare that test result to the historical record of previous tests (of when your line was okay) and if there is a difference in the test records, this helps in diagnosis etc..also if the system detects a difference in tests, or an overnight test detects a fault, a fault report can be issued without the end user even knowing about it,

macman

pawnbroker wrote: »

The problem was not solved by using the test socket as it came back after a few hours. Unfortunately BT do not seem to do any pro active monitoring on lines to detect repeated failures and act accordingly. When we Users tell them the "call centre" always assumes it's our fault. All the telecomms equipment I use is BT supplied but the "call centre" ignores diagnostics etc. .

Am I supposed to run indefinitely using the test socket with just a gaping hole in the wall ?

But you say above that using the test socket does not resolve the fault, so there is no point in using it anyway-it's purely used for testing, as the name implies. Once the test is completed, you can replace the faceplate and plug into the NTE5 master socket.