Nuisance Calls from BT!!

Paul_Varjak

I received a call from a representative of BT's complaints department today, saying that she had been informed by BT OpenReach that the issue had been resolved a few days ago!

The problem is my aunt is still receiving these calls every night - just after midnight!

Paul_Varjak

My aunt is still receiving these calls! BT suggested that my aunt's care alarm system could be generating these calls but, last night, the Care Alarm system was completely disconnected and removed - but the BT nuisance test calls were still received!

Heinz

You must escalate this; she is suffering outrageous nuisance - bordering on harassment now that they are aware of what is happening.

[EMAIL="ian.livingstone@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]

Paul_Varjak

BT called me yesterday, but they are completely stumped as to what the problem might be. An offer was made to visit my aunt's house to try and fix the problem for free. I have accepted the offer.

brewerdave

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

BT called me yesterday, but they are completely stumped as to what the problem might be. An offer was made to visit my aunt's house to try and fix the problem for free. I have accepted the offer.

PLEASE make sure that you get the free visit offer in writing BEFORE they turn up ...my (and others!) experience of BT is that they will charge you ,then deny that the free visit offer was ever made!!!:(

Paul_Varjak

brewerdave...

Yes, I have read numerous stories on MSE about this!

Paul_Varjak

Well, I got my aunt to switch off the ringer on her corded bedroom phone last night but take the cordless handset to bed with her. This was to check if the cordless phone rang.

Guess what? the cordless phone did not ring but the corded phone did! How could a phone ring if the ringer was switched off?

My aunt picked up the cordless phone to answer the call and the corded phone stopped ringing. There was total silence on the line.

borders

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

Guess what? the cordless phone did not ring but the corded phone did! How could a phone ring if the ringer was switched off?

QUOTE]

I know this has already been mentioned but what else does your aunt have on the line? Care alarm, sky, house alarm, anything at all. Some of these systems do their own tests and routines and it can cause the phones to ring if the alarm/sky equipment is faulty. Even with the ringer off. This wouldnt be a ringing current from the exchange, it's a burst from other equipment. Also check the phones. Does one of them have a facility that your aunt doesnt use but may have been switched on by accident?

If you have no joy with this then re-report for the exchange to look at. Night routining is a BT Openreach test, but Openreach cant check the exchange or 'watch' the line at the ring time. If I still did this for a living then i would want to be monitoring the exchange and line at the time to see what happened.

There may be other things but it's a few years since this was my job and I'm a bit rusty. If anything else comes to mind then I'll repost.

Paul_Varjak

borders wrote: »

I know this has already been mentioned but what else does your aunt have on the line? Care alarm, sky, house alarm, anything at all.

I did mention in an earlier post that my aunt does have a care alarm system but this was completely disconnected one night to see if the problem still occurred - it did!

My aunt has no SKY equipment; she does have a burglar alarm but it is NOT a monitored alarm and is NOT connected to the phone system.

The only devices attached to the line are as follows...

1. Care alarm system plugged into main wall socket (in the hall)
2. Cordless phone plugged into care alarm.
3. Corded phone plugged into an extension in the bedroom. Two different phones have been tested in the bedroom extension socket and both of them rang! There are no other extensions.

An old ringer that was in the hall has now been disconnected, but my aunt still receives the calls - which vary (by a few minutes) in their timing - between 1 minute after midnight and 12 minutes after midnight.

I have asked my aunt to remove the batteries from the cordless phone tonight, just to ensure that some feature in that phone has not been accidentally switched on!

borders wrote: »

If you have no joy with this then re-report for the exchange to look at. Night routining is a BT Openreach test, but Openreach cant check the exchange or 'watch' the line at the ring time. If I still did this for a living then i would want to be monitoring the exchange and line at the time to see what happened.

Yes, I think they should too!

borders wrote: »

There may be other things but it's a few years since this was my job and I'm a bit rusty. If anything else comes to mind then I'll repost.

Thank you!

borders

Just re-read some of your earlier posts again and see where you mention a 'mellow' ring. That would definitely suggest it isnt a proper incoming call. The BT night routining that I mentioned earlier used to cause that. Basically it is an auto test system that used to run during the night to look for potential problems on the line before the customer even knows about them. It used to be that the number was simply taken off the list or, way back, they used to fit a suppressor in the line box that stopped the ring. Dont know what the process is now.

Again the mellow ring was another indicator of problems with the care alarm. But if it's been unplugged to prove that, then I dont know.

It's not a ringing current, but something is putting a small 'current' (nothing dangerous) on the line that is causing bell tinkle. I was going to suggest the phone's bell circuit might be 'sensitive' to the current but you've tried a different phone and it still happened. But it only happens on the one extension.

Is the ringing extension plugged into the main linebox? Might be worth asking BT to change that. This wouldnt stop the current but may suppress it and stop the ringing. You have an extension thats ok so why isnt the other one? The phone has been swapped. Only leaves the line box thats different. I wouldnt bet on this solving the problem but would try it. Does the care alarm connect at the ringing extension?

If BT have offered a free visit then the engineer could do this. Sorry I cant think of anything more productive.