Phone master socket - are BT responsible?

Wickwar

We had exactly the same problem & BT would do nothing saying when they ran there checks nothing was wrong.I got a new master socket form ebay & that didnt work.The 1st BT said he couldnt find anything wrong the 2nd guy said he couldnt find anything wrong & then the 2nd guy cma eback yet again & it was a fault outside the house.All this took over 12 months so good luck.

littleboo

Rosemary wrote: »

When we are using broadband and the phone rings, the broadband drops out for a few seconds and then picks up again - for incoming or outgoing calls. BT operator (in India?), told me to try a couple of things - first was to remove the faceplate and connect through the test socket. It worked! So faceplate is faulty. Two different staff from BT say two different things - one says its the responsibility of BT and is in with our line rental, the other person says it is not under the warranty and we need to replace it! Who's right? Email to the BT web site does notwork - they are slow to reply.

Do you have any extension sockets ? If so, they should be wired to the faceplate, so removing the faceplate is a way of disconnecting them to eliminate problems with internal wiring.

notbritishgas

Rosemary wrote: »

When we are using broadband and the phone rings, the broadband drops out for a few seconds and then picks up again - for incoming or outgoing calls. BT operator (in India?), told me to try a couple of things - first was to remove the faceplate and connect through the test socket. It worked! So faceplate is faulty. Two different staff from BT say two different things - one says its the responsibility of BT and is in with our line rental, the other person says it is not under the warranty and we need to replace it! Who's right? Email to the BT web site does notwork - they are slow to reply.

No, as littleboo states when you pull out the face plate all you are doing is disconnecting any extension wiring, this is your responsibility.
If you have any extensions then it could be a faulty filter, don't forget the sky box if you have one.

Steve_xx

The primary or first socket and all of the cabling from BT's exchange to it, is BT's equipment. Despite what BT operators may have told you, it is in fact their responsibility. You are not allowed to change the primary socket.

However, when you remove the faceplate, you temporarily disconnect any extentions that you have wired into the Master Socket. If the problem disappears when you do this then the problem is likely to be on some internal device or extension cabling. So you need to be sure that it's not working properly without the faceplate before you get BT to visit, otherwise they will charge you if the problem is found tobe on extension cabling or your internal equipment.

JennyP

We got nowhere with this in the end. BT refused to come out for the faulty faceplate. They said that the faceplate was the cut off point between what was our responsibility and what was theirs. They said that a faulty faceplate was up to us. Plusnet said it was up to BT. We got nowhere. I'm not sure how my partner got it working but he did!

JennyP

Since this is a common problem with BT (someone has PM'ed me about it!) and BT were even on Watchdog about it weren't they - I think we should kick up more of a fuss about it.

Steve_xx

JennyP wrote: »

Since this is a common problem with BT (someone has PM'ed me about it!) and BT were even on Watchdog about it weren't they - I think we should kick up more of a fuss about it.

The cabling up to and including the primary socket is BT's equipment and it is theirs to maintain. The customer is not allowed to dismantle (other than removing the faceplate for testing), change or interfere with it in any way.