No dial tone but broadband is OK

nsdlil

Dear Forum ,
On 05/07/12 my phone lost dial tone and calls to it were 'engaged' from mobiles but listed as NOT POSSIBLE via a land line . I followed the online BT guide to plug the phone directly into the wall jack and it worked fine , but as the endplate had had an integral broadband connection , broadband was unavailable with the handset into the wall jack . By then adding a spare filter I had into the chain , the HomeHub3 also powered up OK , although in the absence of a laptop I was unable to check that . The BT Indian Call Centre were then advised of the fault on the line and they checked and asserted that despite the fact that the connection was directly into the wall jack the fault maybe was with 'my equipment' , but they still promised to ring back with an engineer's appointment . The following day I called the Indian Call Centre again , advised them on the absence of my promised call back and they arranged for an engineer's visit today 11/07/12 and gave me a statement that if the fault was caused by 'my equipment' I would be subject toa £99.00 charge , I replied that the only action I had taken was to follow the BT Online Guide to isolate the problem .
The BT OpenReach engineer today (11/07/12) removed the old BT OpenReach endplate with it's phone and broadband connectors , replaced it by a single connector with only the phone output , added my 'spare' filter and pronounced both phone and broadband OK . He said that as a matter of policy BT OpenReach would charge BT for this replacement and that it was for BT to decide whether to charge me for a fault in 'my equipment' so I have subsequently e-mailed BT to have them confirm that there will be no charges made . However with no 'auto' e-mail acknowledgements as yet , I reopened the fault on the online system (which had been set to resolved) , with a comment asking for reassurance that there would be no charges made . I have then had a call from BT OpenReach and I clarified that the engineer had fixed it and the fault was then subsequently reset to 'resolved' . The BT Total Broadband was installed last Autumn and the endplate in question on 17/11/11 , could this be regarded as 'my equipment' ?
Best Wishes

4589roger

One wet and windy Saturday morning (16 June) a polite BT engineer knocked at the door and told us the line would be off for 3 hours while they replaced the pole outside.
We waited and waited for internet access to be resumed. The engineers had gone home. Phone still dead. Went to phone box to report fault. Given date of following Thur for an engineer visit! Later this was changed in a text to my mobile to the Tue after that.
Took laptop to pub for the wifi, complained on BT site.
Some days later got a mobile call saying they were very sorry and would try to come on Monday 25th. They didn't.
But then on Tue a polite engineer did come!! And found the fault on their new pole within 5 minutes.
Can I claim compensation for the time without a line?

ioscorpio

My phone line went down on 21/6, I thought it was due to the bad weather, so did not report it until 24/6, have now finally had a new underground cable and box put on the outside of my house and new master socket installed internally on 27/7. Can't remember the number of wasted calls to BT Indian call centre, endless conversations with engineers who turn up when the groundwork has not been done correctly, so they can't get the cable through. It has been a horrible experience and left with a nasty patch in the concrete next to the front door.

ioscorpio

After complaining to Ian Livingston by email, I received a call yesterday from CS in UK and will have refund for the line rental while the service was down and a goodwill credit of £45 = Quarter rental and they will credit my account for the cost for me to have an electrical socket installed, as the engineer moved the master socket to an outside wall, where there is not a socket to plug in my broadband router. The old master socket was converted to an extension, but it stopped working after a couple of days. I was advised it would cost £205 for them to send out an engineer, so to get someone to fix it and that cost would also be credited to my account. The engineer had told me the extension would be covered for 12 months, but there again he told me he would not put the master socket in the porch, but did anyway.

steveproxy

you report to customer care.

ioscorpio

I reported it to Ian Livingston, got a personal email response from him and an offer of compensation against my bill.