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Noisy line when it rains, BT doesn't want to know

vyle
vyle Posts: 2,379 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
I'll keep this as short as possible:

I've got broadband with talk talk, and have suffered from an infuriating intermittant line fault that causes me to lose my connection whenever I receive a phone call.I swapped filters (on no.12 now) plugged into the test socket, tried new routers (on no.3) and when it's bad, it's bad regardless. Incoming phonecalls, or just random drop-outs occur every few minutes.

But when it's good, it's great, so naturally, I've been badgering talk talk. However, I spotted that this is only an issue when it rains. When it's dry, everything is fine.

I called talk talk a few weeks ago during a downpour and they pointed out that my line is always noisy but right now, according to the line/noise ratio history, it's particularly bad, and he could hardly hear me. He explained that the level of noise was not typical and was BT's problem, because TT can only provide a service as good as BT's line.

I called BT whose call center worker said everything was absolutely fine and (I quote) "Let me tell you sir, I know about internets, and how can there be a problem with the phone line if I'm talking to you and you're talking to me? You tell those Talk Talk men that it is their problem, because your phone is fine. If it wasn't you would not hear me tell you this now."

So here I am, another rainy day, another poor connection that drops out every few minutes, unable to work out a way to get BT to actually come out and examine for any leaks (research suggests that my demarcation box may be leaking). Any suggestions?

Comments

  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 35,102 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Who's your line rental with? Wouldn't it be down to them?
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • withabix
    withabix Posts: 9,508 Forumite
    edited 31 August 2012 pm31 9:19PM
    You must contact the company who you pay your line rental to.

    If you ARE a BT customer, use this link: https://www.bt.com/consumerFaultTracking/public/faults/reporting.do?pageId=21


    Perished or abraded insulator on the dropper from the cable bracket down the wall of your house if you're supplied by an overhead cable, would be my guess.
    British Ex-pat in British Columbia!
  • vyle
    vyle Posts: 2,379 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks for replies. Yeah, my line rental is with BT, so I'll give that link a go.

    I'm not supplied by overhead lines. I'm on a pretty new development, but I have seen some people have issues in my area because, what with development still having been going on even recently, dirt has fallen into holes and got into the cabling, and all sorts really, so I wouldn't be surprised if something was getting in, or if something has damaged the cables.
  • Probably find that the local BT manhole has filled up - when we had a fault with my daughter's line recently the BT engineer told us that the drainage on the local manhole wasn't working,so to get the connection going he propped the cables up out of the water on concrete blocks!! as a "temporary solution". Bet those blocks are STILL there in 20 years time!!!
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,128 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    TT are correct, it's not their job to sort out line faults. Report it to BT as a line fault, but whatever you do, do not mention any broadband problems. If you do, they will refer you back to your ISP.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • vyle
    vyle Posts: 2,379 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    macman wrote: »
    TT are correct, it's not their job to sort out line faults. Report it to BT as a line fault, but whatever you do, do not mention any broadband problems. If you do, they will refer you back to your ISP.

    I suspect BT are the kind of company who could burn your house down through incompetence, and then say "wait, your house was on fire? That's the fire department's problem."
  • spike7451
    spike7451 Posts: 6,944 Forumite
    brewerdave wrote: »
    Probably find that the local BT manhole has filled up - when we had a fault with my daughter's line recently the BT engineer told us that the drainage on the local manhole wasn't working,so to get the connection going he propped the cables up out of the water on concrete blocks!! as a "temporary solution". Bet those blocks are STILL there in 20 years time!!!


    Could also be caused by a corroded D side in the DP,or bad jelly connections like what caused my neigbors issue.

    Krone E/D Side strip in an NTL Mux,the same as used by BT.

    2168894055_23744c72e9.jpg

    Jelly connectors,used to join two telco wires together;

    http://www.telephone-store.co.uk/2-wire-idc-jelly-crimps-new-in-bag-connector-8a-1755
  • spike7451 wrote: »
    Could also be caused by a corroded D side in the DP,or bad jelly connections like what caused my neigbors issue.

    Krone E/D Side strip in an NTL Mux,the same as used by BT.

    2168894055_23744c72e9.jpg

    Jelly connectors,used to join two telco wires together;

    http://www.telephone-store.co.uk/2-wire-idc-jelly-crimps-new-in-bag-connector-8a-1755
    Or simply there is water getting into the line. and it needs replacing.
  • keystone
    keystone Posts: 10,916 Forumite
    Water in the box up t'telegraph pole that your drop wire is connected to.

    Cheers
    The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits. - Einstein
  • vyle
    vyle Posts: 2,379 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Thanks peeps. Hopefully BT will reply to me eventually. I've had it with their call centres so sniffed out the BT guy on here and have sent them a message. Knowing my luck we'll have a heatwave now, so if an engineer does come out everything will look fine (funnily enough it's all fine today, now that everywhere has dried out from the rain...)
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