This topic

Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 18:09:32 GMT

My 89yo mum has just had BT Essentials Digital Voice phone installed due to recently qualifying for pension credit. She got a new number as it was a new account but we requested her old number be re-assigned...

She cannot seem to receive incoming local calls dialled on landline phones, with a message stating her number is not recognised....phoning via digital or mobile gets through ok but not local landline. I have been onto BT and they have suggested it may be a 'porting ' glitch but have failed to remedy this, stating they have passed on to Openreach....every time I phone in on my mums behalf to chase this up I have approx hour long phone queue then a relatively useless individual on the other end who is more concerend with selling me new products rather than fixing my mums phone issue ...

Any ideas, please!!!

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

WSH — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 18:19:57 GMT

I take it you are aware that digital voice will need the area code even for local numbers?

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 18:22:43 GMT

Yes, got that, my sister has been phoning locally on her landline, and using dialling code, gets same response. If she dials on mobile she gets through.

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

Christopher_G — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 08:40:19 GMT

Welcome to the community, @KennyPar9

When was the last time that you spoke to our Customer Care team about this and what did they say the next steps are?

Chris

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

imjolly — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 09:23:24 GMT

can your mum receive any incoming calls from another landline ( not mobile)

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:45:12 GMT

Hi Chris
Thanks for the welcome
I spoke to Customer Care last Tuesday and they advised probably resolved within 5 days..I will follow up again today as incoming calls were still affected yesterday
Thanks

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 11:47:18 GMT

My mum isnt receiving incoming calls from local landline calls (inc where dialling code is added)....I can phone her ok on my digital voice but my sister and mums friends who have landlines need to phone via mobile

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

Katie_B — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 12:50:01 GMT

Hi @KennyPar9.

Thanks for coming here.

Have you been able to follow this up?

Katie

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:36:30 GMT

I followed up yesterday and still no resolution of fix of the issue....BT 'guide' couldn't escalate call to Openreach who still hadn't addressed the issue after 5 working days. Raised as a complaint but as yet we still have the problem

Thanks

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 08:31:46 GMT

The saga continues....two phone calls yesterday,

BT 'guide' advised that the Tech team (TMC?) had closed the enquiry without taking any action to fix the problem (!).

I was assured that the complaint would be raised again and attended to. Problem still not resolved. Despite their friendly demeanour the guides have been simply ineffective

The inability of BT to address this is frankly astounding...either they are technically inept, or their internal communication processes are woeful...perhaps both.

Meanwhile my 89 yo mum has a faulty phone system (which she didn't actually want replaced - when trying to reduce her £330+ quarterly phone bill and have BT Essential installed we were told there was no option but to have full fibre)

'Customer care'.....you gotta be joking

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

iniltous — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:05:27 GMT

What phone number is this , you state that a new number was allocated and that you tried to get back the original ( PSTN ) number , so which is it ? .
From what ‘landline’ numbers are incoming calls failing ? , are they BT customers, or customers of companies like Sky , Talk Talk , Vodafone etc .

There are some things that are just not under BT control, there was a post where a customer couldn’t get incoming calls from one particular mobile network ( that a family member used ) ultimately they had to accept a new landline number ( which worked from that mobile network ) because the mobile company were not interested in investing a call routing problem .

I suspect in your case , if you managed to get the original landline number reallocted , that information hasn’t been acted upon by every network operator and some ‘see’ that as a non working number .
BT essential is a social tariff and is technically no different to any other product, if you didn’t want FTTP , eventually even on the copper pair , the telephony would be via Digital Voice , and in that respect, having FTTP is irrelevant.

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 11:23:53 GMT

Her original number has been reallocated.
I dont know what landline numbers are particularly failing, or if my mums elderly friends are BT customers or not...either way its a shabby state of affairs when none of this was ever explained as a problem prior to her switch to BT Essentials., and your suggested analysis has never been offered as the source of the issue by any of the BT 'guides' I have spoken to...
These are technical issues which most customers myself included shouldnt have to be concerned about...BT should seek to problem solve these at source and not leave elderly vulnerable customers to discover after the event

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

imjolly — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 13:42:03 GMT

your phone problem is nothing to do with the change to the home essentials package and it was a result of the change to digital voice. it is the switch to DV that is causing the problem which, if you read the forum posts, you will see this does happen to a few people. do you know if the original number is shown in hub manager - 192.168.1.254 into address browser bar

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 13:59:47 GMT

Thanks for your ongoing interest and suggestions....I live 100 miles away from my mum so unable to try the test you suggest. I will try to get a family member or friend to do this . Assuming original number is shown ...or not...what is the next step? And back to my original gripe, why aren't BT trying to problem solve this?

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

imjolly — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:02:33 GMT

is your mother registered here https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/including-you/BT_Free_Priority_Fault_Repair_Scheme.pdf

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:07:18 GMT

No she's not registered for this, first I've seen of it thanks.
Worth doing in the longer term but doesn't resolve the immediate problem however

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

Christopher_G — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:40:52 GMT

Hi @KennyPar9

It's definitely a good idea to get your Mum set up on that priority fault service. In the mean time, I've sent you a private message to try and get you some help with this current problem.

Chris

Re: Digital Voice Dial In Problems

KennyPar9 — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 13:49:39 GMT

Issue now resolved after 17 days...it was a 'porting' issue.

Despite the initial trouble getting any traction/progress with the complaint, Moderator Chris passed on complaint to Executive Complaints Team. I got direct call access to a very helpful person and issue now resolved 24 hours later with a compensatory gesture towards my mums account.

Phew...

Thanks to all who offered advice