This topic

Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 17:57:25 GMT

I had BT Call Sign on my account with one main number and one second number. BT sent a letter saying Call Sign will be turned off on 30th September. I think it got turned off slightly later around 5th October for me.

However, on 5th October my landline, whilst still having a dial tone, does not make or receive and calls on the main number. I've raised a fault (and complaint) three times over the last 10 days and each time BT update the fault to say I've told them it is fixed when I have not and it is not fixed.

I currently have my landline on old copper line and a totally separate Fibre to Premises for BT broadband. BT have not yet moved me to Digital Voice.

I've tried hard to suggest it is some kind of issue that the Call Sign removal has triggered because when I call my landline from any mobile I get told the number is not recognised. I get the same thing dialing from the landline. i.e. after dialing half the number I get some beeps and message saying number has not been recognised even though I have dialed the first half of a mobile only.

Nobody at BT technical support knows what the issue is and I've spent over 9 hrs of time on calls and support chats and appear no closer. Yesterday I was told they would try assigning me a totally new number but that number is still giving the same result.

Further annoyance is that BT have tried to put on a divert on my landline to a mobile three times but this has failed on each occasion. Nobody at BT appears to know where the fault lies with someone booking an engineer to come to my home then someone else saying it is something in BT and can be done remotely. Surely there must be someone at BT who knows the answer?

I work in IT and if a website goes down I just run a trace route command which point to where the issue is in the Internet IP network, does telephone not have something similar? I would move off BT now as I am fed up but there doesn't appear to be any other options when it comes to landlines and keeping the phone number I've had for 20 years.

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jac_95 — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 18:02:16 GMT

Hi jamesrbutler,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

Devon_Dave — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 06:58:32 GMT

Hi. I have flagged this for the attention of the Moderation team who should be able to assist

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 07:05:29 GMT

Thanks Dave. Do I need to give them my details or home phone number or will they get that from my community user or just give general answer?

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

iniltous — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 07:56:30 GMT

If you have dialtone ( but cannot make successful calls ) try dialing 17070 , the AVR would normally be something like ‘ this circuit is defined as 01*********, if you get a response , is the number read out your ‘main’ directory number ?, if it’s something different, make a note and try calling it from ( preferably ) another BT landline, obviously using a mobile would be simpler but not necessarily as informative , can you answer the call ?

Its possible that ( in error ) in removing the Call Sign facility, they may have stop/renumbered your line , stopped lines can have a soft dialtone that allows calls to emergency services and customer services ( 150/154 ) etc, but nothing else ( which could explain why part way through entering a number you get the automated message, and if ‘renumbered’ , your ‘line’ effectively has a new number for incoming calls.

If this is the case , to restore service your ‘line’ would have to be ‘start/renumbered’ , back the your original directory number .

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

DavidM — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 07:55:05 GMT

Hi @jamesrbutler and welcome to our community.

I'm sorry you're having problems with the line. I'll be happy to take a look at this for you. I'll drop you over a private message now so you can get in touch.

Thanks @Devon_Dave for raising.

Cheers

David

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 09:40:41 GMT

Thanks, I tried the 17070 and it replied with a totally different number and not my main landline or even the second call sign number we used to have. I tried calling the number from another BT landline and got a "this number is temporarily unavailable".

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 10:11:16 GMT

That indicates a "stopped" or spare line. Are you sure you have not been moved to BT Digital Voice, as no new PSTN connections are being made if an order is changed?

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 10:35:34 GMT

I will check, thanks

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

Carlusha — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 10:41:57 GMT

@jamesrbutlerwrote:
I will check, thanks

It's been nearly 3 hours since our Moderator @DavidM has been in touch. Have you replied to his Message?

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 11:09:33 GMT

Thanks for the reminder, I only just found out where to see and reply to a private message

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

iniltous — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 12:55:13 GMT

If you have BT broadband and a SH2 router , then being moved unknowingly onto DV is a distinct possibility, obviously if that is the case you should have been advised of this , but as said , most ‘new’ BT Broadband customers who want telephony get DV if it’s available, and although you are not strictly a new customer, cancelling your old services may have required you to be provided as a ‘new’ customer,
There is a ‘phone’ port on the SH2 , try connecting a phone to it …if there is interrupted dialtone , chances are it’s on divert , if a modulated dialtone then a message has been left on the built in answer service.

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 14:32:57 GMT

I tried plugging it into the DV port on the SH2 but it was totally dead, no tone at all.

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

iniltous — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 15:12:59 GMT

That sort of eliminates DV as the issue , so ( you would think ) that the BT customer service reps should be able to see that your account/line is ‘stopped’ , and would be organising the start/renumber to get service back….hopefully the Mods will get this sorted out if the regular customer service reps are failing , however I think the fact that you had copper pair for telephony ( probably only retained to support your Call Sign service ) with separate FTTP for broadband , is probably an unusual mix and has flummoxed the ordering system, it wouldn’t surprise me that to get your telephony service back it will have to be with DV on your FTTP and the copper pair ‘retired’ completely

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 15 Oct 2022 15:32:08 GMT

Thanks, to be honest I would be happy to just get it moved over to DV if that fixes it. I'll wait to see what the mod team can do.

Re: Unable to make or receive calls

jamesrbutler — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 17:04:52 GMT

Well the update is that after over 4 weeks with no phone line, a BT engineer managed to get a new number allocated to my line then once that was working he placed the order to get my original number back. That should have gone live yesterday but as per usual BT work, nothing happened. The BT engineer said they were working today and would call me to check things were working. He hasn't so possibly off sick as I've messaged him 3 times today with no reply.

To make matters even worse I got a text an hour ago from BT saying as I am getting a new line and Broadband, they will need to do a survey and that can take up to 30 days!. For goodness sake, my broadband is working fine and is on Full Fibre on a totally different line to the copper landline. Also why is a survey needed if I have a working line, just using the incorrect phone number.

At this rate I guess I am going to lose the landline I've had for 20 years and remember this is an issue caused by BT, I didn't put in an order for anything from them.