No Dial Tone.

[Brinnie]

Hello.

I have no Dial Tone when I pick the telephone. The Internet still works fine.

I tried the line tester from the site http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9812 but it only returns a blank page.

I then tried to phone my line from my mobile phone and I get the BT Answering service from 1571 telling me "... the person you are calling is on the phone".

I also tried calling after unplugging my phone and I still get the above response.

Do I have a fault or is maintanance work being carried out?

Thanks.

[imjolly]

check you exchange  http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/mso.php

http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/?

http://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/service_status

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15036

sounds like a bad connection - broadband only needs one wire connected but phone needs both

[john46]

have you connected a phone to the test socket

[Brinnie]

@imjolly: 

I have tried all the links and I cannot find any mentiion of a phone fault in my area. When you say bad connection do you mean a bad connection to the house?

@john46:

I have tried connecting to the test socket but I still have no dial tone.

When I call this land line from my mobile phone I get the BT 1571 service telling me "... the person you are calling is on the phone", this happens even when the phone at home is not connected to any socket, as a matter of fact it happens when both phone and internet cables are unplugged too.

[imjolly]

if you have tried conencting to test socket and still nothing then report a phone fault

phone faults

[Brinnie]

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@imjolly wrote:

if you have tried conencting to test socket and still nothing then report a phone fault

phone faults

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I have reported a phone fault and I have a couple of automated replies. There is a fault report that I can now track but I don't know if what is written there is automated too or if it is an actual reply from a technician confirming that there is a fault.

I hope it is an automated reply because the suggested estimated repair date is the 9/05/2013 at 17:00, nearly a full week.

That seems a very long time to expect a customer to be without a phone.

It would be handy to be able to call someone but considering that the fault is with the phone and I only have 1 BT line at home, that is not possible. As my internet is working fine (let's hope it stays so) is there no way for me to contact BT? Some kind of live chat service, even if text only.

The obvious option would be to call with my mobile or maybe a public phone, but last time I phoned tech support I was on the line for a very long time, listening to some music loop, even before I spoke to somebody. I don't have that much credit on my phone and I don't think waiting 30+ mins in a phone box is an alternative either.

[Brinnie]

An update to the above.

I have found the "chat online with us" option from the "contact us" page and I was able to talk to a very helpful person  immediately.
 

He was able to tell me that contrary to what was reported on the links that I followed earlier, there is a fault at my exchange and other customers should be affected too.

He said that the estimated date of repair can be a lot sooner than it is often stated, I sincerely hope so.

Most importantly he has activated a free service to redirect all incoming calls to my mobile phone, that would be very useful at this time.

[Deathtrap3000]

If you have a smart phone you can install bt smarttalk which will allow you to make calls using your landline calling package on your mobile using the internet. This way you can call support on the 150 number for free.

[Brinnie]

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@Deathtrap3000 wrote:

If you have a smart phone you can install bt smarttalk which will allow you to make calls using your landline calling package on your mobile using the internet. This way you can call support on the 150 number for free.

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Thanks for the info and very good advice it is too. Unfortunately my mobile is not that "Smart".

I was able to speak to someone via live chat and she set up a redirect to my mobile phone, calls made to my land line should now go to my mobile, this way I have at least got half a phone service, kind of.

Unfortunately my line is still down and I didn't get any further updates, so the repair date is still the 9th of May.

Although it is meant to be a local fault, I can't see a fault reported in my area.

[openwm]

you have a loop on your line causing the phone to think it engaged 100% sure