Digital voice. Some callers can’t get through to us

[colw59]

We have lived at our current home for almost 2 years. For the first 18 months or so Sky provided our broadband and home phone. From the beginning callers from several landlines (4 that we know of - but there may well be others) have not been able to get through when they try to call us. They get a recorded message saying “the number you have dialled has not been recognised please check and try again’.

Sky told us this was a BT issue which they couldn’t solve. When our contract expired we moved to BT in the hope that the problem would be resolved - it wasn’t.

i have made numerous calls to BT customer services in an effort to get the issue solved. A BT engineer came and confirmed that there is no problem with the wiring or equipment at our property. He told us it was an Openreach issue. Openreach say there is nothing wrong. I have spent  several hours now on the phone to BT tech support people, all of whom put me on hold for considerable lengths of time while they consult other colleagues and then promise my problem will now be solved but it never is. The TMC team (whoever they are) say there is no problem. A quick internet search shows we are not the only ones with this issue but BT seem unable to help. To make matters worse, often the tech support people (you can never speak to the same one) promise to call back to check that the problem is solved, but they never do.

Is the Ombudsman my next stop?

[barnpiece]

Assuming the callers are dialling the full number with national code, have you tried to find out who supplies their service? Are they all on just one supplier? And if so, can you get someone else on the same supplier to try calling you.

[iniltous]

You say your previous supplier was Sky , they have their own telephone number ranges ( in the same way BT have number ranges that are allocated to them, so is the number in question originally a BT number that you ported to Sky , and it’s now back with BT , or was it a Sky number and they have ported it to BT ?

If you have lived in your current home 2 years and the first 18 months were with Sky ( so presumably around 6 months with BT ) did you bring the phone number with you from a previous address , and if you did , who supplied that number at your previous address , Sky or someone else  ? .

If this problem has existed while you were a Sky customer and has continued during your time with BT then obviously the problem isn’t something BT have introduced, but your point is valid that they should try to resolve the issue ( even if it were present while you were with Sky and they didn’t resolve it )

Number portability can be tricky , if you consider what’s involved, the calls that don’t get through, if they don’t originate on BT’s network,  ( so that’s calls originated on Sky , Talk Talk , Virgin , mobile networks, 02, EE , Vodafone, and Alt Nets ) are not under the control of BT , if a call on TT ( for arguments sake ) isn’t routed correctly so fails to get into BT network , that needs TT to rectify…you now have the added complexity that your BT service is almost certainly DV ( Digital Voice ) .

You obviously are at liberty to complain to the ombudsman, it’s unlikely they will be interested but may ask that BT release you from any contractual obligation, that means the issue will simply move to your next supplier, assuming you port the number to that provider.

[colw59]

Hi,

thanks for your reply. At least 2 of the numbers that can’t get through are BT customers. We can receive calls from other BT customers ok. The other numbers that can’t get through are businesses and I don’t know who they are with.

[colw59]

Hi,

thanks for your reply. This was a new number when we moved in. Sky told us they were unable to port the number from our previous house (which was a rental property we lived in for 12 months between the sale of our old house and the purchase of this one) so we were allocated a new one. When we reported the fault to Sky they ran tests remotely and said that there were no problems with the equipment so it must be BT’s problem.

we can receive calls (as far as I’m aware) from all mobile networks and most landlines. At least 2 of the 4 numbers that we know we can’t receive calls from are themselves BT customers. We can receive calls from other BT customers. We have no problems making calls to anyone.

if number portability is a problem is a new number likely to solve the issue?

thanks

[iniltous]

When you were with Sky , BT had nothing whatsoever to do with your service, so for Sky to suggest it’s in someway BT was untrue, 

If it’s the Sky number ( from Sky’s number range ) and you are not particularly worried about getting a new nunber ( as long as it works ) then that’s the easiest solution, simply get a new BT number .

I presume you are on DV ( so the phone is connected to the router ) , was it always DV since you joined BT or were you moved to DV from PSTN and you were working in the master socket 

[colw59]

Sky told me, if I recall correctly, that as they don’t own the line they weren’t able to do anything more than the tests that they did remotely.

we have always been on DV since moving here.

Thank you.

[colw59]

So still waiting for tech support to call me back. They made an appointment to phone me  at 10.00am on Monday last  week and I’m still waiting. Clearly they don’t know how to fix the problem and don’t seem interested in trying any more either. We daren’t give our landline number to anyone any longer as we don’t know if they will be able to get through to us so there would seem to be no point in having a landline now.

i think the best thing now is to try to get the landline removed from our contract and just keep the broadband as we are paying for a service that doesn’t operate as it should.

[imjolly]

@colw59 

so did you move to BT Retail 6 months ago for your broadband and phone?

assuming you are with BT on broadband and phone contract then terminating the phone part will require you to start a new 24 month contract for broadband only

[colw59]

Thanks for your message. Yes we started a new contract then. I realise that it may well mean starting a new 2 year deal. We have no issues with the broadband, I just don’t think that anyone seems to have all the answers when it comes to digital voice so we might as well do what a lot of other people are doing and do without the landline.