What is a major network problem?

[Jane2018]

One of my 2 landline numbers stopped working yesterday. I do not think it has ever had a fault since we moved here and took the number over in 1997 so it was a bit surprising. I spent ages down on the ground on my tummy having removed a wooden panel  plugging 4 different corded phones into the socket and then at sockets around the house and calling it from other phones. having been up in a very high cupboard in ladders both yesterday and today to get the spare corded phones down.    Today I went on the BT fault reporting website section and see:-

"There's a major network fault in your area.

We're already aware of the problem and are working to fix it as quickly as we can.

We'll now submit your fault".

What is a major network fault?

Why doesn't BT text people to mobiles (they have mine) or email them as soon as these faults occur which would have saved me time yesterday and then again this morning doing my own tests when I have so much else to do? It would be really simple surely to contact people apologising and saying when it will be fixed, what compensation there is  (I pay  £26.35 a month for this number,  rather than letting people assume it is a fault at their end.  In fact this morning I thought I might try to cancel the number instead as I have another landline one but even that seems to be something you have to do on the phone and I bet it would be complicated and all go wrong.

I wonder why one landline number is affected and the other is not? Thankfully the one I use most is working, although my son who uses the other one had trouble getting me to collect him yesterday because of using the one not working.

In a way I am glad it is a network fault not a fault at my end as means I don't need to continue my investigations at home.

[Jane2018]

Still no landline. I found a BT site where you can plug in a number and that says

"Landline - Current Service Issue

We're sorry about the problem - we're working on fixing it.

Reported:

Fri 15/03/2024 at 11:42

Estimated fix time: Fri 22/03/2024 at 11:42"

So 7 days.  Quite a long time. SO presumably at the least I will be refunded a quarter of this month's £26 charge for the landline

[David500]

See account-and-billing/automatic-compensation 

[Jane2018]

Thank you. It is still a dead line but hopefully will be fixed within the week expected for this major network problem. The other landline is fine as is the third telephone line that just has broadband on it. Just as well I have 3 BT lines!

What I did try to do yesterday I haven't done for about 15 years was pick up messages from another phone to that line but as i have not done that for so long I forgot my PIN. When out on business I used to call up every lunch break to both landlines to retrieve the voicemails. Anyway at least that reminded me to sort out the PIN for the other landline which is working from that phone.

I know I could call BT (something I would dread) to ask for a redirect on the broken landline but not many people use it so I will just leave it and see how things are at end of week. I cannot remember the PIN for the voicemail and cannot reset it from the landline as it's not working but will certainly reset it and make a note once it is back working again.

[Jane2018]

Tpday was the supposed fix day and online it said Fault fixed as of 4am today. It is not. The line is still not working even when I plug a different corded phone into the socket.

So I reported it again today and did a test and now the BT website says current service issue working to fix it. Reported 15 March estimate fix 29 March. So I am not sure why they said it had been fixed as of today when it has not  been.

Let us hope they repair it by a week today which is Good Friday.

I also have my bill  for period from 21 March and have had no landline service since 16 March on that line. If BT would let me in two clicks terminate that landline forever and save me the  £26.35 a month charge on the bill instead that would be fine too but I am not prepared to call anyone or wait on a line. I would still have my other main landline and I would save myself £26.35 a month.

Anyway let us just hope it is repaired by Easter as that will have been 2 weeks without the landline. The bill does not mention there is no landline working and does not give any credits. I think this week alone lack of service is 3 or 4 days without the landline entirely and it sounds like next week  there will be none either so about 4 or 5 days there. I wonder if they pretended it was fixed today to stop compensation coming for next week and hoped people would not report that the fault was not yet fixed.

It looks like from the helpful link above compensation is as follows:-

• If you experience total loss of service and it’s not fixed within two working days, you’ll receive £9.33 automatic compensation
•  You’ll receive another £9.33 for every day you have to wait after that, not including the day your service is activated

[Jane2018]

For first time in about 4 or 5 date I can log into trouble shooter and report faults again! Fault reporting is back up and running. So I reported the 15 March total failure of service again but it is annoying it lists my first 2 faults as fixed when they were not fixed and the fault I reported today is not showing yet. For the other 2 reports I had to go in on consecutive days to report the fault and it says I was resuming a report even though I had completed the report. So currently it looks ilke there were only 2 reports and each was resolved in first week which is completely untrue. I have had no service since 15 March due to a major network problem which has now lasted almost a month without any landline on that line at all.

[Jane2018]

still no landline (since 15 March) today (9 April). I have done my daily logging on to troubleshoot but today have a completely new error  message as below (although the Service Status I now have on my favourites on my PC continues to show will be resolved - currently 12 April although that gets pushed back by a week every week - https://www.bt.com/help/check-service-status  )

Error 404--Not Found

From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:

10.4.5 404 Not Found

The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.

If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address.

[PaddyB]

Hi @Jane2018,

Thank you for posting. I'm sorry you are still without service. Send me your details, I'd like to take a look at what is happening with the repair. 

 I have sent you a private message with instructions on how to contact the team.  You can access your messages via the envelope icon at the top right of the screen, or click on this link, Private messages

Thanks,

Paddy

[Jane2018]

Thanks. Have emailed you.  There is still no service (since 15 March) yet when I log on it says there are 4 closed faults - yet none of my online reported faults has been corrected and I have had zero contact from BT despite confirming my mobile number on the online fault reporting on 16 March.

I don't understand why BT keeps closing the faults - it has closed 4 since 16 March and yet there has been no service/ no restoration of service and it continues to say network fault.

I have just submitted yet another fault report and I think it submitted but all i then see is " There's a major network fault in your area.  We're already aware of the problem and are working to fix it as quickly as we can. We'll now submit your fault"

Bt Service status gives me

"
Landline - Current Service Issue
We're sorry about the problem - we're working on fixing it.

Reported:

Fri 15/03/2024 at 11:42

Estimated fix time:

Fri 19/04/2024 at 17:26"

I presume by Friday there will be the weekly change to -  fix in a week's time - into infinity

[rbz5416]

Just speculation bu if there's a major outage that BT have already acknowledged, it doesn't really make any sense for individual faults to be maintained as active, as there's nothing that can be done at an individual level. The system would be potentially overloaded with hundreds of individual fault reports that are in reality, just one.