Today my phone developed a noise on the line (which is causing my BB to keep dropping of course) so phone PlusNet Home Phone faults about noon. First thing disconnect this and that, plug into test socket etc, will cost you £148 if the fault is your side of socket. Will get back to you later today.

Yesterday my son had almost the same sort of fault - Phoned BT - Put the phone down sir, we will test the line and call you back. 5 minutes later called back - Appears to be a fault on the line engineer booked. Fault fixed.

To add insult to injury my ticket said I had refused to test via the test socket when all I said was I had a new ADSL face plate so unlikely to be that. Said I needed 24 hour notice when I said I was here at any time if an engineer needed to call. Three hours later no reply to my fault report.

The test of good service is not when things are working OK but when things go wrong and how the faults are dealt with. I can't say I'm that pleased at the way PlusNet deal with home phone faults.

I know what you mean as had similar problems when I recently had a line fault - initially noisy followed by complete silence.

When I opened ticket I clearly stated that I'd plugged 2 different corded phones into NTE5 test socket - I was then asked twice to run various needless tests. Using test socket automatically isolates all adsl equipment so it was as if nobody actually read initial ticket.

I was told a couple of times that no line fault could be detected and it was only when I clearly stated that I'd accept call-out charge, if I was wrong, that Openreach were contacted.

In the end both pairs to house had failed and a new underground cable had to be installed - meant digging up front lawn but no other way to do job.

No complaints about how Openreach dealt with this problem.

Hi there,

I'm sorry that the service wasn't up to scratch, I've passed on feedback for the agents involved.

Regarding the testing and the charge advice, we are obligated to give you this information as if the problem is shown to be your equipment BT Openreach will bill for it (and we'd look to charge you in turn, as absorbing these costs is not possible). In most cases as long as the requested tests are done you'll have eliminated all equipment within your control.

Hi Mand

I personally felt that nobody was reading what I was saying and that was rather annoying - especially being sent a picture of how to find the test socket I'd already said I'd used.

I realise that you must warn a customer about possible charges - I'd already said that I'd accept these if I was wrong.

Over a three month period I was unlucky enough to have a line card failure and both the pairs of the underground line to house fail. I did  feel that getting Plusnet to arrange for engineer visits was very difficult - as I've said I was quite prepared to pay if I was wrong.

With the adsl fault I had to resort to posting on TBB in the knowledge that a member of the comms team would pick up on it.

Nadger,

I can understand the frustration there. Faults support quality is something we have a high focus on as it is often one of the biggest contributors to customer dissatisfaction.

I agree that reporting a home phone fault isnt as straight forward with plusnet.  Recently tried to report one with a faulty NTE5 with no extension wiring that wont work when the faceplate is fitted.

As it had been faulty since the service went live, I phoned and was told that if it worked when the faceplate was off I would be charged.

I had a spare faceplate that when fitted the fault went away so didnt bother trying support again.

Bud,

That shouldn't have been the case. We should still have tested and raised a fault as necessary.

Raises an interesting point, Mand.

As BT's responsibility ends at hidden test socket one wonders if faceplate is actually the customers liability - personally I wouldn't take the risk with recent reports, on Watchdog, of  Openreach charging customers for repairs outside their property.

When Openreach engineer came to resolve our ADSL fault he fitted NTE5a, for free, as we still had GPO cover plate from when house was built in mid 70s. He needed NTE5 to actually test line. As we had hard-wired extensions  he wired these to face plate.

This was fortunate as it was possible to properly test  before  raising tickets for the two subsequent  phone line failures. On both these occasions Plusnet said they couldn't detect a line fault  - obviously fault existed as Openreach eventually replaced underground cable to house as both pairs had failed.

Its an interesting point as the leaflet that BT are supposed to leave with the NTE5 states it belongs to BT so if thats the case I would imagine they should be responsible if it goes faulty, but it also states that they are responsible only to the test socket IIRC.

And they can go faulty as one at work had to be replaced a couple years back without any hassle, but I would imagine now adays there would be a threat of a charge.

Just reading from the leaflet Openreach left me.

As you say, it clearly states that Linebox (NTE5) is property of BT plc.

Under faults section it says to plug telephone into test socket and make a call - if you can then fault lies in your wiring.

As the Openreach logo is on the fixed part of the box I think I'd just buy a replacement and change cover plate.

Thats the snag, though when there is no extension and it works in the socket behind I was told the fault had to be in the extension wiring - even though there is none!

I'd imagine that, in those circumstances, changing the cover plate only took seconds 

Well it was a lot easier and quicker than trying to explain it any easier to support! 

From my POV the master socket is BT's responsibility, anything beyond that is the customers.