topic Re: Fault with landline in Home Phone

Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 09:48:58 GMT

I have had a fault with my land line/phone since (at least) Friday morning. It was working fine, nothing changed, then suddenly noticed no dial tone and unable to receive or make calls - line just seems dead.

Broadband is working fine. I have gone through the suggestions on their website but problem is unresolved.

I have been trying to contact Plusnet since then, however only option is to call them - which I can't do as I have a fault with my home phone and there is no mobile signal around here (hence the need for land line in the 1st place) - there is no chat or email/online facility to report the fault. I tried their Facebook page & PM several times since Friday morning, however I still haven't had any response.

How else can I get hold of them without having to make a special trip out to find a phone box and hanging around waiting there whilst I get through etc.

Surely there must be an online way to be able to report a fault?

Re: Fault with landline

Alex — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 11:14:37 GMT

I assume your landline is provided by PlusNet? Not BT?

There is a BT fault checker where you put your landline number in, and it sees if there is a fault. If it finds one, it will call an engineer out. I assume this can be done for PlusNet too, as it will be BT Wholesale doing the work anyway.

I had to do this twice when my parents line went down - which did take out the BB.

Try that and also if you've got a spare phone try that out to rule out a dead phone. Also from your master socket.

Just seems a bit strange to me a dead landline hasn't affected your broadband.

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:05:51 GMT

Everything is via PlusNet - Line/phone/broadband

I have tried using a different phone - that doesn't work either. The phone is plugged directly into the master socket (new - fitted by PlusNet engineer several months ago).

Have checked any known faults in the area - nothing seems to be reported.

I went through the "Trouble shooting guide" on PlusNet via the help/contact us section for phone but no resolution.

I have just (accidentally) stumbled across the Broadband trouble shooter which seems to allow you to log a problem - but can't find anything like this for phone line (quite ironic really - problems with broadband can be logged via internet online & it appears problems with phone line can only be logged by phoning )

Re: Fault with landline

Alex — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:09:40 GMT

I'm not 100% sure if you can use the BT fault checker on a PlusNet line.
I would have thought so, since it will be a division of BT fixing it.

Someone may correct me, but I suppose you could try it anyway.

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:17:51 GMT

Plusnet have one which I have just done. Helpfully it has said

"Ooops, something seems to have gone wrong. It looks like something has gone wrong. Our award-winning support team are here to help. Please call 0800 432 0200"

How can I call when I have a fault with my landline?!

Re: Fault with landline

Alex — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:26:39 GMT

It might be a glitch on their site, where if you try again maybe it will be fine.

But yes I know what you mean, rather like a company asking to do something on-line when you have no internet.
Do you not have a mobile to call them on?

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:39:18 GMT

No - we don't get a mobile signal around here - hence the need for the land line.

Don't really fancy having to drive out looking for a phone box then waiting in a telephone queue etc for hours...just expected a telecommunications company in 2017 to have at least some (customer friendly) way of dealing with reporting problems with a phone line in another way other than having to telephone them...lets call it (good) customer service to "do you proud".

Re: Fault with landline

Alex — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:46:44 GMT

Ok fair enough I didn't know that.

Hopefully someone at PlusNet can pick this up - possibly tomorrow as I guess it being a Sunday they'll be fewer staff here today.

Re: Fault with landline

Gel — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 12:57:27 GMT

They do have a CHAT option; try a different browser &/ or TURN OFF your browser pop up blocker for PN's WWW.

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 13:09:19 GMT

Thanks, but their "Chat" option has been down for a few days now. Only available if you are looking to take out a new package with Plusnet and when I tried them they said they couldn't help - only thing they could do was give me the phone number to call

Re: Fault with landline

Alex — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 13:51:56 GMT

The only other thing I thought of is making a VOIP call as you have internet.
Can you still call landlines on Skype?

Only problem is getting a headset if you don't have one and messing about setting up an account I guess.

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 14:26:44 GMT

Finally...3 days later, after posting here, and in response to my 3 Facebook posts on Plusnets page with 3 private messages over the course of 3 days, they have finally logged a fault & passed it onto Openreach to investigate..apparently will be in (another) 3 days..."The next action on your Question will be 23-08-2017"... probably take them 3 attempts to fix it (as it did with my broadband issue at the beginning of this year when the 3rd Openreach engineer said the fault was obvious & should have been fixed on the 1st call out several weeks before) ...

So some partial success I guess

Thanks to Alex & Gel for your replies

Re: Fault with landline

Gandalf — Mon, 21 Aug 2017 12:58:17 GMT

Sorry to hear you're having problems with your line

It looks like the issue has rectified itself as our line tests are now passing. If you're still having problems please get back to us by replying to the ticket on your account or reporting a fault at http://faults.plus.net

Anoush

Re: Fault with landline

djg — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 06:39:25 GMT

Thanks for your reply.

Plusnet service well below par :

No chat

Phone support wait at least 40 minutes

Response from BT none until I complained ie Plusnet did not chase until I chased again by waiting fpr 40mins on the phone yet again, plusnet should have chased when sla was exceeded.

Fault was fixed in 10 minutes reset device at exchange but had to wait a week with no landline and very patchy rural mobile coverage.

Sort it out Plusnet and employ more people, its very simple.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Fault with landline

Mari — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 12:36:44 GMT

@Gandalf wrote:

Sorry to hear you're having problems with your line

It looks like the issue has rectified itself as our line tests are now passing. If you're still having problems please get back to us by replying to the ticket on your account or reporting a fault at http://faults.plus.net

Anoush

Hi Anoush - yes, once the problem was reported, it was quickly resolved & phone line now back on & working - wonderful!

Just a shame it was such hard work & took 3 days for me to be able to get Plusnet to respond. In the past, response from Plusnet has been good, and having the online "Chat" facility is excellent (part of the reason I left TalkTalk to come to Plusnet was the ease in which you can usually get in touch with someone based in the UK to report/discuss issues), however for some reason your "Chat" was down, so reporting issues & getting a reply was incredibly difficult, very frustrating, not to mention extremely time consuming (please get that "Chat" option fixed!).

Just glad it's resolved now and hopefully I wont have the need to report any further problems

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Two posts released from Spam Filter and duplicate post removed.

Re: Fault with landline

Gandalf — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 14:45:40 GMT

Sorry for the inconvenience caused. Fingers crossed you have no more issues.

Anoush