topic Re: Home phone not ringing in Home Phone

Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:39:43 GMT

My problem is that the phone is not ringing on an incoming call.

Line is good, getting dialling tone and can phone out OK.

Tried the suggestion of calling it from a mobile and picking up the phone when hearing the ringing tone on the mobile.

Not connecting to the mobile call.

Borrowed my neighbours phone to check, still no joy.

Automated phone checker says no fault found.

Any help would be very much appreciated

Re: Home phone not ringing

198kHz — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:47:31 GMT

@rvw88

Hmmm, intriguing.

If you can make calls, but cannot answer even when there's ring tone on the mobile, it would suggest a ringing problem in the exchange, which would be fairly simple for Openreach to fix.

If you know how to access the master test socket behind the faceplate, that would be the next thing to try.

Re: Home phone not ringing

2u2me — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 13:50:34 GMT

Also dial 17070, just to confirm its your number.

Re: Home phone not ringing

198kHz — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 15:38:41 GMT

@2u2me Ah yes, good point!

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:16:14 GMT

Thanks for your input.

I dialed the 17070 and it confirmed my number OK

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:24:50 GMT

I have just removed the cover on the master socket and pluged the phone directly into, still no joy.

Re: Home phone not ringing

198kHz — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 18:57:00 GMT

@rvw88 wrote:

Tried the suggestion of calling it from a mobile and picking up the phone when hearing the ringing tone on the mobile.

And while you're listening to the ring tone on the mobile, do you get dial tone when you pick up the landline phone?

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 09:46:55 GMT

Yes, dial tone and can call a number

Very mysterious

Re: Home phone not ringing

198kHz — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 22:18:27 GMT

@rvw88 wrote:

Very mysterious

It certainly is!

Sorry to sound pedantic, but it's a crucial point -

Are you saying that when you make a test call from the mobile, you can pick up the phone and get dial tone at the same time that you're hearing the ring tone?

Another thing to try - dial 17070 and choose Option 1 for ringback.

Re: Home phone not ringing

Townman — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 00:40:19 GMT

Has this line been the ‘subject’ of a recent provider migration?

I recall an incident a few months back of a user moving from Virgin to Plusnet. Somewhere in call routing the number migration got screwed up. The user could make outbound calls on the Plusnet line and the correct CLI was displayed on the phone receiving the call. If the called phone returned the call, the phone on the Virgin line rang.

It therefore seem possible for a line to be capable of making outbound calls ... but an error in call switching / routing to cause inbound calls to not terminate on the right line.

Clearly I do not know if this applies here, but it is a potential cause of what is being reported. The answer to the ring back test will be interesting as I believe that is an in exchange ring current test, having no dependence on called number routing.

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 14:31:19 GMT

Yes, I too switched from Virgin to Plusnet and kept the original number

As soon as my Wife 'releases' the phone I will try the ring back option as suggesterd by 198kHz.

Re: Home phone not ringing

Townman — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 14:58:35 GMT

Also is the Virgin line still in service?

Can you put a phone hand set on that line and see if there is still a dial tone?

If there is can you try ringing your number from your mobile and see if the call is inbound on the Virgin line?

Is it is, then this gives Plusnet an exact profile to escalate to the BT Number Porting Team.

After a quick Google this looks relevant https://community.bt.com/t5/Landline/Transferring-number-from-Virgin/td-p/1926640

Has your Virgin service been terminated yet?

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 15:06:15 GMT

I did not give a thought to that, I think my contract end middle of April

Stupid me, sorry for causing you all problems( that don't actually exist) 🙊

Re: Home phone not ringing

Townman — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 15:57:15 GMT

If you do not know, then the question is not stupid. The important thing here is that you have a clear profile on the problem, which avoids nugatory support effort and even a BT Openreach engineer visit.

HOWEVER I would not rest on my laurels here. I would want to be assured that when Virgin terminates the service that the inter-CP call routing gets sorted properly. The last time we saw this it did go a little pear-shaped. Personally I do not comprehend how there can be two active lines having the same number.

@Gandalf - does this need some TLC or a watching brief … or will it all turn out OK in the rinse cycle when Virgin terminate service? To me it seems odd that BT can provision a service on a number which is presently held by another network provider.

Re: Home phone not ringing

198kHz — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 16:43:13 GMT

@rvw88 wrote:

Stupid me, sorry for causing you all problems( that don't actually exist) 🙊

No worries - anyone would have reasonably assumed that when the transfer to Plusnet took place, that was the end of it.

Certainly had me fooled; I blame the fact that I retired from BT 21 years ago, before Openreach, switching ISPs and number porting.

A big thank you to @Townman for stepping in and finding the solution.

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 16:59:09 GMT

Thank you all for your efforts.

It's nice to know that should a problem arise there is help on hand.

Very refreshing after having to deal with Virgin for years

Re: Home phone not ringing

Townman — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 00:45:54 GMT

To be clear, so far there have only been other customers responding on this topic.

I’ve requested input from a staff member on the completion of the number port away from Virgin when that service ceases. There is still an opportunity for this to go wrong.

Re: Home phone not ringing

chrisdavison707 — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 20:00:06 GMT

Interesting thread as I have EXACTLY the same issue - Virgin to Plusnet migration and no incoming calls. Did the OP ever get this issue resolved? If so, an update would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Re: Home phone not ringing

Townman — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:33:05 GMT

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the forums.

This does seem to be a characteristic of migrating away from VM. Migrating from VM is not like migrating from one CP/ISP to another CP/ISP on the BT Openreach local network. When you migrate, you start with the new provider and cease with the old provider at one and the same time assuming nothing goes wrong.

When you migrate from VM to a provider on the BT Network, things a a bit different...

The gaining provider dose not terminate the service with VM - you have to do that
When the BT Line is setup, it is allocated your existing VM number
You can dial out on that line and called parties will see the call as coming from your number
HOWEVER inbound calls are routed to the VM line until service with VM is ceased

So until the service is terminated with VM you need to have a handset connected to each line.

Re: Home phone not ringing

rvw88 — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 18:47:17 GMT

Hi again all you locked in people.

The saga has gone on with VM for months now.

It turned out that someone in VM decided to sign me up for a new home phone service.

I even had threatening emails telling me to pay my account.😮

After many (ignored) letters to VM I told them I was escalating to the Ombudsman and asked them for a deadlock letter.

That stirred something up in the VM murky pond as I got a letter from them asking me to contact their AI system by phone text.😲

Yep, you guessed it, a complete waste of waste of time.

Again more letters and more rubbish from them.

Latest letter recived yesterday, dated 4th August from Customer Services Director, Rachel Barrass

This also offering to set things right.

I won't be holding my breath.

Still, it gave me something to do in the lockdown😂