topic Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers in Home Phone

Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

halbot — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 14:57:02 GMT

So the phone has been noisy for a while, and my bill just came through with £20 of calls to numbers such as

123

1231

12311111

I did the online tests which came back with nothing and said it was all fine. Broadband is working although only at 40mbps and used to get 70mbps.

I will be contesting the bill.

I did plug the phone into the master socket and it was clear, but as soon as faceplate is connected it is noisy. I already changed the faceplate (BT openreach NTE5 one).

Help

Thanks

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

jab1 — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 15:16:35 GMT

Something dodgy with the back box/faceplate connection then.

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

halbot — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 15:37:34 GMT

I replaced the whole BT socket, both parts (I know BT own it but I am a network engineer and it’s not exactly hard).

The router is connected via cat6 from the back of the faceplate so I’ll see if anything’s been eating that cable.

Cheers

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

RealAleMadrid — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:27:00 GMT

@halbot This type of fault may be local to your property but could be anywhere on your line where an intermittent connection causes false pulse dialling so calls low digit numbers. Unfortunately 123 has a hefty charge which adds up.

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

halbot — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 09:02:49 GMT

Thanks, is it possible to block a number on the line whist I try and trace the fault?

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

HPsauce — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 09:16:15 GMT

Sadly 123 calls are usually a sign of a lazy BT/Openreach engineer testing the line "quickly".

They may have been working on another line and were just checking yours was still working as it may have been disturbed.

I assume you meant you plugged the phone into the Test Socket (behind the faceplate)?

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

RealAleMadrid — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 09:48:16 GMT

@HPsauce I think in this case it is probably not line testing going on, there have been a lot of calls (£20 worth) so more likely to be a line fault.

Re: Noise on line and £20 of rogue calls to 123 numbers

Gandalf — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:51:01 GMT

Hi there,

I'm really sorry that there are call charges on your bill that you don't recognise.

I can see you've reported a problem to us and we've tested your line finding a line fault so there's likely a crossed line somewhere. An engineer should be going out anytime by 24/10/22 23:59:59 to investigate further.

Once we've confirmed the fault as fixed let me know, and depending on the outcome of the fault, I'll be happy to get those charges refunded for you.