topic Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!! in Plusnet Feedback

No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

Hudd3 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:48:57 GMT

Can someone from Plusnet please help my father, I referred him to Plusnet a while back as I have had reasonable service for many years, but....
He lost the use of his phone line three weeks ago (although broadband still works!!), raised a ticket with Plusnet and has been told various things, most incredibly that BT are awaiting planning permission to dig up the road!?.... oh and this could be another 3 weeks.... not good enough.
Please can we have some help as my parents are old and some distance from me and I need to keep in touch;
(1) Since his neighbours are working, why cannot he be given a working line without waiting for weeks to dig up a road?
(2) Why can you not divert his home phone number to his mobile so at least he won't miss any calls
(3) I think plusnet/BT should be paying his mobile phone bill
(4) He is not getting much response from plusnet and has finally sent a tough email this morning but as yet still has no response

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

Hudd3 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:11:51 GMT

Ticket number is: 30421094
Thanks

Re:No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

James — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:12:22 GMT

Hi,
This one looks particularly horrible I'm really sorry your Dad has had so many difficulties trying to get his phone service up and running again!
Basically, where we currently stand is that OpenReach are trying to get planning permission from his local council to do some work on a Sunday, which will require traffic lights being turned off, his road being closed and some digging. It suggests that his phoneline travels underground and needs repairing.
I'm afraid that we don't have much opportunity to do anything to speed this up as we're waiting on his council to approve the work.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

glloyd — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:57:17 GMT

I believe BT offer a free divert service to a mobile in these circumstances, you have to be a BT customer of course, why can't PlusNet offer the same service?

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

jelv — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:17 GMT

How much daily compensation do Plusnet pay for a non-working phone?

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

jelv — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:19:43 GMT

Extract from the BT Retail Code of Practice attached.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

nadger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:41:50 GMT

Quote from: Hudd3
most incredibly that BT are awaiting planning permission to dig up the road!?.... oh and this could be another 3 weeks.... not good enough.

I know that this could be true as Openreach had to get permission from council to dig to replace line to our house - they also have to get price for work approved.
As broadband still works it suggest that only one joint/wire of a pair has failed. As there are normally 2 pairs it's possible that both pairs have failed. Openreach initially used 2nd pair but that also failed. I was fortunate as a great Openreach engineer managed to use remaining good wire from each pair to create working phone whilst we waited for digging crew.

Re:No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

orbrey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:43:34 GMT

Hi all,
We can offer call divert when there's a fault but any calls made are payable. All you need to do is request it when you're raising the fault.
As regards compensation, we'll refund you your line rental for however long the service was down.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

Hudd3 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:53:34 GMT

Hmmm, my father asked for a divert and was told he needed his landline to set it up!!....once the landline is working, he will be able to set his diverts.... but then he won't need them?!
Me thinks that maybe a BT contract might be better as at least diverts can be setup by BT, you get compensation if the phones are down for more than three days and I don't think you have to pay for the diverted calls to the mobile (might be wrong on this).
Further question; His line comes from the same pole as his neighbour, yet his neighbour's phone works.... how come?

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

nadger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:04:00 GMT

Quote from: Hudd3
Further question; His line comes from the same pole as his neighbour, yet his neighbour's phone works.... how come?

Our cable was underground but this would indicate that line is overhead so why dig?
As connection to each house would be separate it just indicates that fault is between pole and house.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

woldsend — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:33:28 GMT

The underground cable runs to the bottom of a pole and up the pole to a DP. Overhead drop wires distribute the services from the DP to the houses.
It seems that all underground pairs from the cabinet to the pole are either faulty or in use.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

Hudd3 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:09:48 GMT

Wow, must have a rant more often..... his telephone now appears to be working.... didn't need to wait for the road to be dug up. Apparently an engineer managed to thread a wire somewhere - he would have done it on Sunday but BT couldn't afford the overtime!

Re:No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

James — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:49:26 GMT

Wow - that's great!
I asked one of our faults guys to chase up BT again on behalf of your father and to look into the possibility of setting up a divert to mobile. It sounds like we were either lucky, or they managed to get through to someone at Openreach who managed to get something done.

Re: No phone for three weeks and still waiting!!

James — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:23:23 GMT

Hudd - I'll sort your Dad's compensation out in a sec, but I just wanted to confirm that we can and do allow diversion to a mobile when a fault is present.
I shall of course, reiterate that to the manager of the faults team to ensure that there is no doubt!