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Continuous unresolved faults

jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Continuous unresolved faults

My frustration at the moment is at a peak with the continuing lack of actual fixing of my line problems since late September.
After a previous post I made showing CRC errors spiking on incoming phone calls, on saturday morning i had 4 quick resyncs with massive errors. I am now being monitored by PNet and should have test results within the next 24 hours. The problem is that the tests are done and only show a snapshot of the line condition at the time of the test, which could be done when the line now appears stable.
I have therefore added an attachment to show the telnet data regarding the actual situation on an ongoing basis rather than a snapshot line test.
I have reported corrosion in the joints in the pole to my house (over a year ago) that definitely causes sporadic problems especially in wet weather. I have reported that the BT engineer when moving my line to another cable further up the road stated " I don't know how long that will last because the cable i just paired you to is faulty".
My speed is never raised after a stable period it only drops. This never happened before. If I was on a decent stable connection for over 3 days the DLM would raise my speed and adjust my profile accordingly. My last stable connection speed was 2528kbps and was that speed for over 8 days. and the suddenly it dropped via an overnight resync on the 5/6th dec. Later that day i had 4 resyncs in 7 minutes until it finally settled again at 2240kbps. Unfortunately it also dropped my profile to 1.5mbps where I am still at. My telnet data shows that in the lsat 1day 8 minutes I have had 8 Loss of Signal and over 48 million FEC errors.
I need the obvious corrosion faults and faulty cable fixed not patched,  I need the HR  problem resolved but get no joy from BT engineers when they call, .All they do is patch. What can I do? I have also asked PN about what advantage I would have in getting these problems FIXED if i went to PN for line rental versus my current provider BT, but do not really understand if I would get the faults rectified as PN also use the same engineers from Openreach.
Anyone got any advice at all ?
38 REPLIES 38
Anotherone
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Hi again, it could be helpful if you posted the links to your recent previous posts on this.
MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎01-01-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Hi there.
I can see you've raised a fault through to our faults team and they'll be in touch as soon as possible.
With regards to moving the phone to us it would only really make a difference if the issue was only with the phone.
In cases where incoming calls are causing errors on the connection we treat these as a broadband issue rather then a phone issue.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
Anotherone
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Posts: 19,107
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Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

The advantage of having the Line Rental with Plusnet is that what ever the problem, they can play it whichever way is best to get the problem fixed.
If you have rental with another company, some broadband faults never show as a phone fault although it's clearly a line problem and I have seen Plusnet say to customers they must go to their line rental provider who of course doesn't want to know about broadband faults Roll_eyes
The only disadvantage at present is that you don't get the free call divert if your phone line is out of action. However there may be a way of getting round that problem
jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Fault raise Saturday, results in overnight today. I still am not sure what the course of action is or by whom. The attachments tell the story and I have included my telnet data. The end result is a statement saying that a PSTN fault has been raised but since my phone is not with PNet then PNet cannot follow up on this.
Well what is it I am supposed to do? Have PNet raised the fault to BT and booked an engineer? Am I supposed to follow this up with BT without any PNet reference number to quote or what? Sorry but the brevity of information is not satisfactory as to what the course of action is and who does the action or follow up.
As a side note to this I called  BT yesterday to tell them I wanted potentially to cancel my Line rental with them and when asked why, I explained the pingpong ball feeling I was experiencing being bounced between PNet and BT regarding the obvious faults on my line and condition of corrosion etc. They said they would send an engineer on friday to check connections on poles (not sure how far along the exchange to house route they will inspect). I do not know if my report to BT is the one PNet are referring to or whether PNet have raised a PSTN fault seperately. The PNET response tells me absolutely nothing.
I have not written this response on the ticket as I am told that if you add "Additional Information" to the bottom of an ongoing ticket, then the ticket goes to the bottom of the pile !!
Would a PNet person like Chris or Mathew please be kind enough to look into my questions raised above. I would be most appreciative.
Anotherone
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

It would certainly been helpful if Plusnet had stated what the PSTN fault was - I assume they detected one from testing. On the other hand the system will tell them that a PSTN fault has been raised (by you), if that's what they mean, the statement should be more explicit - it should state "PSTN fault raised by customer".
Unfortunately, it is you that has to pursue the PSTN fault with your supplier (BT in this case). Quite a neat idea to say you are going to move the service, that has got some response, but it doesn't always work and you do get the "ping-pong" effect, it's not always a good idea to mention the broadband. Always best to egg up the intermittency of the line fault, crackles on the line, occasionally can't hear the person you called etc.
Hopefully Matthew or one of the other CRT guys will be along and double check the meaning of "PSTN Fault raised".
MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Hi there
I do agree that we could have worded that message better. Just to confirm our records show that you have a open phone fault with your phone provider.
Unfortunately we can't investigate or test further while this is open. You'll need to either get them to resolve it or close it before we can proceed.
If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
Anotherone
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Registered: ‎31-08-2007

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Thanks for the clarification Matthew.
jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
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Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Yes thanks Mathew. I do note however that after I called PNet on Saturday I was informed that my line would be monitored over the next 3 days after which PNet would be in touch with me regarding test results etc. If I look at the report it shows the results of only one test which was done at 6.19pm on Tuesday and no doubt be a 15 minute snapshot test. My point is that I do not see the results of any monitoring. The results show my data from the previous Wednesday thru to Tuesday. After what I see as the only test done, it was then stated that due to my fault report to BT that no further tests could be done as the line was BT not Plusnet. That is the point I do not understand. PNet know my line is with BT but do not mention what "further " tests would have been done if my line was with PNet nor what monitoring, and results were done prior to 6.19pm 3 days after the call to PNet.
It  appears that nothing was done upto the point of the only test on Tuesday and again "appears" that PNet used the reason of my call to BT, which was late Tuesday afternoon, to then state nothing further could be done until the BT fault had been looked at. It does not look like any monitoring was done, that a test late on Tuesday (after I had called Pnet that afternoon to ask where my results were after 72 hours, was the only action taken.
With a BT engineer apparently looking at the line sometime tomorrow (Friday) and no reference or work order number provided to me by BT, that I am in the lap of the gods if the BT guy does his testing or not turn up . It is not a home visit by BT but a check on jointing and line condition so i will not know if he/she attends or not.  What will happen then?
Anotherone
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

If Openreach don't come knocking on your door and/or you see them up the pole sorting out joints etc - don't forget, don't harp on about the broadband, moan about noisy phone calls, so he should test and go and sort out all the potentially iffy joints and replace or organise replacement of any bad cables that don't have spare pairs or are beyond repair - that'll be interesting looking for the flying pigs - then if not done you've have to moan at BT Retail further.
I'm guessing that you had a Visual Radius graph posted on your ticket - that is generally what they mean by monitoring, but they can also look at the DLM history - that ought to be on the ticket, as well as do an xDSL Status Check. They can't do the full Copper Line Test (CLT) as the line rental is with BT. They have limited test capability when they aren't the rental provider.
jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
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Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

Just been on to BT and they are saying that someone has done the joint checks and I require an engineer to the property. I do not think BT have been and checked the joints as i would have seen them. They did a line test on 9th December and reported no fault. They then say an engineer is due friday, then they say further test was done and engineer needs to visit my propery. One is coming on Monday. I do not want to pay for a visit and do not know why they want to visit the property. No mention of the reason except possible checking of wiring at the house. We will see.
See the attachment.
Anotherone
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

You need to emphasise that "the problem is intermittent so you are not the slightest bit surprised that a one-off test found nothing. Instead of doing remote tests and saying there is nothing wrong with the joints, they need to get the Openreach engineer up the pole and stop messing about. There is nothing wrong with my "equipment", however your NTE5A may be faulty I do not know that."
I would say something pretty strong along those lines, as this messing about will go on for ages. Make sure it's written down.
jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

7.30am today a reync which dropped my speed a whole 1 Mbps to 1312kbps. Not so noticeable if you are on 28Mb + but a 50% drop if you are on my line.  We had heavy rain overnight ..... now tell me there is no problem on my line !
Not quite sure how to handle the BT visit on Monday as most of the evidence I have of an intermittently faulty line is based on the data I get from my broadband connection. e.g CRC spikes on incoming calls, resyncs after heavy rain. There is no real noise on my phone,when I do hear some it's not very loud, so without broadband and DSLstats data there would not appear to be any major faults.
jjaycee1
Grafter
Posts: 242
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎18-05-2012

Re: Continuous unresolved faults

so frustrated i just rebooted the router and reconnect at 2912kbps.
Anotherone
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Re: Continuous unresolved faults

I fully appreciate how frustrating this sort of issue is being on a 20CN connection. Further to my reply #11, have you put such comments in writing via their on-line system or verbally and got it recorded? (I'd bluntly tell them if your comments aren't logged and passed to Openreach, you will make a formal complaint AND take the issue to OFCOM). Apart from that, you need to do so to protect yourself from any attempt to charge you should they try claiming a No Fault Found, because you will spend ages afterwards arguing with them to get a charge refunded. I'll send you a PM.
Edit: Any noise on the phone line indicates a bad connection - Don't let them give you the run around make it very clear you are reporting an intermittently noisy phone line and the issue has been going on long enough.
You should find most Openreach engineers quite happy to look for these faults. Only rarely to you get a difficult one.
If you get one that just picks up the phone and says I can't hear any noise and is about to go - ask "so what are you going to do?" If the response is "report No Fault Found" my immediate response would be "well why aren't you getting your Hawk Test box out or whatever the modern equivalent is and looking for the poor connections that way?" That would imply you have some knowledge.
If you get a response along the lines of "because I don't think it's needed" the I'd tell them "I intend to make a formal complaint then"