No ADSL service; any thoughts?

[#1]

My friend and neighbour has a PN tele worker ADSL service and about 10 days ago it died: no sync at all. we reported this straight away and I helped him carry out tests that proved it was not anything to do with his equipment. However the basic phone service still works fine. His line is on the limit of distance and therefore  ADSL snr levels can be crucial. Since reporting this we seem to have been dealt with my the most imbecilic  of questions, have been repeatedly asked us to try other routers, (we tried 3)  try other microfilters, (not used, as he has a faceplate conversion) turn on the router etc, (when it is on all the time)  when if the original support ticket raised had been read properly,  and it had been realised we had done all they asked regarding testing at the outset, well, alot of time would be saved. ( we have swapped all equipment and done all the usual stuff with master socket testing, recableing, etc,)
It is obvious that my friends loss of service is a basic line fault, causing the snr to rise to a level where the router will not sync,  but why do PN staff keep on insisting there is nothing wrong with the service? How can they tell? Why won't they (quickly) despatch an engineer to my neighbours home to diagnose the fault?
Any ideas; anyone (especially PN staff!!)

[#2]

Hi there,
Would you be able to PM me his username please, so I can have a look at the account? I'll be able to advise a lot better once I've had a look at the fault ticket.
Many thanks,

[#3]

Quick update: after 2 weeks my friend is still without any BB/ ADSL service. A BT engineer attended the fault & confirmed what we already knew, no ADSL service at the master socket, went away and did something at the exchange; no change and nothing heard since Wednesday night.
My question is; why don't they pursue a fault until it is resolved instead of leaving a customer in the dark?
All the ticket note says "We would like to inform you that your Help Assistant Question [ xxxxxxxxxxxx] has now been returned to the BOT - DSL Logged Faults - No Syn pool. A member of our Support Team will investigate your issue as soon as possible." Then: "EU has had engineer visit please check notes, EU advises engineer did some work at the exchange but the fault still exists, please contact BTW again if necessary"
Thats meaningless to a customer.  Cant PN use laymans terms to explain what is happening?

Graham

[#4]

we are now three weeks into this problem and nothing is sorted. Is this a record?
All PN's suggestions have been tried, before they suggested them, a BT engineer has called and confirmed what we already knew.
Has anyone got BT's managing directors phone number?
Graham

[#5]

I imagine the translation of your friend's ticket abbreviations would give the following:
"We would like to inform you that your Help Assistant Question [ xxxxxxxxxxxx] has now been returned to the Broadband Operations Team - Digital Subscriber Line Logged Faults - No Synchronisation pool. A member of our Support Team will investigate your issue as soon as possible." Then: "End User has had engineer visit please check notes, End User advises engineer did some work at the exchange but the fault still exists, please contact British Telecom Wholesale again if necessary"
I would guess that PlusNet Customer Support are following up on this problem.  Get your friend to ring them (0114 296 5198 / 0845 140 0200), or add more questions to the ticket.  Customer support statistics are at http://www.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=212 to find a quiet time to ring.
Orbrey did ask you to send him a Private Message containing your friend's username.  Did you send this to him along with your friend's ticket numbers?  Send him another Private Message if necessary.

[#6]

you are right: how did you guess?
I am in a constant dialogue with orbery about this; he has had the PM with the user name since a fortnight back & he has been most helpful. It is not PN that we are upset with; Its BT!!! Even though PN are part of BT they seem helpless in dealing with the problem. It is simply unacceptable that this service has now been off for three weeks.
Quite simply their (BT) attitude to ADSL faults is appalling. The fact that they then frighten off most people with a unpleasant reminder about having to pay £163.00 + VAT if the fault turns out to be the customers is just one of many complaints. Another is that some of the engineers they (BTW) send out are not even computer literate. (Thats the admission some of the engineers i have had to deal with have made, [and there have been not a small number of them], not my conclusion based on the fact they couldn't fix the problem, but based on remarks made such as; " I'm getting a bit long in the tooth for all this computer malarkey) 
One possible this particular  reason this service has died could be quite simple; it may have been upgraded to ADSL max which will not work over a long reach line at the limit of ADSL. At the moment I am trying to find out if this was done or not.
Cheers
Graham

[#7]

Just to keep you up to date; This looks like it is a MAX upgarde issue after all, though no one seems to know who or why a decision was made to upgrade a known extended reach line to MAX;
Vis message:

To: #############
Subject: PlusNet - Question has been amended or escalated

Your username: ################
A member of our Support Team has updated Question [number  ############ ], or has passed it to another department for further action.

The following comment was added to the Question
(INTERNAL)
message left for customer confirming engineer notes.
spoke to SMC who have now passed case to DSL Max Performance team to consider downgrade - awaiting response..
Regards,
A###############

[#8]

after an interminable wait, the line has been regraded to 512k ipstream; it still does not work.
PN now say waiting for a long line team to get involved.

[#9]

Hi there,
It is possible that a broadband service may not be possible on your telephone line.  the Long Line team will now investigate and will probably need to send out an engineer to test your line further to see if any service can be received.
I appreciate that the service did work in the past so hopefully they'll be able to locate the cause of the fault.
More updates as we get them though!

[#10]

wel lets hope they get on with it.
Any one have any idea why this kind of problem has taken over six weeks and is still not sorted out?

[#11]

At last the failure of my neighbours  ADSL service has been identified; a second BT engineer has decided the lines have been stretched by recent high winds causing a loss of electrical conductivity which has caused the ADSL service to fail.
They cant make up their minds whether or not to make any repairs as they cost about £20 per section.
Any one have any opinions on this, as to what we can do to restore a service?

[#12]

AND FINALLY: BT have replaced a small section of old physically damaged copper cable and 8 weeks later we have a working stable connection.
Why did it take them 8 weeks to find the fault?
Thanks BT.