Caller hears crackles...

[#1]

Hello all
I can't get my head round this...
We have no problems our end with the phone, but when people call us, they hear crackles when we talk, we hear no problems.
If we call them, it's all fine.
This is to various numbers - different parts of the country including local.
Can't say we've been made aware of it when caller uses a mobile.
We've had 4 engineers out - all tests are OK, one engineer switched the lines over at the exchange and a manhole outside the house onto spare pairs.
We're with John Lewis (provided by Plusnet).
They've been fairly patient - but seem to now be at the shoulder shrugging "Provide us with evidence" stage.
We're sick to death of trainee Openreach "it's fine because the machine says it's fine" engineers.
The problem persists - we're not making it up - it's a pain in the butt! 
Any ideas?

[#2]

This may be an obvious question but have you tried using a different telephone ?
I've got one here for emergencies but it also crackles (dodgy microphone) and is just about usable.

[#3]

Yep! Tried 2 different wired phones - even bought a new one,
tried using the test socket,
replaced all the cabling to the cordless phone,
replaced the faceplate (we use a filtered faceplate...)
Kept a log  of numbers, times and duration and when the caller started hearing crackles.... so I think I've done my bit!

[#4]

OK this is going to sound daft, but I've come across this before...
Have you got a beard?  The scratching of the mouth piece with a hairy chin can sound like crackles on the line to the other party...

[#5]

Nice idea! No though. Neither has the wife....

[#6]

If you've tried using the test socket and with a different phone and made the wife have a shave, you've done everything that you can do as a customer and if the problem persists under all of those conditions then you will have a faulty line.
Does your line go via an overhead pole or an underground path when it leaves the house ? Any worse on rainy or damp days ?

[#7]

It goes through the house wall, into a little grey box. The engineer who swapped pairs at the man hole replaced the cable from the grey box to the man hole which is underground, swapped to a spare pair in the man hole and then connect that pair to our number at the exchange - which is just up the road. I doubt its underground all the way - maybe as far as the road. (We're in a cul de sac.)
Hope that makes sense!

[#8]

Hi peeps,
I'm sorry to hear that people are hearing crackling when phoning your landline.
I've asked my colleague in the Faults team to investigate into this and it seems that this is a particularly tricky issue. I'm aware you've had various engineer's visits and they all say that there's no fault on the line, however, the issue still persists.
The only way that we can proceed now is to arrange for another engineer to attend and we've raised this to BT Openreach asking that the engineer contacts our Faults team directly before/whilst they're attending the premises to get a full description of what the issue is. Can you advise when we can get the visit booked in for this week and I'll pass this on to our Faults team for you?
Apologies for the inconvenience caused by this.

[#9]

Hello - engineer was booked for today - called and spoke to my wife. Said he had only been asked to check the line - and it was testing fine so he cancelled the visit. He did spend some time going through the problem, and seemed to think it was AOK on the BT side. He suggested it was probably a fault with Plusnet / JL equipment in the exchange. I didn't know there was any. He has suggested we switch off all electrical appliances in the house and try to see if there is interference. I had already tried switching off our router, and using a hard wired phone in the test socket - but will give it a go isolating all other equipment. He said his instructions were to check the line only.
It is awkward to do these checks as it's not every call - just most!

[#10]

Hi peeps,
Sorry to hear that the recent visit didn't improve things. However, I'm really not sure why the engineer has said that he was only asked to check the line.
I can see that you have updated the ticket with the same information, so I will be keeping an eye out and ensuring that our faults team pick up your issue ASAP.
Matty

[#11]

I have opened a new query - problem persists. It took us a while to get the time to do the "switch everything off" test that the last (non - visiting ) engineer suggested. Have now done this, and problem persists. Not a happy chappie!

[#12]

Hi peeps,
Sorry to hear the issue persists! I've updated Ticket: 93650000 with checks that you can perform and asked you to reply with your availability for an engineer's visit.
Let me know when you've updated the ticket or feel free to provide your availability on this post.

[#13]

Well, this now seems to have been fixed - shame it's taken since July, and 6 or so visits from Openreach to actually get it sorted! Turns out there was a resistance imbalance in the pair - why on earth this wasn't sorted 1st visit is anyones guess!

[#14]

Problems such as this can be particularly tricky to find, it doesn't help that they aren't the most common kind of fault. That said, I wouldn't expect it to take so many engineers to sort.
I'm pleased that the service is not fully working for you now for you, and I'm sure our faults team are looking into some sort of goodwill gesture.
Please let us know if we can help any further.
Tony