No phone service for 10 days (and counting)

[#1]

I have been without any phone service for 10 days (fault reported on Wednesday 18th December ref 197259059).

I have no dialtone so cannot make calls.  Also, people calling me don't get any indication there is a fault (they just hear ringtone at their end but I hear nothing at my end) so they just think I'm not bothering to answer their call.  

I have Internet via the phone line so there is connectivity back to the cabinet at least. 

Having previously worked designing phone systems for call centres, I cannot imagine a scenario where the restoration of service for a single phone line could possibly take so long.  Please could someone explain why I still have no service after 10 days?

Regards

Tim

[#2]

It's not rea;;y 10 working days though is it?

Hve you had any response on your ticket?

[#3]

I didn't say it was 10 working days I just said I'd had no service for 10 days.  It's still an awful long time to wait for a fix!

I had a response to say the estimated response time was 20th December.  I called again after that and was told a part needed to be ordered and it would take until the 27th to be fixed.  The 27th has come and gone and still I have no phone service 😞

[#4]

Thanks for your post @Tim100 

I'm sorry to see you've been without a phone service for a long time. I've been chasing this up with our suppliers and I've been advised that the relevant team who allocate the engineering resource out to faults are closed today.

I'm taking this on personally though which means I'll be chasing this up tomorrow within 'normal' working hours.

Once your phone is working again I'll make sure we refund anything you've paid for a service you've not had and offer you a gesture of goodwill for the inconvenience this has caused.

[#5]

Sorry to hear that, try 13 days and counting with NO working landline or broadband/Wi-Fi - and apparently OFCOM don't accept individual complaints from us customers left totally in the dark with no means of communication (except for expensive PAYG mobiles of which me and partner have had to spend a fortune on top-ups.) See below thread:

*Plusnet happy to leave family with a 3 yr old autistic child with no working landline or broadband?

[#6]

Hi @andyt1970,

Thanks for coming back to us.

I appreciate your comments and realise the situation is causing you concern. I have chased this up with Openreach and their engineers are working to get the fault repaired. As it is a major fault there is further work required so we will chase this up for you again tomorrow.

Thanks - LF

[#7]

OK.  So the last update I had was that they were going to fix it on 31st December 2019.  It's now 2nd January 2020 and I still have no phone service.  15 days with no phone service is totally unacceptable.  What could OpenReach possibly be doing that this takes over 2 weeks to fix - are they building a new telephone exchange?!

[#8]

Thanks for getting back to us @Tim100 

I’m sorry to see you’re still without a phone service. Unfortunately the long delay was due to engineer resourcing as opposed to a complicated fault although I’ve not been in the office since Monday so I’m unsure of the latest updates right now. Let me chase this up for you when I’m in the office from 10:30am this morning. 

[#9]

Morning @Tim100 in addition to engineer availability your fault is linked to another fault in your area which our suppliers are working on. I've chased this up now and I've been advised that an engineer is scheduled to investigate again this afternoon. We should know more tomorrow. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

[#10]

Hi @Tim100 Our suppliers have advised that your home phone service should now be working following an engineer carrying out work at the cabinet (The green box in the road) this morning. Are you able to confirm?

[#11]

Hi - yes, the engineer called at the house this morning.  The problem was down to a couple of corroded wires apparently (so I'm not sure what the previous feedback about waiting for parts was all about!).  The phone is now fixed although the Internet speed seems to be about half of what it was previously!  The line speed says -

11:47:10, 03 Jan.

( 132.320000) PPPoE is up -​ Down Rate=70983Kbps, Up Rate=19999Kbps; SNR Margin Down=6.0dB, Up=15.4dB

 but the actual download speed on a speed test only reaches about 28Mbps.  Is it being throttled / capped somewhere?

[#12 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for getting back to me @Tim100 

I've checked the engineer notes and I can't see any mention of parts being ordered. From the information we've been given, your fault was on hold as it was linked to a common fault in the area they've been working to fix.

With regards to your speeds, it looks like your they're being restricted by an old profile on your account. I've increased this profile now to reflect your new sync speed. Can you reboot your router then retest your speed?

[#13]

Thanks @Gandalf  - someone mentioned they had to order a part on one of the occasions I phoned up.  

The reboot of the router after the profile change seems to have brought the speeds back to normal.

Many thanks!

Tim

[#14]

No problem @Tim100 It's mystery regarding where the parts came into play but I'm happy to see this is resolved now nonetheless. I've just added a reply onto your support ticket with an offer for a goodwill gesture you'll be able to respond to by logging into your account and going Here.

Let us know if there's anything else you'd need help with.

[#15]

This seems to be the norm my phone line developed a fault on the 9th December. I checked all the usual things. Then reported the fault on the 10th a ticket was raised. Another ticket was raised on the 20th. I am sick of the online chat this problem as still not been resolved after 21days. We don't have the choice of using a mobile phone as we are in a black spot and have to drive 2 miles to use it.

it appears we are the mercy of plusnet and openreach and there is no we're to turn to for this appalling service.