Noisy phone line impossible to hear what the other person is saying

[#1]

For quite a few weeks now my phone line has been crackling. Two or three weeks ago I was able to run the phone line checker, each time I ran it it said there were no problems. The phone is plugged into the house main socket, I have even replaced it with my original 30+ year old phone - one with a dial. I get the same problem. Yesterday the crackling was so bad that I couldn't tell if the ringing had stopped and there was someone on the other end. Today the phone line checker is not working at all, I am advised to report it as a fault. How? I can't report it by phone because of the noise. The Live Chat has been reconfigured to only allow interactions with new customers. This forum appears to be the only place to record my problem, and I don't know if any Plusnet staff will ever look at it. I am completely amazed that staff are not able to work from home where they will be completely safe from infection. Setting this sort of network up should be child's play to a telecoms company such as Plusnet. But evidently they are not capable of this, or they would surely have done it. Any potential new customers reading this - beware.

[#2]

I have the same problem, it makes my internet drop out and it's impossible to hear anyone on the landline. I have, like you tried phoning, but the call centre is closed. They won't fix your line for you.

You could do what I have done and change provider.

Now I am leaving, I get loads of emails and now a letter asking me to phone them.

Quote "We've got a team of helpful Plusnet advisors to answer anyquestions you have about leaving. Call us free on 0800 694 0016"

Why don't you call that number and tell them you are leaving unless they fix your line? If you want to stay with them of course.

I don't, as I have had so much trouble with Plusnet, I can't wait to leave. "We'll do you proud?" WALOB.

[#3]

---

@RichardEd wrote:

This forum appears to be the only place to record my problem, and I don't know if any Plusnet staff will ever look at it.

---

They do, as the forum is now the default customer/staff interface.

[#4]

Thanks for that info 198kHz. Do you have any idea of how long one has to wait before getting a response from Plusnet?

[#5]

@RichardEd 

A few days ago I'd have said up to three days, but looking round the forum more recently the system seems to be working better, albeit slower than we'd like.

They have to prioritise of course, but in the case of faults like yours, I'd expect a response in 24 hours or less. 🤞

EDIT:  Just realised, it's the weekend (time is strange now!), so bear that in mind.

[#6]

Somewhere in the following there will be a link to report a phone fault. Note you need to be logged into your PlusNet account.

www.plus.net/help/

Brian

[#7]

Thanks Brian, I've just tried the phone line checker again, and this time it has worked - only to tell me that there is no problem. And yet I try the phone and the crackling is still there - although not as loud as it sometimes is.  However, I can't find a page to report the fault, so I guess I have to wait until this thread is noticed.

[#8]

Hi @RichardEd, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you're hearing noise on your line currently. I've run several checks our side and we aren't detecting any underlying issues at the moment. I'd advise then if you haven't already to check out some of the phone troubleshoot steps below which you may not have done yet to help narrow down what's the cause of the issue.

I'd recommend starting with the basic checks which can be seen here:
https://www.plus.net/help/phone/phone-line-troubleshooting/

If the problem persists then the next thing would be to rule your internal wiring out by plugging the connection into your test socket which is under the face plate of your master socket and seeing if the noise stops. This rules out internal wiring, face plates and extension sockets as being the cause. How to locate the test socket and set your connection into it can be found here:
https://community.plus.net/t5/Library/Testing-From-The-Master-Socket/ba-p/1322242
If both your phone and broadband being plugged into the test socket with a filter is still causing noise then I'd advise removing the filter and trying solely just the phone to see if the issue persists.


If the problem still persists from here we will go down the route of raising a fault. Let us know how it goes.

[#9]

Thanks for your reply Ben. I've just checked the line, and at the moment the crackling has disappeared - it is OK. I will wait until the noise re-appears then I'll go through the various tests you recommend. This is the first time it has been OK, there have been no changes made to the line configurations. I'll check it every few hours and come back to you later. Richard

[#10]

I have more information about my problem. I have been trying the land line every day since Monday. It was only yesterday (Thursday) that the crackling noise returned. It appears that about one in three attempts will give crackling, another one in three times - after the number has been dialled, it doesn't ring, just returns to the dialling code. And the other one in three is OK. I then opened the master socket and plugged the phone directly into the test socket, and also disconnected the cable to the router, so it was just a single line to the land line phone. The crackling noise was still present, in about a third of the calls as mentioned above. Incidentally, I don’t think there is any problem with my broadband - whenever I have tested my broadband speed it is as expected round about 38M bits So I think this rules out a problem with the equipment in my house. When I went for my daily walk in the afternoon I met a couple of neighbours. When I asked how they were coping they said fine, apart from being frustrated trying to make phone calls. It turns out that they have had exactly the same problems as I have, with only a third of their calls being OK. Their phone line comes from the adjacent overhead pole to mine. On returning home, another neighbour was outside. It turns out that she too has the same problem; her phone line comes from the same pole as mine. So this suggests to me that there is a problem somewhere on the lines between our village and the exchange – which is about 3 miles away.

[#11]

Hi @RichardEd,

Thank you for taking your time to get in touch.

I am very sorry that you are having a problem with our service. As my response contains account sensitive information this is not something I can provide over this platform. I have created a support question on your account with the answer and you are able to respond to this. You can view this on the following link. https://www.plus.net/wizard/?p=view_question&id=201151025

Kind regards,

Josh.