Not receiving incoming calls

[#1]

Hello,

I am not able to receive incoming calls, when I pick up the receiver I hear the engaged tone. 

When someone calls me they hear the message "The person you are calling is temporarily unavailable, please try later".

I noticed this yesterday late afternoon and thought I would see it sorts itself out by this morning, no luck.

I can make outgoing calls and the Broadband internet is working.

I am using a BT500 Advanced call blocker, so I tried the old fashioned telephone and when I call either phone I get the same message.

I now have the telephone in the main socket in the hallway by taking the face plate off but this has not sorted the problem out.

I will try to call customer services but they are not open yet.

[#2]

assuming phone service with PN, try:

http://www.plus.net/help/phone/phone-line-troubleshooting/

[#3]

Thanks for the reply Gel.

Yes my phone service is with PN.

I did call customer services and spoke to a helpful person.

He ran a line test and it showed no faults.

I asked if he could please telephone my landline number, which he did and it did ring so I said I would like to try a few things before arranging for an engineer.

I use a BT8500 Advanced call blocker and set it so that withheld numbers go to answerphone, this works correctly.

My mobile number is withheld and so is the friends landline that has been trying to call me, when we prefix the number with 1470 and dial my landline number we get the message "We regret this service is temporarily unavailable".

This did not used to happen.

I now have an ordinary phone plugged in and still have the same problem if the 1470 prefix is used.

I assume the settings from the BT500 once unplugged will not affect an ordinary telephone.

Has anyone please got any suggestions on what might be the problem and what I can do to be able to let withheld numbers getting through by using the 1470 prefix?

[#4]

Hi, it sounds like a exchange equipment fault, you could try dialling 17070 to confirm the line ID, when you report it to your service provider they should test the line and try ringing your number, they then can confirm the fault and should report it to openreach. 

HTH

edit:  sorry, you posted when I was replying,

you also did not mention it was just a problem between you and just another number,as you say you need to do some investigating.

[#5]

Hello
I'm not in the office atm so I can't check but do you have our anonymous call reject feature on your line?
That could explain why withheld numbers are being rejected even when you use a standard handset.

[#6]

Thanks for the reply 2u2me,

Sorry for the confusion I may have caused, the fault is when anyone who has a withheld telephone number tries to call me when I have either the BT500 or an old fashioned telephone plugged in.

If they just dial my telephone number my telephone will ring, if they use the 1470 prefix they get the "We regret this service is temporarily unavailable".

[#7]

That still sounds like a fault TBH. Dialling 1470 should not block the call.

[#8]

Thanks for the reply Anoush,

I signed into my account and looked in "Account summary" "Call features" and it appears what I have is,

Included, 1471, 141, Voicemail (1571), Ringback (10p per use), Reminder call (15p per use), Conference calling (40p per use)

Extras, Caller Display,Voicemail  (I pay for this as I understand it is needed for use of the BT500).

[#9]

Thanks for the reply Lurch,

It was working fine as my Mother who withholds her telephone number calls me weekly, the last time was on the 25th of June 2016 and she got through to me using the 1470 prefix. I had not played around or moved my telephone in the meantime so not sure why I have this problem now.

[#10]

---

greengrass wrote:

I signed into my account and looked in "Account summary" "Call features" and it appears what I have is,

Included, 1471, 141, Voicemail (1571), Ringback (10p per use), Reminder call (15p per use), Conference calling (40p per use)

Extras, Caller Display,Voicemail  (I pay for this as I understand it is needed for use of the BT500).

---

It doesn't look like anonymous call reject is active, however, very occasionally, call features that are active don't show on your account. I'll check the features on your line for you first thing Monday morning.

Other than this, I'd probably suggest going for the engineer as a standard phone handset in your test socket (removing the faceplate) shouldn't cause incoming withheld numbers to be blocked.

[#11]

Thanks for the reply Anoush.

Just for your information I have tried a 3rd telephone in the BT master socket and have the same issue so it does not appear to be a problem with my telephone equipment.

Very kind of you to offer to look into it Monday morning.

No rush because I can make outgoing calls and use the internet.

All the best

[#12]

I've had a look at your account/phone asset and can confirm that Anonymous call reject isn't active on the line.

If you've been through all the troubleshooting steps, it's probably best to proceed with raising a fault.

[#13]

HarryB thank-you for looking at my account and confirming that Anonymous call reject isn't active.

My friend is able to call me now from her landline using the prefix 1470 and I also asked if another friend could call me and it worked so it seems to be back to normal now.

I will get them to test it from time to time and if the problem comes back will raise a fault.

Thanks again for your time.

[#14]

Glad to hear it's working now, although I'm still not sure what was causing the problem.