Dead Phone

Bigjawa · 07-12-2003, 10:11

Been Having a problem with my NTL phone, when I pick it up, it's dead, no dialling tone, zilch, nada, nowt. Try another phone and the line is still dead. No nearby payphones so it's a pain in the backside when this happens, I phone NTL and they tell me there is nothing wrong, although when someone tries to phone me they get a message telling me that the line is temporarily unavailable.

Florence · 07-12-2003, 10:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigjawa

Been Having a problem with my NTL phone, when I pick it up, it's dead, no dialling tone, zilch, nada, nowt. Try another phone and the line is still dead. No nearby payphones so it's a pain in the backside when this happens, I phone NTL and they tell me there is nothing wrong, although when someone tries to phone me they get a message telling me that the line is temporarily unavailable.

Do you have a mobile if so call them when its dead using the mobile and ask them to call you back on your Land line if they say nothing is wrong. Remember to tell them that if you recieve no call back within a few hours you will assume that there is a fault and expect it sorted.

Log how often this happens and if you can see their green box watch for NTL activity at it. I do know of someone who kept being cut off at the box whenever they put a new customer on the service. She was always told there was nothing wrong yet was always back online that day.

paulyoung666 · 07-12-2003, 10:29

i suppose you have tried a different phone in the master socket , dont bite me head off if you have :p

Tricky · 07-12-2003, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigjawa

Been Having a problem with my NTL phone, when I pick it up, it's dead, no dialling tone, zilch, nada, nowt. Try another phone and the line is still dead. No nearby payphones so it's a pain in the backside when this happens, I phone NTL and they tell me there is nothing wrong, although when someone tries to phone me they get a message telling me that the line is temporarily unavailable.

I recently had SKY+ installed and the engineer installed an extension cable from my Sky+ box to my phone with a T connector, all was fine. After a few weeks suddenly I had the same as you. Found it to be the extension cable between the box and phone is faulty - Unplugged it and all was OK, waiting on Sky writing to me now as I'm not connected

So my suggestion - Unplug all your phones etc. Then plug one in to see if it works in each socket you have. If you cannot get it working try another phone in all sockets. If after this still no joy then report it back to NTL and insist an engineer visits you

th'engineer · 07-12-2003, 10:40

If you have a master socket unscrew the cover then plug into the main socket you will then have effectivley disconnected all your extensions .

If the phone then works could be a fault on your extensions

seaneeboy · 08-12-2003, 09:53

Big Jawa> Have you actually called Customer service (from your mobile) yet? I had the same thing the other day and they had an engineer out to fiddle with the green box (ooh er, missus) and re-connect me within 24 hours. I'm still a little stunned, but you never know, it might happen twice in one month...

Make sure you find a freephone number to use though!

Bigjawa · 08-12-2003, 17:32

I don't have a mobile (gasp!) and only have one socket in the house so it has to be NTL, actually, I kept a not of when it happened and it was always off when I came in from work at 5.15, usually on a Friday or Saturday night.

Fraggle911 · 02-02-2004, 12:02

Hi Folks

This seems to be a regular event for me, over the past few months I have reported out my phone to NTL at least 6 times! It just basically dies, in one way or another, either no dialtone, or it only rings once, or people can ring in but we can't ring out etc. After numerous visits from NTL engineeers, I have had (a selection of) the following bit's of advice/rectification: -
a) We've changed the pairs and it's working now Guv!
b) Try it without the extensions connected, that's bound to be the problem
c) It's showing as a short so we've changed the pairs, it's working now Guv!
d) We can't find a fault, but we've put your extensions back, see how this goes
e) We can't find a fault, but we've changed the pairs (Just how many pairs do they have in a two pair cable?), it's working now Guv, but we have disconnected the extensions, see how that goes!

Present situation is that all the extensions have been disconnected, the front of the master socket is off, and a known good phone is plugged in, the phone has been happily working for about 5 days (albeit with lots of noise on the line), when yesterday....you guessed it...no dialtone!!!

One thought that has been nagging through my addled grey cells, is that this only tends to happen when it rains heavily, therefore my conclusion is.....that somewhere on the line between the street cab, junction box and my house something is filling up with water, this shorts out my line, and the problem develops, of course, by the time that an NTL engineers gets there, the thing has dried up and the fault goes away

The obvious thing to do is contact NTL for another shouting session, but how on earth do I convince them that my observations of the problem are valid, I just want someone to put a new cable into the house, and make sure the connections at either end are water tight, want to bet that what I actually get is one of the above answers again?!!!

Sorry for going on, just needed to get that off my chest, when I can work up enough effort I'll call NTL again

Cheers

Fraggled Fraggle911

Fraggle911 · 04-02-2004, 10:37

Well, credit where credits due, an NTL engineer came to my house yesterday, he spent a long time trying to figure out what was wrong....but eventually found that the cable running through the garden, just near to the pavement connection acccess, had been damaged. He put a new, waterproofed splice in and everything seems good.....I'll see how it goes

Happy Fraggle