All Hung Up

[Barewolf]

Hi

Someone rang our house phone last night and didnt answer, whoever it was didnt put the phone down and now everytime we try to use the house phone, it bleeps.

If the person still hasnt used the phone, it means were still connected.

How can i disconnect the phone from the person that rang us?

Ive tried unplugging at the socket, nothing i've tried works.

Also tried ringing people we know from mobile to see if its them, no luck there.

[heero_yuy]

You'll need to contact your telecomms provider so they can trace the call and cancel it. You cannot cancel a received call, only the caller or provider can.

[Barewolf]

well thats stupid, what if there was an emergency and we didnt have a mobile phone?

they should have a number you can dial from your house phone to cancel a call. idjites

[heero_yuy]

I agree, it's pretty daft but it's historical:

The local exchange automatically senses an off hook (tip) telephone condition, provides dial tone to that phone, receives the pulses or DTMF tones generated by the phone, and then completes a connection to the called phone within the same exchange or to another distant exchange.

The exchange then maintains the connection until a party hangs up, and the connection is disconnected. This tracking of a connection's status is called supervision. Additional features, such as billing equipment, may also be incorporated into the exchange.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange#Electromechanical_signaling

I think with modern exchanges it is possible to put a call on hold and dial a new connection but they charge for things like that.

[Graham M]

What bleeps?

[nomadking]

Would temporarily disconnecting your phone(s) work?

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Barewolf

they should have a number you can dial from your house phone to cancel a call. idjites

What would be the point of having a number you can call from the line to report it as blocked, when you can't use the line because it's blocked?

As with many faults calls, the nature of the beast is, you need to use a different phone to call it in. Either use your mobile or talk to your neighbours.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Would temporarily disconnecting your phone(s) work?

No. It's really no different to hanging up. The hold is a function of the exchange. It's this that scammers are using to convince people that their phone service is to be disconnected unless they give out their credit card details to settle a non-existant outstanding bill.

By demonstarating that they "can cut you off" people are being conned.

[Acathla]

Play some Celine Dion very loadly down the line - they will hang up after that!

[Fingy]

It's still picking up some noise on the line, disconnect all your phones from their sockets for at least 10 minutes and this should disconnect the call.

[candy1567]

Hi there

disconnecting your phone doens't work, ive had this recently and had to call VM from my mobile so they can disconnect the call.

BUT try explaining that to offshore, oh the joys it was lol

got it sorted but had to ring back and speak to uk call centre

juliexx

[Hom3r]

If this happens to anybody else try hang up button (Or what ever its called) quickly, I did this when we had a recorded message that wouldn't go away even after hanging up.

[Halcyon]

You would think there would be some kind of timeout period and then it hangs up ?

[Fingy]

Originally Posted by candy1567

Hi there

disconnecting your phone doens't work, ive had this recently and had to call VM from my mobile so they can disconnect the call.

BUT try explaining that to offshore, oh the joys it was lol

got it sorted but had to ring back and speak to uk call centre

juliexx

The only way I am aware that VM could disconnect the call would be either for your number to be removed from the switch and re-added (no way 1st line could do that) or to send a tech out. Have helped multiple people in the past by recommeding disconnecting their phones, as I said, it 'should' help.