Any help please on dead phone?

SilverLady · 25-09-2011, 17:31

Arrived home from holiday yesterday to find home phone completely dead. Have tried cordless phone, and 2 different corded phones in socket and still nothing. Tried taking extension phones out, still nothing. Problem is that people calling me get ringing tone and are able to leave messages, so think that I am getting these messages.

Virgin seem convinced that fault is with my telephone equipment and aren't sending out an engineer until Wednesday. Caller display on cordless phone shows last call coming in while I was away, as being on 18 September so I don't know how long phone has been dead for but I was expecting messages during the week.

For a couple of days before holiday, phone line crackled badly on occasions, but at other times was clear.

Is there anything else I can test at home?

nodrogd · 25-09-2011, 18:00

With all equipment disconnected from the extension sockets, unscrew the faceplate on the master socket. The faceplate will come right away, and on the corner of the backplate is a test socket. Plug your phone into that and see if there is a dial tone. If there is not, and I expect there won't be, the problem will either be the switch at the exchange (a 10 minute job) or a faulty drop cable. If it is the drop cable it is usually not an immediate fix unless the engineer can find another working pair in the same cable.

Kymmy · 25-09-2011, 18:27

or your phone is faulty..

Try what the other respondent says but also borrow another phone from a friend/relative and also try in the master socket. If both are dead then it's VM's fault, if both work then it's extension wiring and if your borrowed phone works only then it's your phone.

**Chris** · 25-09-2011, 18:32

The OP has already tried 3 different phones.

Kymmy · 25-09-2011, 18:41

Not in the master socket though..

SilverLady · 25-09-2011, 19:08

Thanks for info. I've now taken off the plate and tried 3 phones (2 corded and the base unit of the cordless phone into the test socket) - absolute silence. So I'll wait for the engineer's visit.

I do wonder if neighbour's repair has caused problem. House 2 doors down cut through their cable when doing gardening work and had a couple of visits from Virgin to repair cable. This was at the time that my phone was having bouts of crackling 10 days ago.

SiJ2000 · 26-09-2011, 17:44

Probably an engineer in the cabinet fixing the neighbour has knocked one of the wires out the phone frame.

SilverLady · 26-09-2011, 17:48

Thanks. I'll update here after the visit on Wednesday.

SiJ2000 · 27-09-2011, 08:24

Good luck

SilverLady · 28-09-2011, 09:50

Well, engineer has just been and phone is repaired.

He went straight to box along road and came back to house to say he had fixed a fault there, phone was OK now.

Despite having explained to Virgin that callers got ringing tone and could leave messages on 1571 but I couldn't access them, when I dialled up 1571 messages just now there was an automated one from Virgin timed yesterday, giving me a choice of buttons to press to say whether I still required engineer's visit or not. How could I get this message or reply when my phone was dead!!!

Anyway, thanks for replies and help.

FairyFairy · 28-09-2011, 10:03

Same way that you were told it was your phone that was faulty!!!

Glad it was sorted in the end.

This forum is great

Dilipshah · 06-10-2011, 19:38

my phone line 0208686**** is dead today 6th oct 2011

Kymmy · 06-10-2011, 20:01

Part of above phone number removed.

As this forum is not part of Virgin media we suggest that you either use a mobile, voip or another phone or use the official VM forums to report the fault.