Ringtone, but no inbound/outbound calls

[krs]

My telephone 'appears' to be working, but cannot make outgoing or receive incoming calls. I say 'appears' because there is a dialing tone, but...

• Anyone phoning my number simply gets a continuous dull tone
• Any attempt to dial out is met with a "number not recognized" message

This latter problem has a few variations.

• Dialling a local number - the error message happens after the first digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '0' - the error happens after the seventh digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '1' - the error happens after the fourth digit

The telephone was working fine on Wednesday last week. On Thursday morning it started showing these symptoms. On Thursday morning we contacted Virgin who promised an engineer on Friday morning between 0800-1200 (with a penalty charge if there was no-one in when they arrived) ...but having stayed in all morning (until 1300) no-one arrived from Virgin, so perhaps they should be paying the penalty charge to us?

On top of this is the £70 advert we placed in the local paper for the week, yet we have no way of knowing whether anyone has tried responding to it because the phone is out of action and Virgin did not turn up to fix it when they promised.

So...

1. How do we actually get Virgin to really turn up and really fix the fault?
2. What compensation do we receive for not receiving a phone service for which we have been paying, for the engineer not turning up, and for the 'dead' advert in the paper?

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by krs

My telephone 'appears' to be working, but cannot make outgoing or receive incoming calls. I say 'appears' because there is a dialing tone, but...

• Anyone phoning my number simply gets a continuous dull tone
• Any attempt to dial out is met with a "number not recognized" message

This latter problem has a few variations.

• Dialling a local number - the error message happens after the first digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '0' - the error happens after the seventh digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '1' - the error happens after the fourth digit

The telephone was working fine on Wednesday last week. On Thursday morning it started showing these symptoms. On Thursday morning we contacted Virgin who promised an engineer on Friday morning between 0800-1200 (with a penalty charge if there was no-one in when they arrived) ...but having stayed in all morning (until 1300) no-one arrived from Virgin, so perhaps they should be paying the penalty charge to us?

On top of this is the £70 advert we placed in the local paper for the week, yet we have no way of knowing whether anyone has tried responding to it because the phone is out of action and Virgin did not turn up to fix it when they promised.

So...

1. How do we actually get Virgin to really turn up and really fix the fault?
2. What compensation do we receive for not receiving a phone service for which we have been paying, for the engineer not turning up, and for the 'dead' advert in the paper?

Hi,

Sounds like you have been cut off from what you are saying.. have you spoken to customer care on 150? There could be a billing issue that you seem unaware of?

I'm suprised faults didn't notice this... the tech would have been cancelled as they do not attend while there is a restriction.

You should still be able to call 150.

If it turns out to be a fault, then you will be refunded for the line rental for the days without service, from the day you report to the day fixed.

VM do not pay / will not pay for your "dead advert" - this is in the terms of service.

HTH

[krs]

Cannot dial 150.

Just spent 20 minutes on the helpline. 'Faults' shunted me over to 'Customer Services', who then returned the favour and shunted me back to 'Faults', who have made a fresh appointment for a new technician to come this afternoon.

Cannot see how billing could be an issue - payments by DD, and the TV and Internet are still connected.

Did almost move to Sky back in January, but that move was cancelled and the phone never went out of action at all during that period - no number porting took place (Sky's rep had provided a different pricing structure over the phone from what was written on the contract, which was not acceptable and was misleading for us). And anyway, that was some 7 weeks ago.

So by the end of today we will have spent an entire day waiting for Virgin technicians to come and fix the fault (assuming someone does actually turn up at the door).

[Pauls9]

have you tried a different phone, to eliminate the possibility of the phone itself being at fault? Or tried your phone on another line...

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by krs

Cannot dial 150.

Just spent 20 minutes on the helpline. 'Faults' shunted me over to 'Customer Services', who then returned the favour and shunted me back to 'Faults', who have made a fresh appointment for a new technician to come this afternoon.

Cannot see how billing could be an issue - payments by DD, and the TV and Internet are still connected.

Did almost move to Sky back in January, but that move was cancelled and the phone never went out of action at all during that period - no number porting took place (Sky's rep had provided a different pricing structure over the phone from what was written on the contract, which was not acceptable and was misleading for us). And anyway, that was some 7 weeks ago.

So by the end of today we will have spent an entire day waiting for Virgin technicians to come and fix the fault (assuming someone does actually turn up at the door).

Did they say why the tech didn't attend? You have tried another handset already haven't you?

Hope it get sorted for you.. very unusual fault... that's what made me think there was a restriction of some kind on the line... did Faults check to make sure ther were no restrictions on the line?

[krs]

Well, the saga is cleared up at a practical level, and thanks to those who've responded. Just for info...

The short story is - the phone line was being handled by BT, and it was they who cancelled the service.

The long story:
The phone contract was with Virgin, and has been for about 10 years. In January we began the transfer process to become Sky customers, and Sky instructed BT to connect a BT landline (which Sky would then use). The BT engineer connected the BT landline to the Virgin terminal. But before the day was out, we cancelled the Sky contract because it had been misleadingly represented, and were assured that all our services were back with Virgin.

We've been paying Virgin for TV, internet and telephone (as previously) and, when we checked, were reassured that Virgin were supplying our telephone service. Last week BT decided for some reason (perhaps Sky had not paid them?) to cancel our BT phone line - the one we never knew we had, and for which we had not paid. And since then, Virgin - whom we have paid have dealt with our queries without ever noticing that we did not have an active phone connection with them. They had our money, but would have no incoming/outgoing calls on our log at all. It wasn't until an engineer did attend on site that the BT factor came to light and is now being resolved (eventually we'll get our old number back).

So the curiosities in the tale...

1. Why could Virgin not notice that we had no phone service supplied by them when we spoke to them? Surely someone woudl have noticed that their tests on the line status were actually being directed at a number which they did not control, down an inactive cable?
2. Why did 'Faults' send us to 'Customer Services' who then sent us back to 'Faults' - do the people in the company not know who handles which aspect of their work?
3. Why did an engineer attend today, but not attend on Friday?
4. Why did BT supply our number when we had concelled the contract, and why did Virgin assure us they were supplying our telephone connection when, in fact, they were not?

...no need to answer those questions - I'm just highlighting some of the things that are odd about the whole scenario.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by krs

Well, the saga is cleared up at a practical level, and thanks to those who've responded. Just for info...

The short story is - the phone line was being handled by BT, and it was they who cancelled the service.

The long story:
The phone contract was with Virgin, and has been for about 10 years. In January we began the transfer process to become Sky customers, and Sky instructed BT to connect a BT landline (which Sky would then use). The BT engineer connected the BT landline to the Virgin terminal. But before the day was out, we cancelled the Sky contract because it had been misleadingly represented, and were assured that all our services were back with Virgin.

We've been paying Virgin for TV, internet and telephone (as previously) and, when we checked, were reassured that Virgin were supplying our telephone service. Last week BT decided for some reason (perhaps Sky had not paid them?) to cancel our BT phone line - the one we never knew we had, and for which we had not paid. And since then, Virgin - whom we have paid have dealt with our queries without ever noticing that we did not have an active phone connection with them. They had our money, but would have no incoming/outgoing calls on our log at all. It wasn't until an engineer did attend on site that the BT factor came to light and is now being resolved (eventually we'll get our old number back).

So the curiosities in the tale...

1. Why could Virgin not notice that we had no phone service supplied by them when we spoke to them? Surely someone woudl have noticed that their tests on the line status were actually being directed at a number which they did not control, down an inactive cable?
2. Why did 'Faults' send us to 'Customer Services' who then sent us back to 'Faults' - do the people in the company not know who handles which aspect of their work?
3. Why did an engineer attend today, but not attend on Friday?
4. Why did BT supply our number when we had concelled the contract, and why did Virgin assure us they were supplying our telephone connection when, in fact, they were not?

...no need to answer those questions - I'm just highlighting some of the things that are odd about the whole scenario.

Glad it's getting sorted now... one thing springs to mind... BT disconnected the VM terminal in the house and you cancelled, but you expected that BT terminal to now provide the VM phone line? Am I reading that right?

Sounds like you cancelled too late and the number ported to BT.... once a terminal is fitted your number has usually ported.

Sky messed up as they allowed your number to continue to port.

VM messed up as they should have noticed your number had ported to BT/Sky... faults probably transfered you to Customer Care as they didn't understand what was on your account regarding the porting of your number.

Glad it's getting sorted for you now

[krs]

DigitalFanatic - Not quite reading it right. BT did something outside the house, adding their wires to the Virgin box on the inside of the wall. So the socket, as far as I was concerned, was the Virgin socket inside the house. Had it been a new/different box, that would have been more obvious (!) ...but the one internal box is physically wired to both BT and Virgin.

Anyway, not long now.... (he says, hopefully)

[piggy]

Originally Posted by krs

My telephone 'appears' to be working, but cannot make outgoing or receive incoming calls. I say 'appears' because there is a dialing tone, but...

• Anyone phoning my number simply gets a continuous dull tone
• Any attempt to dial out is met with a "number not recognized" message

This latter problem has a few variations.

• Dialling a local number - the error message happens after the first digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '0' - the error happens after the seventh digit
• Dialling a number beginning with '1' - the error happens after the fourth digit

The telephone was working fine on Wednesday last week. On Thursday morning it started showing these symptoms. On Thursday morning we contacted Virgin who promised an engineer on Friday morning between 0800-1200 (with a penalty charge if there was no-one in when they arrived) ...but having stayed in all morning (until 1300) no-one arrived from Virgin, so perhaps they should be paying the penalty charge to us?

On top of this is the £70 advert we placed in the local paper for the week, yet we have no way of knowing whether anyone has tried responding to it because the phone is out of action and Virgin did not turn up to fix it when they promised.

So...

1. How do we actually get Virgin to really turn up and really fix the fault?
2. What compensation do we receive for not receiving a phone service for which we have been paying, for the engineer not turning up, and for the 'dead' advert in the paper?

looking at this from another angle


what compensation do virgin get for fixing a fault that was caused by the customer/third party.

[krs]

Virgin would surely charge the customer for fixing a fault caused by the customer. However this case has just shown up a new fact. It was Sky who cut off the phone on 11th March ! Even though I had cancelled Sky talk end of January, and reenstated Virgin phone at that time. Even checked twice with Virgin to ensure I had a Virgin line in early February they assured me that I had. I naturally called out the Virgin engineers to fix what I thought was a Virgin fault on their line. Turns out Sky couldn't have done as requested ! Even now when talking to Virgin they are not aware that they are providing my phone line. BT tell me they are not supplying my line. Sky are no longer supplying telephone. I have no idea what is going on at the moment !!

[calmpitbull]

It sounds to me that BT illegally used the virgin wiring and socket to provide their service over inside the house. BT should have provided separate internal wiring and socket so you should have had 2 sockets next to each other (one sky/bt and one VM).

VM could not know that their line was disconnected outside the house unless you tell them, as BT openreach used their wiring then you wouldn't have clicked on so as far as VM was concerned their was no problem.

If this is the case then a complaint should be made to SKY (your service provider for the phone) who should then take this up with openreach as their engineer should have done the install properly rather than just nicking VM's internal wiring and socket for a quicker job.

[krs]

Good job i'm retired as I recon I must have spent about three whole days on this saga. I have sent a very strong letter to the Customer Marketing Director of Sky, as it is he who sent a letter dated the 12 March telling me they were disconecting on the 11th !! ( I received the letter on the 19th ! ) You are right Sky / Openreach did use the Virgin input box ( presume that was not legal ! )

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by krs

Good job i'm retired as I recon I must have spent about three whole days on this saga. I have sent a very strong letter to the Customer Marketing Director of Sky, as it is he who sent a letter dated the 12 March telling me they were disconecting on the 11th !! ( I received the letter on the 19th ! ) You are right Sky / Openreach did use the Virgin input box ( presume that was not legal ! )

Yep, not legal... VM & BT can't touch each others 'phone socket, they have to install their own socket.

This is what I was getting at earlier in the thread

[krs]

Latest, 23:37hrs Mon 22 March. Now my new temporary number has gone dead. I have no phone line at all now. Lost the connection sometime this afternoon. Rang Virgin customer care off my mobile to report it, call went through to India but they could not help they told me they didnt have access to the data base ! advised me to phone customer relations tommorrow. It will have to be my mobile again ! I could write a book on this.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by krs

Latest, 23:37hrs Mon 22 March. Now my new temporary number has gone dead. I have no phone line at all now. Lost the connection sometime this afternoon. Rang Virgin customer care off my mobile to report it, call went through to India but they could not help they told me they didnt have access to the data base ! advised me to phone customer relations tommorrow. It will have to be my mobile again ! I could write a book on this.

There was a system outage today for CSR's.. call 0845 454 1111 and select telco faults, when you get through ask the, to call you on the mobile (they will probably offer anyway) while you speak to them.