How the fk do I get intermittent phone line fault resolved?
Discussion
I've got a problem with my phone line. Every so often my Internet connection goes super slow. If I run a speed test it'll be anything between 0.40MBPS to maybe 1.5MBPS (normal speed hovers around 5MBPS). At the same time, if I try the phone it is very crackly. More often than not it resolves itself within a few minutes, other times it stays like it for anything up to an hour. It is most frustrating. Sometimes it goes days with no problem, other times the fault will manifest itself several times in an afternoon.
I'm with EE and obviously I've called their fault line. In fairness, they answer promptly and seem keen to help. But they've got a script to follow (again, fair enough). Anyway, over various calls we've tried all sorts of permutations from plugging the router directly into the 'test' socket (behind the main socket) to different wifi 'channels', different phone sockets, all sorts of stuff. Always with the same result that after about 3/4 hour on the phone they pronounce that they've run another test and all is well. Well of course it is, it's an intermittent fault! If you wait long enough without doing anything eventually it will appear 'fixed'.
Eventually they sent an engineer to the house. He ran some tests, thought he'd found some corroded wires, reckoned that was the fault (it was all he could find wrong), cleaned them up and all was well. For a day or two... Then it went back to as before.
More calls 'let me test the line, I've made some adjustments, all is well now, goodbye'. No change.
Today she tested the line and pronounced there was nothing wrong with the line (computer says so) so must be a broadband issue. I tried (again!) to explain what an intermittent fault was - ie at the point they tested, the fault might not have been present, that doesn't mean there is never any issue. Deaf ears.
We have another engineer coning to the house. I asked what they expected this engineer to find that the last one couldn't - they have to follow the procedure apparently.
REALLY getting to the end of my tether on this. I totally understand that intermittent faults are a nightmare to diagnose, but running the same tests over and over and sending an engineer to the house to check and find all okay isn't going to do it.
My money is on a fault on the line somewhere externally. We've tried so many permutations of phones and kit inside the house, all of which has made zero difference, and we've had an engineer to the house who's found nothing (beyond a bit of corrosion that proved not to be the problem - since his cleaning it made no long term difference), that I struggle to believe the issue is here.
But how the hell do I get them to resolve it? Every call takes the best part of an hour and involves going through the same scripted dance.
Anyone had any luck with this sort of thing or got any suggestions?
I'm with EE and obviously I've called their fault line. In fairness, they answer promptly and seem keen to help. But they've got a script to follow (again, fair enough). Anyway, over various calls we've tried all sorts of permutations from plugging the router directly into the 'test' socket (behind the main socket) to different wifi 'channels', different phone sockets, all sorts of stuff. Always with the same result that after about 3/4 hour on the phone they pronounce that they've run another test and all is well. Well of course it is, it's an intermittent fault! If you wait long enough without doing anything eventually it will appear 'fixed'.
Eventually they sent an engineer to the house. He ran some tests, thought he'd found some corroded wires, reckoned that was the fault (it was all he could find wrong), cleaned them up and all was well. For a day or two... Then it went back to as before.
More calls 'let me test the line, I've made some adjustments, all is well now, goodbye'. No change.
Today she tested the line and pronounced there was nothing wrong with the line (computer says so) so must be a broadband issue. I tried (again!) to explain what an intermittent fault was - ie at the point they tested, the fault might not have been present, that doesn't mean there is never any issue. Deaf ears.
We have another engineer coning to the house. I asked what they expected this engineer to find that the last one couldn't - they have to follow the procedure apparently.
REALLY getting to the end of my tether on this. I totally understand that intermittent faults are a nightmare to diagnose, but running the same tests over and over and sending an engineer to the house to check and find all okay isn't going to do it.
My money is on a fault on the line somewhere externally. We've tried so many permutations of phones and kit inside the house, all of which has made zero difference, and we've had an engineer to the house who's found nothing (beyond a bit of corrosion that proved not to be the problem - since his cleaning it made no long term difference), that I struggle to believe the issue is here.
But how the hell do I get them to resolve it? Every call takes the best part of an hour and involves going through the same scripted dance.
Anyone had any luck with this sort of thing or got any suggestions?
marshalla said:
Don't complain about the broadband, complain about the quality of the voice line to whoever is your voice provider, that way you'll bypass the whole test socket and remote testing nonsense.
That's genius! Why didn't I think of that? 
I guess it's because it's the Internet that I have the issue with - I rarely use the landline (except to complain about it!)
Ari said:
marshalla said:
Don't complain about the broadband, complain about the quality of the voice line to whoever is your voice provider, that way you'll bypass the whole test socket and remote testing nonsense.
That's genius! Why didn't I think of that? I guess it's because it's the Internet that I have the issue with - I rarely use the landline (except to complain about it!)
marshalla said:
In fairness, it took me a few month to realise that that is the way to handle it - but it worked for me. My fault was even harder to prove, btw. It only appeared when it was raining. Ever tried to get someone to run a test when it's raining at your premises rather than at theirs ?
Interestingly, I had a theory that mine was worse in bad weather - but it's warm and dry today and still flipping playing up! 
Blimey had the same problem since early December rang sky about broadband dropping several times a day and s
t slow to boot.Worse in damp weather.People on the phone doing test after test.Had sky lads visit they changed the router(Didn't work).Had first Openreach chap he tested line said yep faulty will go have a look at the exchange.Never to be seen again and fault persisted.Then today yureka second Openreach chap came and put a test on the line with a big yellow machine which told him there was a fault on the line 159m away.So we both walked the line and hey presto there was the problem.The line was snagged on a tree branch and the local bd squirrels have been munching on it.Good luck.
t slow to boot.Worse in damp weather.People on the phone doing test after test.Had sky lads visit they changed the router(Didn't work).Had first Openreach chap he tested line said yep faulty will go have a look at the exchange.Never to be seen again and fault persisted.Then today yureka second Openreach chap came and put a test on the line with a big yellow machine which told him there was a fault on the line 159m away.So we both walked the line and hey presto there was the problem.The line was snagged on a tree branch and the local bd squirrels have been munching on it.Good luck.ghamer said:
Blimey had the same problem since early December rang sky about broadband dropping several times a day and st slow to boot.Worse in damp weather.People on the phone doing test after test.Had sky lads visit they changed the router(Didn't work).Had first Openreach chap he tested line said yep faulty will go have a look at the exchange.Never to be seen again and fault persisted.Then today yureka second Openreach chap came and put a test on the line with a big yellow machine which told him there was a fault on the line 159m away.So we both walked the line and hey presto there was the problem.The line was snagged on a tree branch and the local bd squirrels have been munching on it.Good luck.
We had a similar problem and again it was the second Openreach chap who came along with an old school bit of kit that pinpointed the fault down to an exact distance down the cable to a decomposing cable join.t slow to boot.Worse in damp weather.People on the phone doing test after test.Had sky lads visit they changed the router(Didn't work).Had first Openreach chap he tested line said yep faulty will go have a look at the exchange.Never to be seen again and fault persisted.Then today yureka second Openreach chap came and put a test on the line with a big yellow machine which told him there was a fault on the line 159m away.So we both walked the line and hey presto there was the problem.The line was snagged on a tree branch and the local bd squirrels have been munching on it.Good luck.OP, insist on an openreach person coming equipped with a proper line tester.
Plug a phone in to test socket using a known good filter.
Dial 17070 or 14717070 if ex directory
You will get an automated machine that will give you the number of the line you are ringing from
The robot will offer either a ringback test or a quiet line test.
Choose quiet line,and what you should get is silence,the machine occasionally says "quiet line"
Listen for noise or crackling,if you have not used a filter you may well hear the broadband hiss on the line.
If there is any noise it is normally indicative of either moisture in the line,or a bad connection which probably works better when wet.
Make sure if you have a flush master socket in a metal back box that everything hasn't gone green in there.
If you get any of these symptoms you will need an Openreach line man to fix it, the call centre in Mumbai cannot repair this by fiddling with the bandwidth.
He will need to work back from you socket to the street cabinet to eliminate the issue. The line from the exchange to the green street box is either fibre or air pressurised cables which will not be affected by water.
Most importantly, make the Openreach guy or girl welcome, offer some tea and do not have a go at them because they have to work for the most uselessly incompetent company on earth. They are foot soldiers it is not their fault they didn't get passed your job the last three times you stayed in all day for no one to show.
Dial 17070 or 14717070 if ex directory
You will get an automated machine that will give you the number of the line you are ringing from
The robot will offer either a ringback test or a quiet line test.
Choose quiet line,and what you should get is silence,the machine occasionally says "quiet line"
Listen for noise or crackling,if you have not used a filter you may well hear the broadband hiss on the line.
If there is any noise it is normally indicative of either moisture in the line,or a bad connection which probably works better when wet.
Make sure if you have a flush master socket in a metal back box that everything hasn't gone green in there.
If you get any of these symptoms you will need an Openreach line man to fix it, the call centre in Mumbai cannot repair this by fiddling with the bandwidth.
He will need to work back from you socket to the street cabinet to eliminate the issue. The line from the exchange to the green street box is either fibre or air pressurised cables which will not be affected by water.
Most importantly, make the Openreach guy or girl welcome, offer some tea and do not have a go at them because they have to work for the most uselessly incompetent company on earth. They are foot soldiers it is not their fault they didn't get passed your job the last three times you stayed in all day for no one to show.
I had this. Turned out to be a dodgy joint in the overhead line that was only evident when the wind was moving the cable
Took 3 visits to get it dealt with
A determined openreach guy who came out on a windy day and experienced it directly fixed it: temporary fix to swap the line onto another pair, then proper fix a couple of weeks later replacing the overhead line completely for over 1.5km
Took 3 visits to get it dealt with
A determined openreach guy who came out on a windy day and experienced it directly fixed it: temporary fix to swap the line onto another pair, then proper fix a couple of weeks later replacing the overhead line completely for over 1.5km
bristolracer said:
Plug a phone in to test socket using a known good filter.
Dial 17070 or 14717070 if ex directory
You will get an automated machine that will give you the number of the line you are ringing from
The robot will offer either a ringback test or a quiet line test.
Choose quiet line,and what you should get is silence,the machine occasionally says "quiet line"
Listen for noise or crackling,if you have not used a filter you may well hear the broadband hiss on the line.
If there is any noise it is normally indicative of either moisture in the line,or a bad connection which probably works better when wet.
Make sure if you have a flush master socket in a metal back box that everything hasn't gone green in there.
If you get any of these symptoms you will need an Openreach line man to fix it, the call centre in Mumbai cannot repair this by fiddling with the bandwidth.
He will need to work back from you socket to the street cabinet to eliminate the issue. The line from the exchange to the green street box is either fibre or air pressurised cables which will not be affected by water.
Most importantly, make the Openreach guy or girl welcome, offer some tea and do not have a go at them because they have to work for the most uselessly incompetent company on earth. They are foot soldiers it is not their fault they didn't get passed your job the last three times you stayed in all day for no one to show.
MOST IMPORTANTLY- do not divulge that you have called 17070. And under no circumstances look for a line test as he results are recorded, and will indicate ( if looked at closer) that some non BT person has accessed the test network- and BT managers do not like this. ( Well the bolshie ones anyway). Dial 17070 or 14717070 if ex directory
You will get an automated machine that will give you the number of the line you are ringing from
The robot will offer either a ringback test or a quiet line test.
Choose quiet line,and what you should get is silence,the machine occasionally says "quiet line"
Listen for noise or crackling,if you have not used a filter you may well hear the broadband hiss on the line.
If there is any noise it is normally indicative of either moisture in the line,or a bad connection which probably works better when wet.
Make sure if you have a flush master socket in a metal back box that everything hasn't gone green in there.
If you get any of these symptoms you will need an Openreach line man to fix it, the call centre in Mumbai cannot repair this by fiddling with the bandwidth.
He will need to work back from you socket to the street cabinet to eliminate the issue. The line from the exchange to the green street box is either fibre or air pressurised cables which will not be affected by water.
Most importantly, make the Openreach guy or girl welcome, offer some tea and do not have a go at them because they have to work for the most uselessly incompetent company on earth. They are foot soldiers it is not their fault they didn't get passed your job the last three times you stayed in all day for no one to show.
HOWEVER, if you are a BT customer, you may like to ask the "assistant!" who takes your call to refer your problem to a manager( used to be called a LEVEL 1). Now, managers don't like this as they have a limited time, before the problem has to be escalated to their manager, and a report done.
Edited by Who me ? on Thursday 31st March 22:34
I had similar. Luckily I rang when the actual fault was occurring. They find a line test and it showed an earth fault. My assumption is that is an occasional earth fault as at other times everything was fine. Not sure how that helps you, but there you go - an earth fault. I can only suggest ringing them when the actual fault is occurring there and then.
Ari said:
Well if nothing else, at least I know it's not just me!
Thanks for all the good advice. We'll see what the chap says when he comes.
The line test the fault operators do is a basic test , this can pass with all manner of faults , going as a noisy fault is the way to go ,it will not circumvent the test socket removal process , dialing 17070 will only get you onto the test system from a bt line and you cannot do a line test other than the quiet line test as you need to be able to put in a valid engineer mobile number . Thanks for all the good advice. We'll see what the chap says when he comes.
Had ongoing issues with my broadband connection over last three months, and this Tuesday was third visit by Open reach. On this occasion issue was present broadband was not synching. He checked at cabinet and found there were issues on line from the exchange to cabinet and placed us on different line. Stated the line we were on was degrading and could be intermittent causing the issues.
Since then happy with my 2.7mb constant connection, yes I know it is slow but live 3.5 miles from exchange and was lucky to get 1mb which kept dropping off for hours on end. Fibre currently being run as FTTH in area so maybe a change to fibre will be made in near future.
Since then happy with my 2.7mb constant connection, yes I know it is slow but live 3.5 miles from exchange and was lucky to get 1mb which kept dropping off for hours on end. Fibre currently being run as FTTH in area so maybe a change to fibre will be made in near future.
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