british telecom

[Joliver Jim]

JJ was it you that had a mega phone bill of something like a zillion pound a quarter

No, that was the gas and electric. Few bad mobile phones bills though.

Anyhow, to get back to the story, this happened to me once too. The phone line was dead but could still use the internet. It was definately the doofers but that's all I know about it.

[Wheeze]

Daz, me old mate, is your internet a dial up/ISDN connection or Broadband? If it is Broadband, you MUST have an ADSL filter (i.e. a Doofer) fitted to your phone socket for your phone to work. If you don't you will get the symptoms you describe.
The ADSL filter is a simple matchbox sized plastic thingy that plugs into your phone socket and your phone then plugs into that. You must have a filter on EVERY phone socket you use and, in practice, you can only have 4 live sockets on a specific number.

[daz h]

Daz, me old mate, is your internet a dial up/ISDN connection or Broadband? If it is Broadband, you MUST have an ADSL filter (i.e. a Doofer) fitted to your phone socket for your phone to work. If you don't you will get the symptoms you describe.
The ADSL filter is a simple matchbox sized plastic thingy that plugs into your phone socket and your phone then plugs into that. You must have a filter on EVERY phone socket you use and, in practice, you can only have 4 live sockets on a specific number.

yes i have that filter wheeze
never had a problem before and had this broadband for years????????????????????????????????????????

how can you get charged for calls when your bloody phone isnt working

[Wheeze]

In that case I strongly suspect your phone lines have got mixed up with someone else. This happened to me last month when the storms brought a tree down through all our local phone lines. The engineers managed to connect my domestic line to my business line and vice versa. Did your problems start after storm damage. Sounds very much like you are paying someone elses bill.

[XRunner]

Actually I had a similar experience with BT at my previous home. I kept getting a bad telephone line (loud clicking) but the broadband internet connection was working OK.

I contacted BT and they claimed that their line was OK and the fault was with my equipment. Like you, they quoted a cost of several hundred pounds to inspect the premises.

As I had tested the internal phone lines and they were perfect, I knew the fault was external to the house.

I contacted BT to complain about their lack of service and suggested that they pay me a similar sum for telling them that the fault was on their line.

Within 24 hours an engineer from BT contacted me to say that the fault had been repaired and my telephone was working again.

I should have pursued a claim for compensation but never bothered.

BT Conditions of Contract

We accept reasonable responsibility for reasonably foreseeable (expected) loses arising from intermittent (temporary) services, if we are negligent. If this results, we will pay up to £1,000 for each line affected.

[XRunner]

Never heard of a doofer Daz?
"An object whose name the speaker or writer cannot remember."

That is such a cool word! I like it!

JJ, Would you call Mud a doofer?

[Stick]

Daz,

I work for BT.

PM me with your mobile and I'll call you back tomorrow afternoon* A few initial thoughts (can you include answers in your pm)...

1. Who do you get your broadband from (could the £98 since last October be for BB charges?)
2. How many extension sockets do you have in the house and do you have an adsl filter plugged into each and every socket. What's connected to each (do you have any answer-phone or fax?)
3. You mention you've tried swapping out the telephone handsets...have you tried swapping the adsl filter?
4. The £200 you cite sounds like a £uck off tactic by whomever told you this. From my memory (and I could be wrong but not to the magnitude you mention!) the no-fault (or customer equipment fault) charge is about £55. Did they suggest they were going to check out your pc, electric, gas, boiler and water as well?
5. What is your area-code and phone number of the fault line
6. Do you know if your connected by overhead or underground cable...is there a telegraph pole somewhere nearby attached to your roof by a length of dodgy looking wire

I've always found BT to be a tad more expensive than some others but always on the good service side. This may be cos I work for them but trust me, if I were a cobblers son I'd never had taken up fell running...my feet would've been too sore

PM me and I'm sure we can get it sorted

* I'm out tomorrow morning at a job interview...and yes it is outside BT!

[AllanT]

naj has all my money, in fact do they still have pound notes

We've still got pound notes in circulation on the IOM!!!

[Stick]

Within 24 hours an engineer from BT contacted me to say that the fault had been repaired and my telephone was working again.

I should have pursued a claim for compensation but never bothered.

BT Conditions of Contract

You must do a hell of a lot of ebay business on your home line XRunner.

[daz h]

Daz,

I work for BT.

PM me with your mobile and I'll call you back tomorrow afternoon* A few initial thoughts (can you include answers in your pm)...

1. Who do you get your broadband from (could the £98 since last October be for BB charges?)
2. How many extension sockets do you have in the house and do you have an adsl filter plugged into each and every socket. What's connected to each (do you have any answer-phone or fax?)
3. You mention you've tried swapping out the telephone handsets...have you tried swapping the adsl filter?
4. The £200 you cite sounds like a £uck off tactic by whomever told you this. From my memory (and I could be wrong but not to the magnitude you mention!) the no-fault (or customer equipment fault) charge is about £55. Did they suggest they were going to check out your pc, electric, gas, boiler and water as well?
5. What is your area-code and phone number of the fault line
6. Do you know if your connected by overhead or underground cable...is there a telegraph pole somewhere nearby attached to your roof by a length of dodgy looking wire

I've always found BT to be a tad more expensive than some others but always on the good service side. This may be cos I work for them but trust me, if I were a cobblers son I'd never had taken up fell running...my feet would've been too sore

PM me and I'm sure we can get it sorted

* I'm out tomorrow morning at a job interview...and yes it is outside BT!

stick mate thanks for the reply but guess what my wife Amanda rang them up earlier and has managed to get an engineer out for free
as usual women manage to talk through these problems, our neighbour has a similair problem apparantly so they think there could be a fault.
my approach of stick the bill up your arse and i gonna snip through the cable prob was a bit over the top
cheers any way mate
is it easy to get a job as a bt engineer i quite fancy it
any tips for gettin a start, any courses etc