Rural Phone lines

[Grain Buyer]

Reporting a fault to BT is quite simple but they spend a lot of time making it clear that if the fault is proved to be on your own equipment, at any point after their line enters your house you will be charged £130, fair enough. So the engineer rocks up, finds the fault to be with their line, but points out that the 4 mile stretch from the junction box to the group of houses where I live is very very old and appears to have been patched up many times in the past. He can't mend my line as there are no more "spares" on the line, so there is nothing he can do. Fair enough, what now? He will report the need for a new line to his manager. How long will that take? They will have to cost it out and see if it is worth doing!!! You what!! Has anyone else been in this situation, and how did it end?

 

[Kidds]

Been there.
They replaced the wire, didn't take very long and only me a mile at the end.

 

[milkloss]

Shotgun......pigeon.......phone line in the way......bang! Might get replaced much quicker esp if there is a vulnerable person relying on the line. I would never do such a thing. Bb soo much quicker now.

 

[Philip Watkins]

Yes, it ended badly.
Moved here 5 years ago, took BT 6 months to put a line in, there were no spares so a new section needed to installed. Due to the state of the rest of the line from the cabinet it has been nothing but trouble. After several faults this spring they appear to have decided to replace another section of line. That was a complete balls up. I ended up with a dead line and my number connected to another property. This was on 14 May. I reported the fault, which came up as no fault because my number was working, it just didn't come to me, that took some explaining to an Indian call center. All customer services could tell me was that there was a major infrastructure fault and no chance of a repair till next month. After a week they told me 9 June for repair. So that would be 3 weeks with no phone or internet and some one else using my number. I decided to cut my ties with BT and cancelled my account with them.
A week later Openreach engineer comes to fix the problem, he said he'd spent a day on the exchange sorting out 8 or 9 other numbers. He worked on my line 5 hours that afternoon and couldn't fix it, he came back next morning and it took him all day to put it right.
We noe use only mobile phones and internet via Airband.

 

[Hampton]

Got a phone line that has come off one of the poles and so is hanging down in a big U instead of a small w.
Spoke to BT about it as it was blowing into the road, but also blacking the gateway as it is hanging at head height. BT's response? Rather than put it back on the pole, they just tied it to a road sign to stop it blowing.
Need to go in field with combine next week so might accidentally break it with the JCB

 

[7610 super q]

BT don't give a monkey's about land lines anymore.I've been offline for 2 months so far this year.My neighbour had similar probs,and got local M.P onto it.That did the trick.

 

[Selectamatic]

We needed a phone line installed, about 20 metres of it.

No phone for 4 months.

BT, and Openreach are truly a shower of woopsy. Liers and sharlatans.

 

[Landy Nick]

Just tie a rope to the cable and rip a few hundred yards out, lose the cable and say the traveling community have nicked the cable.
There's been a few cable thefts around here over recent years. BT are soon onto it replacing the stolen cable. You might get a new phone line quicker this way though.

 

[Grain Buyer]

since posting this I have had a very happy sounding Indian lady on the phone asking me if I was happy with the service I had received. I said the problem hadn't been sorted and the engineer had suggested they install a new line. "Very good sir, I assure you this will be sorted by the end of the day sir"..." what they are going to install 4 miles of cable in 3 hours?" silence...."It will be done sir, goodbye", and hung up. Would it not be cheaper and easier not to employ this service in the first place.

 

[Timbo75]

Combination of 2 or 3 things:

a) arrange for all the lines serving you to get broken. Wont be popular with the neighbours, but more wrath = faster fix.
b) Local MP / trading standards.
c) Contact Gavin Patterson directly, a lot of useful info here: http://www.exbtengineers.com/complaints-bt/
d) Ask for a new business line to be installed, then cancel the existing broken one when they've had to re-cable.
e) combination of all of the above.

Have to get smart and ruthless with them.

 

[grumpy]

who uses a landline these days?

 

[Farfrae]

who uses a landline these days?

Those of us who can't get a mobile signal where we live?

 

[grumpy]

Those of us who can't get a mobile signal where we live?

ahh good point well made

 

[DRC]

Yes, it ended badly.
Moved here 5 years ago, took BT 6 months to put a line in, there were no spares so a new section needed to installed. Due to the state of the rest of the line from the cabinet it has been nothing but trouble. After several faults this spring they appear to have decided to replace another section of line. That was a complete balls up. I ended up with a dead line and my number connected to another property. This was on 14 May. I reported the fault, which came up as no fault because my number was working, it just didn't come to me, that took some explaining to an Indian call center. All customer services could tell me was that there was a major infrastructure fault and no chance of a repair till next month. After a week they told me 9 June for repair. So that would be 3 weeks with no phone or internet and some one else using my number. I decided to cut my ties with BT and cancelled my account with them.
A week later Openreach engineer comes to fix the problem, he said he'd spent a day on the exchange sorting out 8 or 9 other numbers. He worked on my line 5 hours that afternoon and couldn't fix it, he came back next morning and it took him all day to put it right.
We noe use only mobile phones and internet via Airband.

Thinking of doing the same as we are having constant trouble with the line, and also have Airband internet as the dish is on our barn, which points to the village school. Do you have the same agreement with school.

 

[GTB]

There are literally miles of telephone cables running along hedges and roadsides around here since the storms in the winter. Also a timber wagon caught on a cable that was sagging too much and ripped it off. Openreach came out and joined it up but it's still running along the ground/road.

I do sometimes wonder if it's cost effective to run cables for miles when there's very little usage. Are they obliged by law to keep the service going?

 

[Philip Watkins]

Thinking of doing the same as we are having constant trouble with the line, and also have Airband internet as the dish is on our barn, which points to the village school. Do you have the same agreement with school.

No, we pick up off one of their repeaters based at Richards Castle. We have line of sight to it, they have one closer on Clee Hill but we can't see that one.

 

[Grain Buyer]

have you tried a Mifi dongle from 3 mobile? We were using a dish and getting a 1meg signal from a repeater 2 miles away. The MiFi thing just sits on a window sill and gives a wifi signal around most of the house, strength varies from 4-8mg.

 

[quavers]

who uses a landline these days?

if I have important business to take care of , I would rather use and call a land line than use or phone some one on a mobile , you either get cut off or the receiving caller is driving or is in the middle of some other work , mobiles are handy but do not replace a land line in my case

 

[J B]

Those of us who can't get a mobile signal where we live?

+1

 

[hillman]

Phew it's not only over here where they don't give a toss about phone lines , poles gone from road in, solution tie it to the sheep wire , we asked could we put cable underground engineer scratched his head and that's was his answer , trying to get name off someone higher up the food chain but they must be secret service or something !!
Parents need the land line , for their own security and they use it quite a bit
Dongles are very hit and miss ere
It's funny they are onto u like a hot snot if late on bill , not quite as quick for repairs
Then how viable are the country lines , the maintenance must be horrendous on them , well in proportion to what they return