Hello everyone.

I have recently moved house. The previous owner forgot to close his BT account so there have been delays (almost a month) on activating my line and number. Stangely a BT engineer had to visit the property and the exchange to activate the line and number and he eventually tested the line in front of me and it was ok. I also made a test phone call after he left and everything was fine.

I then got home in the evening and all of a sudden the line had gone dead, no dial tone at all. I live alone in the house at the moment so there has been no one messing up with the line in the house.

I have tried to connect to the BT main socket with a cord phone and then with a cordless phone as well and still no sign. I then plugged the cord phone and then the cordless phone into the test socket inside the BT main socket, to by-pass all the wiring, and still no dial tone.

My cables come from the underground, close to the front door.

I am at the stage now where I do not know what to do. I reported a fault tonight on the BT website but as usual am worried about whether I am going to be charged for the call out of the engineer since I called the customer service dept and they have tested my line real time on the phone and as far as they are concerned it seems to work. very strange.... and the advisor said the line test does not stop at the exchange but goes up to the house.

What shall I do?

Thanks for your help!

Provided you have tested the line with a corded phone at the BT test point and it has no dial tone you should not have a problem when the engineer arrives.

It may be worth checking it again in case the fault is intermittant.

Yes if you have tested the line at the Main BT point by disconnecting the front plate so you are connected directly to the BT line and there is still no dial tone then you do have a line fault. BT cannot charge you for this as its on their side.

Im guessing that its either a fault in the exchange where someones accidently disconnected your line.

Or when the enginner put she socket back one of the wires on the BT side has either broken at the screw terminal.

It could also be that the screw wasnt tight enough and the wires come off

Since something like what bryemycaz said is likely to have happened, why does the line test the customer advisor has made for me results in being successfull?

I would be tempted to go ahead with the fault report (whenever they will contact me) since I guess there is no point in me trying to tighten the screws inside the socket...

Hi ennebierre

You seem to have completed all the checks. If the fault is still ongoing then send your telephone number to my PM and I'll look into it for you.

Cheers
Linda
BT Support

The same happened to me! They hadn't configured at exchange.He had to connect his equipment then go to the exchange.

An update on this matter, thanking first of all Linda from the "BT support" for chasing the problem for me and get it sorted so quickly after I contacted her via PM.

A BT engineer came to my house this morning and found that there was a crossover of lines at the exchange. Basically up until now someone else in the neighbourhood was receiving call directed to me, on top of calls directed to him on his own number. And that is why my line seemed dead and with no dialling tone.

After sorting out that, the engineer found that there was no signal on a blue wire coming into my house, which ws anyway wired up wrongly in the main BT socket in the house. So he made a green wire active and wired it properly in the main socket.

There were basically 3 problems one on top of each other: the crossover + bad wiring + non working wires. How on earth the previous engineer managed to receive a confirmation text after texting my line is still a mistery. The guess is that the previous BT engineer visited my house once again in that day, after having realized that there was something wrong in the exchange. I was not at home on that day, but by chance a painter was working at my house with main doors open etc. But that is just speculation...

Anyway, everything is working now, after this crazy experience with engineers.

Thanks again to Linda for the very prompt help!

The second option is highly unlikely as the phone would be tested after the wall box is put bavk on assuming it even need to be touched.

Blimey, sounds like it was rather comprehensively broken! Either way, glad it has been fixed!

Just an extra update on this. Linda from BT called to see whether I was happy with the service after the matter was resolved. Thanks for that!

Just hilariously, though, I have recently received my first BT bill in which I was charged for all the calls made while my line was inactive and mute, i.e. all the calls the user with which my line was crossed over at the exchange had made.
So I had to sort that out and, with the online bill, I could see all the call details the other user made. I am not really sure that is privacy protection

Anyway, everything is ok and sorted now.