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Help! Urgent!

(29 Posts)
Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 19:40:06

Evening all,

The phone rang a few minutes ago, I answered it, nothing, zilch, zero.

I tried doing 1471 to find out who had called, but was unable to get a dialling tone. We are now completely unable to make any calls!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Anne58 Fri 25-Oct-13 00:10:34

Hello all,

So sorry, should have updated this thread blush.

When in the village shop on the Monday after we had first had the problem on Sunday afternoon/evening I discovered that half the village seemed to have the same problem, some had even been without landline since Saturday! The suppliers were various, but I suppose that whoever you switch your phone provider to, it comes down to BT/Open Reach who manage the actual physical service and connections etc.

Aaaaanyway, we were eventually back in the land of the telephonically connected by Wednesday afternoon.

Which reminds me, I must contact my provider and ask if we are going to get some sort of discount, after all we were without a usable landline for 3 days.

petra Thu 24-Oct-13 20:58:15

Some years ago this used to be a ploy by burglars. They would ring your No. and not replace the receiver, so that left your line useless. When they broke in you couldn't call the Police. ( this was in the days when they responded to a burglary)

whatsgoingon Wed 23-Oct-13 03:57:28

If you are with BT you can "live chat " with them on the Internet. They would then be able to test your phone line for you and find out what the problem is.

whatsgoingon Wed 23-Oct-13 03:56:48

If you are with BT you can "live chat " with them on the Internet. They would then be able to test your phone line for you and find out what the problem is.

Berylmaudie Tue 22-Oct-13 11:41:55

THey ha 've got a answering . Machine here. I do not like it.

Bazdil Tue 22-Oct-13 11:26:10

Phoenix: This happened to me two years ago. The phone rang. I am not as mobile as I was 50 years ago and it took me time to get to the phone. Nobody there. Then disconnected. No dialing tone. I had just passed a BT engineer working on his junction box at the end of the street so I ran to him and asked his help. He explained that he was connecting new customers and needed to know which junctions were working. So he would ring a number and if he got no answer he would use that line to connect another client. He asked me my number, consulted his notes and re-connected me.

You may well find that BT and other engineers deny that this can happen.
I recommend you buy a telephone answering machine from Argos. (£20+?) I have had mine for 22 years and it deals with nuisance calls, wrong numbers, BT engineers, Unsolicited Sales, and any morons who refuse to talk to a machine!!

merlotgran Mon 14-Oct-13 13:51:53

I remember when we had a similar problem I used my mobile to contact the Motorola (make of our phone) customer services department. I got their number from their website. If I remember correctly, somebody talked me through how to re-set the phone. It was quite simple but I wouldn't have known how to do it on my own.

Anne58 Mon 14-Oct-13 13:26:56

Yes, merlot and it's the same company that I use for my broadband too. The weird thing is, that when Mr P went outside and dialled our number from his mobile, it rang. Usually if a caller hasn't hung up properly, and one else calling would get an engaged tone. (I hope this is making sense!)

We have contacted them via the website, but got a message saying that response time is currently 25 hours shock

merlotgran Mon 14-Oct-13 13:14:58

Do you pay by Direct Debit, phoenix? A friend of mine had her phone cut off without any warning at all because she had accidentally cancelled the direct debit thinking she was cancelling the one set up for a previous call provider. She only found out when she realised she could receive calls but not make them.

Anne58 Mon 14-Oct-13 10:32:11

Still can't dial out angry

berdie Mon 14-Oct-13 10:10:38

If you get "those" type of call that don't say anything, just whisper " its done, but there's blood everywhere", the phone is soon slammed down at there end. {smile]

Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 23:41:13

Still no outgoing phone service sad need to call the less than useless agency tomorrow re jobs they are handling.

Off to bed for now, moon

LizG Sun 13-Oct-13 23:09:28

I sort of know just what you mean Aka but that did make me grin. i usually use the point of a pencil but never anything metallic. grin

Aka Sun 13-Oct-13 22:15:30

Examine your main phone set and see if there are any little 'holes'. If there at try poking a match stick or similar down it, and see if that helps. It works with laptop.
PS don't leave the match stick in.

merlotgran Sun 13-Oct-13 21:49:27

Do you still have the instruction book, phoenix? It happened to us and there is a way you can reset the phone but I can't remember how we did it.

Aka Sun 13-Oct-13 21:42:51

It will probably right itself by morning. This happened to us several times when we were with Plusnet, one of the reasons we changed. I think we found some sort of reset button in the end, but that may have been on the router so I might have made that up confused

yogagran Sun 13-Oct-13 20:48:03

You could try unplugging the phone, waiting a couple of minutes then plugging it back in. May reset some techy gadget switch thingy bob

Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 20:17:45

Mr P has just gone to the end of the road and phoned the home number using his mobile. It worked in that the home phone rang. Still can't make outgoing calls!

Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 20:10:45

Elegran I would, if I had an effing signal! angry

Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 20:07:59

Still no dialling tone, trying to contact PlusNet, but have forgotten my password blush

merlot wash you mouth out for even mentioning those people!

merlotgran Sun 13-Oct-13 19:58:32

If you think there might be a fault you can go to the BT website and do a test on your line.

Elegran Sun 13-Oct-13 19:56:24

Use your mobile phone to contact your phone company and tell them that you have no signal?

Marelli Sun 13-Oct-13 19:45:36

phoenix, that happened to me last night. It took a while, but the dialling tone did come back on again. When I did manage to dial 1471, it was one of 'those' calls again. hmm

Anne58 Sun 13-Oct-13 19:45:35

Tried a couple of times, still no dialling tone, so can't even do 1471 to find out who it was. sad I hate feeling stranded like this!

janeainsworth Sun 13-Oct-13 19:42:24

great minds Ana grin