BT / Sky - I am at the end of my tether

[pasty]

HELP! PLEASE! SOMEONE!

Hoping someone else has exeprienced the same problem as we have at the moment, and knows how to sort it - or hope against hope, a BT engineer posts on here!

Every 10 or 15 minutes, our BT phone rings. If I pick it up, I get a ringing tone, and someone anwers the phone as if I have just rung them! Also, every time this happens, it knocks out my BT broadband.

We have 2 phone sockets for the same line. One has the phone and Sky box #1 connected to it, the other has the broadband line and Sky box #2 connected to it. Both have ADSL filters installed.

BT have checked the line (nothing wrong they say) and have sent an engineer out, who also said nothing wrong, (and charged us £99 for the privilege ). Sky are saying its nothing to do with them either (and charged us £55 for the privilege ).

I'm going mental. Working from home last Friday, I kept losing my broadband evey 10 minutes throughout the day. It's nuts.

 

[Icy Gull]

Did you not insist the engineers stayed until the phone rang to prove it? I sympathise it sounds like a fecking nightmare, even more so when everyone washes their hands of the problem whilst billing you. Have you spoken to a supervisor rather than a phone centre assistant?

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

HELP! PLEASE! SOMEONE!

Hoping someone else has exeprienced the same problem as we have at the moment, and knows how to sort it - or hope against hope, a BT engineer posts on here!

Every 10 or 15 minutes, our BT phone rings. If I pick it up, I get a ringing tone, and someone anwers the phone as if I have just rung them! Also, every time this happens, it knocks out my BT broadband.

We have 2 phone sockets for the same line. One has the phone and Sky box #1 connected to it, the other has the broadband line and Sky box #2 connected to it. Both have ADSL filters installed.

BT have checked the line (nothing wrong they say) and have sent an engineer out, who also said nothing wrong, (and charged us £99 for the privilege ). Sky are saying its nothing to do with them either (and charged us £55 for the privilege ).

I'm going mental. Working from home last Friday, I kept losing my broadband evey 10 minutes throughout the day. It's nuts.

What number shows up (on caller id)? It might be an automated phonedialler.

 

[dannyboy]

i cant really help you but i had a similar problem with sky/bt where both said it was the other. bt cut my phone ooff in error so that meant sky terminated our contract which meant we would have to pay 70 quid reconnection . when they reconnected us bt put some order on the line that stopped us being able to get our broadband through. all very complicated

what i would do is threaten (to a supervisor) to leave sky and go to virgin unless they refund the £55 quid and sort it out.

ring bt and say you are going to leave them and get a sky landline unless they sort it out and refund your £99 .

this really fucks me off , its a fault their end and you should not be paying 150 quid for them to come over and not sort the problem out.


do keep hassling them , there must be some sort of ombudsman for this incompetence. we got ours sorted in the end with a bt bill written off and sky waived there charges and gave us a free sky+ box.

if you not got sky+ bear in mind that sky will dangle this in front of you to make you stay with them. in fact id go for a sky+hd box

good luck and try not to call the bt bloke a (unt which i did

 

[Don Tmatter]

Have you tried different micro filters? BT should have suggested this though!
Try unplugging the SKY boxes(from the phone points), you don't need them plugged in all the time and it did affect my broadband a few years back.

 

[Worthai Seagull]

And even better luck with the BT Indian call centre.........a nightmare !!!!

 

[dannyboy]

Have you tried different micro filters? BT should have suggested this though!
Try unplugging the SKY boxes(from the phone points), you don't need them plugged in all the time and it did affect my broadband a few years back.

i had a problem with this too. check all the microfilters that you have them plugged in properly

oh and sky also charged me for over a year 10 quid for 16 mb b/band when my line could only take 4mb. apparently they should have told us when we signed up, (unts

 

[Billy the Fish]

Do you know who it is ringing? Next time it happens explain the problem and find out if it is ringing the same number every time. Make a list of the times, and if you can find out the numbers it is calling. Is it just an auto dial scam?

If not then somehow your phone is getting sent a ring voltage, it could be a simple wiring fault in a junction box but I'd guess that they've checked that, it could be a fault on the exchange.

I seriously doubt if it is a problem with the sky boxes or router, but as a precaution unplug it all to prove that it still happens. At least if BT try to fob you off and blame Sky you can prove you've tested it at your end.

If an engineer has been out this should be easy for them to troubleshoot, especially if it is happening regularly. Like Icy Gull said, make the engineer sit next to the phone untill it happens.

 

[Wozza]

Hello?

 

[Man of Harveys]

Hello?

 

[Hannibal smith]

Have you powered off the Sky box (es) one by one and then disconnected the ADSL filters?

If the phone still rings, Its a BT fault.

 

[Scoffers]

Threaten to switch over to Virgin Media, that might focus their minds a touch

As other have suggested, I'd do a little trial and error, by switching off the sky box for a few hours, see if the problem goes away, same for the micro filters and the internet connection, if it still happens with those switched off, it's obviously a BT issue, so concentrate on them.

 

[pasty]

Cheers guys. No one at BT suggested the microfilters could be at fault - I'll try replacing them. It does only seem to occur when either my desktop or laptop is connected to the internet, but surely it can't be either of them causing it as neither are connected to a modem?

As for unplugging the Sky boxes, I thought they had to be connected to a phone line at all times? I had one of them disconnected a month or 2 ago and got a letter from Sky saying that they could not connect to my second Sky box, and this could potentially cost me double my subscription.

 

[Easy 10]

Have you tried switching it off and on again ?

 

[Scoffers]

As for unplugging the Sky boxes, I thought they had to be connected to a phone line at all times? I had one of them disconnected a month or 2 ago and got a letter from Sky saying that they could not connect to my second Sky box, and this could potentially cost me double my subscription.

I was only suggesting you do that for a hour or so at most, just to see if you still got those strange calls.

I would suggest joining this forum

Sky User - The unofficial support forum for everything Sky!

And asking the same questions on there

 

[pasty]

Have you tried switching it off and on again ?

Genuinely shocked it took 14 posts to get this

 

[Easy 10]

Genuinely shocked it took 14 posts to get this

I know ! I was amazed as well !
But at the same time, I was DELIGHTED to have the opportunity to post this invaluable suggestion so long after the thread had begun.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

As for unplugging the Sky boxes, I thought they had to be connected to a phone line at all times? I had one of them disconnected a month or 2 ago and got a letter from Sky saying that they could not connect to my second Sky box, and this could potentially cost me double my subscription.

You only have to have them plugged in during your first year.

I'm afraid hasselling is going to be necessary but here's an unpublished number into a Sky tech support centre who have always been very helpful to me - 08442 410515

 

[pasty]

You only have to have them plugged in during your first year.

I'm afraid hasselling is going to be necessary but here's an unpublished number into a Sky tech support centre who have always been very helpful to me - 08442 410515

Thanks WS.

Apparently it's still been going on all morning, so I've just got Mrs P to unplug everything EXCEPT the main phone line. If it carries on then I guess it must be a BT issue. If it stops, odds on it's a Sky issue.

 

[beorhthelm]

Cheers guys. No one at BT suggested the microfilters could be at fault - I'll try replacing them.

seriously? and then charged for a call out, without having insisted you check everything? they havnet follwed their normal procedure then i wouldnt pay that call out.

solution is to quit both services (or threaten to) due to ongoing poor service and lack of resolution. if its ringing at night or all day long id throw in a claim for distress.

if its only happening when you are online, then theres clearly a problem with the modem/router or filters. unplug everything and add bits back in one at a time to see if theres a change. if you can borrow a modem/router and filters to test. ( i only read half the replys if this has all been suggested.)