No Dial Tone fault - rwquirement for engineer visit?

[pctech]

I purchased a cheap corded phone to connect to the line that supports my broadband as work are looking at getting a couple of us to work via VPN to provide Bank Holiday cover and I know that I can dedicate this line to that.
Plugged the phone in, no dial tone but DSL is working ok.

Unplugged the filter and plugged it directly into the socket, still nada.

Tested it on our known working line and worked ok.

Spoke to Zen and they asked me to plug it into the test socket, again of course, nothing.

They ran some tests and confirmed a fault, they said it is probably at the exchange so may not require an engineer visit but what are others' experience of these faults?

Hoping they can fix it at the exchange as BT appointments are a PITA.

[JB]

They ran some tests and confirmed a fault, they said it is probably at the exchange so may not require an engineer visit but what are others' experience of these faults?

I don't know if it helps Mitch but I had exactly the same problem at my place in Spain. ADSL was perfect but no dial tone and no incoming calls on phone.

Telefonica (bless 'em) sorted out the problem, which was at the exchange. My Spanish is pretty good now and they told me there was a wire off at the exchange.

[pctech]

Thanks JB.

Zen tech support bloke said that BT react faster to voice faults.

[Lance]

They do, and it sounds like the fault is outside of your premises. However, they might still want access to the property for checking so would recommend you or someone being there.

[pctech]

Well, BT apparently adjusted jumpers at the exchange and consider it solved, Zen tried several times to ring me today, I couldn't answer as was really busy at work so opened a web chat and asked them to put a note indicating I would check tonight but I could not accept the call at work.

Got home, plugged the basic phone I'd bought in, lefted the receiver and got dial tone, dialled out to other line and waited to be connected to the answer phone and sure enough worked.

Replaced receiver and picked up again, burst of crackly noise then nothing.

Tried pressing the hook switch several times to reset it but nothing, replaced the handset and tried ringing from other line, new handset started to ring as per the normal 'ring ring'

lefted the handset but the ringer just kept going 'riiiiinnnnggg'

No audio  in earpiece (not that I could hear it), replaced handset and it went back to 'ring ring', repeated tests without filter and with plug in test socket, same thing.

Called Zen and explained, guy updated report and passed back to fault manager, broadband has been working ok throughout

Fault Manager phoned me back and confirmed details, said he had to wait for response from BT see if they want to book an engineer, he said he would check again before he left and sure enough he called me at 7.25, asked whether he could come back to me on Monday, I said yes no problem as I didn't think you'd get a response from BT on a Friday night.

Zen 1 BT 0

[nowster]

Sounds like you have an AC path (which would allow ringing and ADSL) but no DC path (which is needed to signal to the exchange that you've picked up the phone). Probably a bad joint somewhere.

[pctech]

Cheers.

Just trying to get the line up and running so that I can use it if I have to work from home.

I can believe anything of the infrastructure round here.

[pctech]

Well today was the day.

I struck lucky with a decent engineer.

He came in, plugged in his handset and got a dial tone immediately, I thought I was going to get slapped with the dreaded charge, he tested the phone I'd used which crackled a lot and then tried our cordless, no crackles.

Anyway he went out and opened up the telecom panel on the side of the house and did what I think was an audio throughput test and then went to the BT manhole at the edge of our drive and opened it up and looked in there, he then disappeared for ages up to the end of our road where I think our green cabinet is.

He came back and said he'd found some water in the joint and some corroded copper which he'd cut away to reveal fresh and then sealed it with resin to keep the water out.

He said 'hopefully that should be fine now'

Asked whether I'd be charged he said 'I won't mention the faulty phone but I'd get my money back on that if I were you and in any case I've done some outside work so you won't be charged'

There are some good people working there after all it seems.

[Rik]

There are, Mitch. Glad you got one of them.