Have you ever tried to report a landline fault in the UK?

[The Hat]

But it happened at 0420 in the night! Shoudn't be any JCBs about at that time.

They work at that time of night to prevent congestion on the roads in the morning, but clearly can’t see what the hell there’re doing in the dark..

 

[Emulator]

The internet is now working as well, so all has been corrected. Thanks to all for the help and advice.

 

[CakeHole]

My dwindling optimism has at last been rewarded. This morning (Sunday) the phone line went dead and I thought good, something is happening (the optimist).

Two hours later the phone rang and a very pleasant BT Open Reach engineer rang me to explain that there had been damage in the town and 400 lines had been interrupted and explained that someone had reconnected me to an incorrect line. This had been put right and all was now working including broadband.

This I found was true with the exception of the broadband which allows the router to connect but does not reach the server, so presumably TalkTalk have disconnected the server from my original line.

Hopefully I can get TalkTalk to fix that.

Hehe told you they had connected you to the wrong line....... I hope that person that now gets their number back enjoys arguing with Talk Talk about phone calls on their bill which were calls you made lol. Keep an eye on your bill, if you were connected to another line you can guarantee someone else had your number and made some calls. If that is the case and its only a couple of quids worth me personally id just pay that rather than get Talk Talk involved again and give em a chance to (BLEEP) up something else.

I guess the damage was caused by a JCB (well known British made excavator) and not by lightening?

Problem at the exchange as i also suggested.... Wrong number allocation to a line, initial problem when it all kicked of was probably a line card that needed replacing with likely around 1000 connections on it (think of it like a big router and each cable has its own IP except its a phone number, and you can change or allocate that number either with the computer itself or swapping cables around..... Not quite that simple but thats basically it in VERY simple terms).

But it happened at 0420 in the night! Shoudn't be any JCBs about at that time.

You more than likely got lucky and BT had someone on the nightshift at the exchange, they were probably bored or trying to stay awake so decide to do some routine checks and maintenance and discovered whoever replaced the line card had not allocated numbers/port properly on it so decided to fix it. Ther is still the odd good engineer left

The internet is now working as well, so all has been corrected. Thanks to all for the help and advice.

Yep now they put your number allocation back right the systems would alert if other services are not functioning on a line which is in the database. Its then just a case of enabling the additional services back. All done sat at a keyboard if number previously had the service that needs allocating. In your case the the service on the line being "internet" and in the case of Talk Talk not even something they can screw up as the alert probably even tells them what the have to type/click on

 

[mswannie]

But it happened at 0420 in the night! Shoudn't be any JCBs about at that time.

Moles?????

 

[PeterBJ]

Rats are known to have caused damage to telephone cables and other underground electrical cables. Maybe the damage was done by the big yellow Rattus Bamfordius?

 

[CakeHole]

Damage to phone cables in the UK is often done by other contractors more than rodents. Much of the cabling is not even in ducts for rodents to get in or chew through but just in a 1ft trench in the pavement.

 

[The Hat]

Dial before you dig makes good sense, especially in this case !

 

[CakeHole]

^^^ People like the water board, Gas/Electric suppliers, Bob the builder fiddling with traffic lights etc etc etc are all supposed to get plans of each others cables in the area before they start digging. The reality though is they do not. Im sure we have all at some point seen some confused contractor standing by some deep hole scratching his head wondering how it all went so wrong

The funniest thing i saw once when stuck in traffic was some contractor go straight through a mains water pipe and getting lifted literally 5 foot off the ground like a rag doll as the thing erupted like a geyser several further feet into the air.

 

[foevergroup]

Unfortunately the line/broadband fault escalation path and diagnostic process is generally poor within any retail provider. Anyone who is self-employed or runs a small business would do well to spend a little bit more and get their lines and broadband connectivity from a reputable local business provider. In terms of analogue lines specifically, 'premium' PSTN lines for business have a slightly higher fix SLA and it is possible to upgrade this to s little as a six hour response (even outside of regular business hours) at a very low cost.