Buzzing on phone line since broadband activation date

[Jai]

Hello - I'm experiencing a problem and having tried all other routes, I wanted to ask if anyone else has ever had or even heard of this happening. For the sake of giving an accurate picture, I will detail everything so far:

Having previously been with BT Yahoo broadband, I was advised by BT to switch to BT Business broadband because I was alledgedly downloading so much that I breached residential fair usage limits (even though nowhere in the fair usage policy does it actually tell you what said limits are - believe me, I checked).

My activation date for the business broadband was 14th April 2008, and starting on that date I have had the most terrible buzzing on my phone line. The broadband connection is working perfectly, it's excellent in fact - it's just for some reason since I've been with the business broadband I have terrible buzzing on my phone line. I tried switching the filters (both the ones that came in the box with the 2wire business hub) but it made no difference. I then tried double checking there were no kinks in any of the cables. After a week of trying desperately to figure out if it was something on my end, I called the BT telephone fault line assuming it was a problem with the line. They ran a line test which came back clear then they sent a BT phone engineer out to my premises.

While the engineer was here we tried the following: testing the line and the socket inside the house (both of which were clear), disconnecting the telephone extension cable and the modem extension cable (which were not proper BT cables) and plugging the phone handset & business hub directly into the filter, the engineer brought a new telephone handset in from his van and tried that too, tried unplugging the business hub completely & just leaving the phone plugged in. It was after we unplugged the hub that the buzzing stopped. The moment we plugged the business hub back in the buzzing was back on the line. The telephone engineer determined that there was no fault with the line and advised he believed it was my equipment causing the problem. He stated since it was obviously something to do with the broadband and/or the hub that was not in his remit to deal with as it was a separate department, he recommended buying a new phone handset as mine is about 15 years old and he also recommended I call the business broadband helpdesk and explain that the buzzing was only present when the business hub was plugged in. I was later billed £99.00 for the telephone engineer visit because there was no phone line fault!

I called business broadband helpdesk stating exactly what I was told to say by the phone engineer. I was told my hub could be faulty and so another was sent to me.  When it arrived some 3 days later, I unhooked the previous hub and connected the new hub with the new cables in the box and the new filters it arrived with. The buzzing was still there on the phone line.

I then went on to the BT shop site and bought a new telephone handset and new BT approved phone and ethernet cables, that were all supposedly compatible with BT DSL lines. When plugging in the new handset and cables.. ..again the buzzing was still there. I then disconnected all extension cables, moved the furniture around so that the new-and-now-BT-approved equipment was plugged directly into the filter and not using any extension cables. Still the buzzing is there.

Friday of this week I spent upwards of 2 hours on the phone, during which time I spoke to at least 5 different people about the problem. Business broadband helpdesk kept stating the broadband connection was not showing a fault and so they blamed everything from my phone line to my telephone handset, despite that I had already explained all the steps I had taken so far. They put me through to the phone fault desk, who totally denied it was anything to do with them. They stated since the engineer had already been out to prove there was no fault on the line that it was obviously a problem with the broadband equipment and they put me back through to broadband helpdesk.

I spoke to a further 3 different people (one of whom accidentally cut me off so I had to call back and go through the whole thing yet again with somebody else), I even spoke to a so-called supervisor who obviously did not listen to a single word I said because he again tried to first blame the phone line, then my handset, then said he would send me another hub. By this time I was absolutely furious because we'd already done all of this. He stated there was nothing else they can do. When I asked for a broadband engineer to come out I was told flat out that they were not prepared to send an engineer because my broadband test came back as showing no fault. They were unwilling to go out to the exchange to check that my business broadband has been hooked up correctly. Not being hooked up correctly caused me a problem on two occasions when I was with BT Yahoo broadband (which resulted in a massive complaint case that I was compensated for everntually) so I hoped they would this time rule out a problem in the exchange but alas - they are not willing to go out there. They also stated that if I insisted then they would only send the broadband engineer out if I paid for the visit (how is that customer service I ask you?). My reply was "This is a problem that has been caused by something BT did on my activation day. My line, equipment and broadband is all now brand new BT, provided by BT - so why should I pay when something from them is obviously not working correctly but I'm damned if I can figure out what is causing the problem?"

My issue with this is that I had no buzzing what so ever prior to business broadband activation day. I was with BT Yahoo for around 4 and a half years & never had this problem. My telephone line, the business hub, the handset and all other equipment are all provided by BT, yet the BT telephone and BT business broadband people just keep blaming each other and ignoring everything I tell them about what has already been tried. They are perfectly content to take my money every month for a service that I'm not really receiving, then they have the nerve to bill me for a telephone engineer visit. I have not even had the business broadband for a month as at todays date... and I am already having a serious nightmare with it. There is not a chance in hell of me sticking to this contract for the next two years if BT do not get their collective heads out of their behinds and do something about this - I refuse to keep paying the monthly subscription fee for this broadband when if I want to use the phone I have to unhook the hub. After all, the whole point of broadband is that you are supposed to be able to use the phone while you are connected to the internet.

Having given up with the unhelpful "help desks" and their so-called experts I am banging my head against a brick wall trying to resolve this problem. I have done everything I can think of myself and everything I was advised to do by the telephone engineer. I have paid out of my own pocket for new equipment which has made not a jot of difference to the problem and I am not a happy bunny at the moment, to put it mildly.

I apologise for the waffling length of this post but as stated... I thought it best to give an accurate account of the problem. Has anyone come across this issue? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Jai (and her BT-induced headache!)

[craigmod]

Hi Jai,

Myself and the other moderators are attempting to get an answer to this for you and we were wondering whether you have anything connected to the 'Phone lines' socket on the back of your Hub. If so what is plugged in? ( or where does the cable plugged in go to).

The Phone lines socket is to connect a phone to if you use the Broadband Voice phone service, however if this is mistakenly connected to a phone line it can induce a buzzing noise on the line.
 
2. If the cable plugged into the DSL socket on the hub is plugged into the 'dsl' socket on the microfilter
 
If the cable are connected correctly. Then I think you should arrange for a Broadband Engineer visit form the IT Support desk to visit to assist.

Thanks Jai

Craig

[Jai]

Hi Craig

Thank you for your reply.

To answer your question, I don't have anything at all plugged into the "phones" socket on the back of my Business hub. I have not subscribed to the Voice over Internet service yet although I was considering it prior to all this drama with my regular phone line.  My equipment is set up:

BT Phone socket> Micro filter> Telephone plugged directly into the filter in the correct phone slot, Business hub plugged directly into the filter in the correct modem slot.

I spent the majority of the week before last arguing with the BT Business Broadband help desk trying to get them to send someone out and they point blank refused.  When I finally got to speak to some who listened to what I was saying, he too tried to make enquiries on my behalf but found he was just being passed back and forth between different departments all blaming each other and denying it was anything to do with them. He even went so far as to express his concern that if this is the drama that customers have to go through it was no wonder BT were losing customers.  Eventually after much trying, he finally managed to find a Broadband engineer who agreed to go out to the exchange and make sure everything was hooked up correctly. The engineer went out just this past weekend and determined that everything was correctly hooked up and he didn't know what was causing the problem. So I drew another blank there with regards to the origins of this mysterious buzzing.

Strangely enough in the past 3 days, the buzzing has completely stopped on the line and I don't know why because I certainly haven't done anything different.

Trying to get this sorted out has been a nightmare and probably will be all over again if the buzzing should come back. This is not the only problem I'm having. I've had Business Broadband just over a month now, and I haven't been billed even though I was told a bill would be issued within 7 days of switchover. When making several calls I just keep getting told my account was closed on 5th may, but it wasn't. The account that was closed on 5th May was my old BT Yahoo Broadband account. Speaking to a completely different department, they advised that apparently, while I have been set up correctly to the Business Broadband connection, I wasn't set up at all on the billing system and someone is supposed to be dealing with it but to date, I've had no further contact from the billing department other than yet another email incorrectly saying I do not have a BT Business account. No matter how many times I explain what is happening, or no matter how many people I speak to from different BT departments while I'm being passed around, no one is paying attention to a single thing. 

I do not want to get a huge back-dated internet access bill in 12 months time when they finally figure out they should have been billing me all this time.

All I can say is.. if I had known the problems I was going to have when I was looking at who to go with as a new ISP..... I would definitely NOT have gone with BT Business. It's been one headache after another and I personally am disgusted. Since I am about to get on a flight on Sunday for my first vacation in 15 years, I can not really do any more at this point.  This whole drama is going to have to wait until I get back in June. I think I will definitely be contacting the complaints department.  I never had this kind of problems as a residential customer, and Business broadband was supposed to be much better according to the sales team. It certainly costs more, but I'm finding the level of service is far worse than it ever was with BT Yahoo.

Many Thanks

Jai

(Who would rather be on a beach than here! Oh well... one day and a wake up until sand/sea/surf will be mine!)