Reporting a Telephone Fault

Thankfully it doesn’t often happen but sometimes our telephone lines do fall foul to technical difficulties, the result of which means that we cannot use our telephones and therefore have to report the fault to our telephone service provider.

Establishing There Is a Fault

It is not uncommon for individuals to report a fault on their line only to be told that there is no fault and that the fault must lie with their equipment. Of course this is often true but sometimes mistakes can be made so it is best that you establish definitively that there is no fault with your equipment before reporting a fault to your telephone service provider.

For example if you try to make a telephone call and there is no dial tone you should check to make sure the telephone is plugged in. Is it plugged into the main telephone socket? And is the telephone’s power source plugged in? Is there a faulty fuse or plug? Have someone else check the telephone in their socket, a neighbour or family member.

Once you have established that there is a fault then you can make contact with your service provider to request a call out.

Reporting the Fault

Obviously if your home landline is out of action you will have to find another way of making contact with your service provider and this is probably best done by mobile telephone. Most telephone service providers will offer reduced rates when dialling from a mobile so it is best to call from your own whilst next to the telephone itself. You will be asked to confirm your name, address and account number so it is useful to have your most recent telephone bill near to hand.

Whilst reporting the fault you will normally be asked to carry out a few routine checks – most of which you will have already carried out to establish there is a fault. However it is worthwhile carrying them out again while you have a representative on the line just to be sure.

Once you have established without a doubt that there is a problem you will then be passed to the engineering department who will have some further questions before they can arrange a visit from an engineer.

Speaking to the Engineers

Once the details of your fault have been noted your call will be passed to an engineer who will ask you again to confirm your details. This is for security purposes and is not intended to be repetitious although sometimes it can seem this way. The engineer will ask you if you have noticed any problems with your line prior to the loss of connection such as crackling, distortion or cutting out of voice – this is to rule out the most common faults which can be fixed at the exchange.

Once he is happy that the fault is between the exchange and your home the engineer will ask to arrange a time and date to visit your home to ascertain the nature of the problem.

Booking an Appointment

Most telephone service providers aim to address any faults within 72 hours so you should expect to have an engineer visit you sooner rather than later. It is important to make note of the date and time of the visit so that you can make arrangements for someone to be present to allow access to the property. It is also worth noting if there will be any charge for the call out. You should be aware that if a charge is applicable it should be paid either at the time of the visit or shortly afterwards. Do not hand over cash however – all engineers are instructed to refuse cash payments.

You will be given a reference number – normally referred to as an order number – which you should keep handy as you will be expected to quote this number each time you call with reference to your fault if you need to contact them again before the engineer’s visit.

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