Landline VOIP over FTTC teething problems

[kj-mil71]

My elderly parents have recently started a Fibre 2 broadband and landline contract with Vodafone. Their broadband is supplied via FTTC and the internet cable for the router emerges from a NTE5C Master Socket and connects to their Vox 3.0 router. Just to get them up and running I had plugged in one BT Decor 2200 corded phone into the VOIP adapter sent out by Vodafone and plugged the other end of that into the Tel1 socket on the back of the router. They can hear a normal dial tone on the phone and can make outgoing phone calls with no problem. However, nobody can call them on the landline number. Anyone attempting to ring them gets a 3 beep, call connection failure tone and then silence. Their landline phone never rings.

The broadband connection is perfect. Outgoing calls just fine. Not receiving landline calls at all is a real problem as they live in a mobile phone reception weak spot.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any pointers or useful information would be greatly appreciated. I'm in touch with Vodafone tech support but it's interminably slow to get anything useful.

[kj-mil71]

Still none the wiser as to why incoming calls are not being routed to our VOIP landline. Support called me on my mobile to get me to call the landline from a couple of different phones and tell them the carrier and numbers used to try and make the calls. They are now apparently investigating further.

Out of interest, can anyone shed any light on why there is more than one VOIP profile listed on our router's Phone section? What is "profile2"?  -- see attached image:

[Jayach]

Your picture hasn't been moderated yet, and I'm not on VoIP, but I expect it's for the second tel port.

Hardware wise the two ports are physically separate.

[WelshPaul]

Analog Telephone Adaptors often support multiple profiles. An example would be the Grandstream HT812. This device supports 2 SIP profiles. A SIP profile is just technical jargon for a SIP account. So, I could configure the Grandstream to use two different VoIP accounts, maybe Vodafone on Profile A and BT on Profile B. I could then enable both telephone ports and set Vodafone to use TEL 1 and BT to use Tel 2. Or, I could disable the TEL 2 port and have both Vodafone and BT use the TEL 1 port. Or, I could assign the TEL 1 port to Vodafone and configure the device to send all 0800 calls out over Profile 2 (BT).

The reason why you're seeing "profile2" in the above screenshot is because the Vodafone agent has tried to manually setup a second profile on your device but didn't assign it a name. So, it defaults to "profile2". He/She likely just entered your SIP Username and Password along with the SIP register address and left all other settings at default. A reboot should get rid of it as the device will communicate with a provisioning server upon boot and download the correct configuration profile registered against your Vodafone account.

[Ripshod]

I think a factory reset may be better. It will force all settings to be downloaded fresh and will get rid of Profile 2.

This worked for a couple of people already. 

[GillianLockie]

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that this has happened to you as well.  

It's so frustrating not to be able to get any answers, or even to be able to research to understand the technical details and the pathway of who should be doing what; where this might have gone wrong, and therefore who should be doing what to resolve it.  Although we are locked-in contractually past the 14 days, it  feel like Vodafone pays lip-service to customers on an individual basis, (I was told at one point, that the land-line aspect of my contract was pretty much an optional extra which they didn't charge for, the implication being that my expectation that I should have it, and complaint that I didn't have is was inconsequential).. Each of the Vodafone employees who I talked to were concerned and spent time with me, but it felt like they were pretty much in the dark as well, and as inconsequential to Vodafone as I was.

Tomorrow would have been 4 weeks without my promised land-line, (when I wasn't even warned that there could be any interruption in service at all when, I signed up).  I receive an email at 17.09 today stating; We have checked with our technical team and they have mentioned that the order is stuck in open status due to application issue. We are working on getting the issue resolved as soon as possible..'  Apparently my sister has been phoning daily to test it an around 7pm this evening she found that my number now works, (38 emails and web-chats,  hours of wasted time upsets, sleep deprivation and lost income later).

A couple of days ago I sent the following email to Vodafone Complaints, based on some suggestions I had read about, which might cause incomplete number porting, (so perhaps the resolution was due to them correcting a typing error - who knows);

directorscomplaints@care.vodafone.co.uk

Good morning,

Week 3 and I still do not have a working land-line.

My research suggest that a possible cause of the might be;-

'because Vodafone haven't set up the VOIP profile correctly in the router. The only way to sort this is to contact Vodafone and give them the serial number on the bottom of the router. Once this is done, get Vodafone to recreate the VOIP profile on the router, after this you will be able to make incoming and outgoing calls.'

My router serial number; S/N: CP...............

I understand that another reason for incomplete number porting could be incorrect address or post code.

My correct full address is;

My latest line of research (pardon the pun), based on the inference that BT were at fault for not doing what ever they had to do to release my number (previously connected via BT socket and copper lines to VoIP), was to see if I could contact the right department at BT, to ask their advice as to where things stood, (but I had not found much so far).

The other suggestion to push for resolution, (based on other peoples reported experience that the longer this goes on, the less likely that it is that the number will ever be recovered), was to contact Radio 4's You and Yours program.  They have been reporting a lot about this issue on this program. Today's program covered it - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001s5cy (39.45 minutes into the program).

Apparently some people have had success emailing Vodafone UK's chief executive Ahmed Essam can be contacted via ahmed.essam@vodafone.com.

A few factors from my research for you-

Someone from the Vodafone Billing Department advised me on the phone, to ask to escalate complaint;

Have it noted - pro rata right to not be charged monthly for the period that service is not working.
Have it noted - my right to ongoing compensation.
Phone Switch - claiming compensation.
Any loss of service that occurs during a switch should not be longer than one working day and providers must compensate you if things go wrong.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice-for-businesses/switching/switching-landline
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complaints/complain-about-phones-or-internet-services
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...
compensation-need-know
 
Vodafone Complaint - Ombudsman
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/06/broadband-mobile-firms-bill-help-struggling/

First, log the complaint with your provider. Each provider has its own complaints procedure, but you should start by explaining what the problem is and what you want them to do about it - and include any evidence to support the complaint. Your provider will be able to advise you on the next steps.
Your provider has six to eight weeks to resolve your complaint but you may get a written response sooner. Once you've been sent a 'deadlock letter', which'll contain a final offer, if you're still not happy you can then you can take your complaint to the appropriate alternative dispute resolution scheme.

If you're unhappy, take the complaint to an adjudication scheme. All providers apart from Virgin Media, Virgin Mobile and Sky use the free Ombudsman service.

Automatic compensation: What you need to know 08 June 2023

Our automatic compensation scheme means broadband and landline customers will get money back from their provider when things go wrong, without having to ask for it.

When you will receive compensation

Firms that signed up to the scheme will provide compensation for delayed repairs following a loss of service, missed repairs or provision appointments, and delays to the start of a new service.

Delayed repair following loss of service Their service has stopped working and it is not fully fixed after two full working days. £9.33 for each calendar day that the service is not repaired

What you need to do to receive compensation

If your service doesn’t start on the agreed date, or if your engineer appointment is missed, your provider will pay compensation automatically – meaning you don’t need to take any action to receive the compensation.
If your broadband or landline service stops working, you will simply have to report the fault to your provider. If the service is not fixed after two full working days, you would not need to ask for compensation or contact your provider again, as your provider has systems in place that mean you will start receiving compensation automatically if the repair takes too long.
You will receive an initial £9.33 if the service is not fixed two full working days after you report it, and then £9.33 for each full day it is still not fixed after that.
What services are eligible for compensation payments
The scheme covers all residential fixed broadband and landline products.
When you should receive compensation
Compensation should be paid no later than:

30 calendar days after a delayed start of a new service is resolved or the service is cancelled;
30 calendar days after the loss of service is resolved or the service is terminated;
30 calendar days after the date of the missed appointment.

How compensation will be paid

Unless you agree otherwise, compensation will be a credit on your bill. The credit will appear on your account within the timeframes above but may show on your bill at a later date.

Your provider can offer you alternative forms of compensation of the same or higher value, as long they make you aware of how much you could receive in the form of a credit on your bill.

What if you don't receive the compensation you believe you should?

If you don’t receive compensation you believe you’re entitled to under the scheme, raise it with your provider. Unresolved complaints can go through an Ofcom-approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complaints/complain-about-phones-or-internet-services

Good Luck,

Gillian

[kj-mil71]

Very glad to hear your usual landline number now works at last @GillianLockie . This gives me a glimmer of hope that this incredibly frustrating experience might actually have a resolution.

Thanks also for all that useful information regarding escalation and compensation ... should things not get resloved. I will prompt Vodafone to see that their compensation sceme does kick in automatically and if not I will press for them to sort that at least.

[kj-mil71]

Just to update what has been tried out. I have factory reset the router 4 times now over the past two weeks. The most recent of which was carried out while on the phone with Vodafone 2nd line support this morning. This made zero difference to the landline not receiving calls. I said to them that I did not think it was a hardware issue, not at my end anyway. They still had me disconnect and try a couple of different handsets. But anyway, no change regardless of handset used.

I asked the support agent I was speaking with to themselves try ringing my landline to see what result they got. That this wasn't something that any agent I have spoken with over the last few weeks has tried already is slightly worrying.

I could almost understand this sort of problem arising when you are trying to port across your existing landline number from another provider to Vodafone. Things in complex systems go awry, I understand. However, Vodafone themselves are providing me with this number on a fresh installation. They have punted the problem back to the technical support team and say that they will get back to me.

[kj-mil71]

The merry-go-round continues. I've been on the phone with 2nd line support three times altogether now. First time, it was factory reset of the router. No result. Second time it was to get me to make three different attempts to call the landline from three different phones and tell them the network carriers being used. Then I was told they'd get back to me. 3rd time, they wanted me to try different handsets. All to no avail. Then a few days pass with nothing. I raise a formal complaint on Saturday 10th November because of the time this is taking. The compaints team call me and say that they're sure this can be resolved within 24 to 48 hours and that they'll get in touch with Support. I get an SMS from 2nd Line Support today at 11am to say they'll be ringing me in a few minutes about this fault ...... 6 hours later, I'm still waiting. The call doesn't arrive. Really comically bad.

Later today I get back on with the online chat for 2nd Line Support and another frustrating hour passes. I'm told to make three attempts at calling the faulty landline and to note down the times and network carriers being used. I remonstrate that I've already done all this. This is to no avail. I'm told that I need to do it or they cannot pass the fault through to the Voice Traffic Service Team. I need to note down the details and then email the results over - I'm apparently going to be sent an SMS with email address details to send the results to but I'm not holding my breath that I'll be sent this either.

I'm told there is no port problem with the landline number. The "Port In Team" say that everything maps as it should. I retort that this landline number is being provided by Vodafone themselves, it's not being ported over from anywhere. This fact is glossed over.

To make matters worse, the agent keeps being unable to type back their replies for "systemic reasons" and at the end I'm unsure if they are still there. I end up typing Hello? Are we still connected? Many minutes pass and no reply is ever forthcoming. This is rapidly descending into farce.

[kj-mil71]

Still waiting for a fix to this problem. It has now gone through multiple tech teams and I get a phone call about every three days from the Home Broadband 2nd line Support Team to tell me that there's nothing new to report. On Friday the 24th it will be 4 weeks since I reported the fault. If your digital landline has a fault upon provisioning/deployment, be prepared for a lengthy multi-week wait for it to get resolved. Is this sort of waiting time reasonable? I'm not sure that it is.

[GillianLockie]

Hi, sorry to hear that you are still without your land-line.  Just to remind you, my number became active at the end of week 4,  3 days after I sent Vodafone an email containing my router serial number (with a photograph of the label), and my full address, (my research suggesting that any errors in in either of these, could cause the number porting process to not complete), which might perhaps be a smoking gun?  If that is the case though, what they had, or rather had not been doing, for the previous 4 weeks, given that you would expect that information to be the first thing that they would check, rather begs the question.  I agree with you, I was given absolutely no warning that there could or would be any possibility of any interruption of phone service.  Anyone who tried to phone the number on my business card of 30 years, will have thrown the card away, so goodness knows how much income that I have lost. 

Below is Vodafone's email to me regarding compensation;

Regards,

Gillian

Thank you for getting in touch with us. We're very sorry about your experience which has led to your complaint on 20 October 2023.

We've reviewed the details that you've provided about your complaint from your account, and can see you explained that your landline was not working since activation of your services.

We've now looked into this and found that your landline was not working due to open order issue.

To resolve this, we can confirm that the order is completed and your landline should be working. Since the issue with the landline is not covered under auto compensation hence you are not eligible for any auto compensation.

As exception, we have applied £50 credit towards your Vodafone account which will adjust in your upcoming bills. If you have any further issues with your services, we request you to kindly contact our tech team for further troubleshooting.

Once again, please accept our sincere apologies for the experience that you've received on this occasion, and that you've had to raise a complaint with us.

We hope that the actions we've taken detailed above have resolved your issue. However, if you do have any further questions, please let us know via our complaints portal.

For