New FTTP installation - phone cut-off and missing ringback tone

[sheriffbuck]

New installation down in Verwood, Dorset. OpenReach installed FTTP ready for Vodafone to activate BB and Digital Voice service 2 week ago today.

BB appears to be working fine. Ping test consistent 10ms with no obvious connection drops.

Digital Voice is a bit of a mess. Line "appears" to be working in that calls come in and can be made, but suffers two issues:

1. No ring-back tone is heard from callers calling the LL number. They dial the number, but they get silence rather than "ring ring". House phones ring fine, but often caller hangs up because they assume there is a problem because they don't get the ringing tone on their handset.
2. All outgoing calls get cut off after 29 minutes and 28 seconds duration. A tone is heard on the LL at the point of cut-off, then silence. Router shows call in progress. Receiving handset is disconnected.

Been passed around the houses for over a week with Tier 1 support who really didn't know what to do. I kept getting fobbed off by being told it's an OpenReach installation issue, or my router needed to be reset/upgraded/reflashed/turned upside down to pour out the problems....

I suspect it's an issue with Vodafone's SIP gateway service which has nothing to do with OpenReach, but I'm no expert here.

Finally got engagement from Tier 2 on Friday with a ticket number and a direct line. Ran some tests for them on Sunday, so sitting in wait for a response.

I wanted to get this posted in case others were having a similar issue and nothing was showing up in Internet searches.

I was told by one call handler that the problem had been reported by other users.

[neilroper]

Hi,

I am having a very similar problem after switching to Vodafone and getting the new Digital Voice service. My phone cuts off after 29 minutes and 49 seconds, just beeps then the line goes dead. I am able to redial and it will last another 29 minutes and 49 seconds before cutting off again. Note I am not on FTTP I am on FTTC.

Is there a known fix for this problem yet?

Thanks,

Neil

[Ripshod]

Vodafone have known about this unintended time limit on calls for years. I would have thought it would be fixed by now. It'll use a lot of your personal time but you can get speedy contact to get it sorted here

https://vodafone.co.uk/bbservcd 

[sheriffbuck]

I've had a mix of different explanations from the 2nd tier support team. The most convincing was someone who said the problem only affected around 20 customers and it related to Vodafone's on VOIP infrastructure (OpenReach simply provide the pipe from the property through to Vodafone). I took a call this week to say that the latest line of testing was inconclusive and they were waiting on a generous customer (one of the 20 people) to run some more tests for them......

Still waiting for a resolution. I suspect as it's only 20 customers, this isn't getting a particularly high priority.....

[sheriffbuck]

17 phone calls later and no progress. I'm going round in circles.

The latest calls today were the last straw when the T2 handler couldn't even describe my issue based on the notes they had in front of them. It's an absolute shambles. They don't have a clue. Today they told me that it hadn't been escalated to a department for issue, despite being told a week ago that it had. I was asked to repeat the same set of test phone calls that they asked me to do last weekend. I ring every couple of days and get fobbed off with more excuses.

My 84 year-old mother-in-law is vulnerable and is stressed to the max over her phone line not working properly since it was installed 3 weeks ago. I have explained that on numerous occasions.

Even more galling is that we are continued to be charged by Vodafone despite not getting the service we are paying for, and despite one of the handlers telling me they would request that billing be stopped.

They told me today that Voice Traffic Services are aware of the issue and it is affecting multiple customers and have an outage NETxxxxxx46 number assigned.

I'm contemplating cancelling their contract at this point. No-one seems to be interested in fixing the issue and the customer service system is beyond broken. Such a needless waste.