Caller gets a ringing tone when we are engaged

[alanwand]

Since the change from a telephone line to the modem link, when we are engaged a new caller gets a ringing tone and does not know we are there and engaged. Our neighbour has a similar problem.  On our phone it shows as call waiting but we don't have call waiting. I have tried explaining this to two agents and I had a real problem getting them to understand the problem.

[David_Bn]

Good Morning @alanwand, thanks for your post on our Community Forums, and a very warm welcome to you!

I'm terribly sorry to hear of this issue when callers are trying to call you.

Can check out the purple envelope in the top right hand corner for a private message from me, and I'll have an engineer booked in for you.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@alanwand wrote:

Since the change from a telephone line to the modem link, when we are engaged a new caller gets a ringing tone and does not know we are there and engaged. Our neighbour has a similar problem.  On our phone it shows as call waiting but we don't have call waiting. I have tried explaining this to two agents and I had a real problem getting them to understand the problem.

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When you were switched to a phone connection from the hub, this page below advises you will get call waiting as standard on the line

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/landline/switchover

If you are using the line and another call comes in, you would hear a beeping sound to indicate another incoming call. This possibility seems to be backed up if your phone is actually showing 'call waiting'.

The VM phone guide shows you can check if call waiting is on the line as per page 11 for 'Purple' zone. It also shows how to turn it off if you do not want that feature.

https://store.virginmedia.com/content/dam/eSales/Downloads/Phone%20User%20Guide.pdf

[David_Bn]

Thanks for coming back to me over private message @alanwand.

I've booked in an engineer for you as there are one or two things we may need to look at.

To view the time and date of the appointment, please log into your self-care account and you will be able to view and amend the appointment if required.

It would be worth looking into the helpful links by @goslow to see if this combats the issue you're facing, but I would still advise allowing the engineer to visit you too.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[alanwand]

Thank you oh Wise one. I have turned the feature on but it isn't very impressive. There was one beep and the person trying to get through does not get the traditional message "the person you are dialling knows you are waiting"  So it is very likely that they will terminate the call before you can politely say to the  existing caller, excuse me I have another call coming in, I'll get back to you in a moment"

If Virgin have added Call Waiting for free - they have never said so.  The booklet that came with the new system included Call Waiting in the section titled "What you can add for a little extra." Unprofessional communications.   

That link to all the features you sent was very interesting but once again Virgin make a secret of which are free and which are charged.  

Finally someone needs to organise a training programme for the telephone agents. I wasted a lot of my time and theirs on an issue which you have explained very quickly. 

[alanwand]

Today we had an engineer visit. He knew very little about the call waiting system. He called a colleague who apparently knew more. But he told us something that was not true.  The engineer checked out our line, confirmed it was all working as it should and basically said that if the call waiting system did not meet our expectations that was an issue for us but not the system.

So here are the facts. If we are engaged and someone calls we get one very soft bleep not what is described in Virgin' literature as a "gentle bleeping noise"  Its true that information comes up on the phone screen but if that is held next to the ear and we miss the the one very soft bleep, that information is worse than useless. The engineer said the bleep is a function of our phone - not Virgin's responsibility.  I think he is wrong - its a "message" sent by Virgin's system.

If we are engaged the second caller gets a continuous ringing tone.  So eventually hangs up as they think we are out. They get no information like in BT to say the person you are calling knows you are waiting. They get no information at all. The second engineer (the expert) said that if the second caller is on a home phone that is true but if on a mobile they get something on the screen to show that we are on another call.  We checked that out with the engineer visiting us and confirmed that was nonsense.  It just rings and rings.

In summary if the system appears to be working as designed, whoever designed got it wrong. It needs to be fixed.  We as will our closest neighbour consider giving up the home phone or perhaps moving back to BT. 

Sorry Virgin, as more and more people are switched over to the new system and eventually discover the flaws in the system, the concerns won't go away.

[Natalie_L]

Hi alanwand

Thank you for reaching back out to us. 

I am very sorry to hear you remain unhappy with the service following the visit from the technician. 

We have checked the report from our side and can confirm the technician has reported no faults on the line. 

We appreciate you are unhappy with the set up for the feature and will ensure this is fed back to the business for review. 

Please get in touch if we can assist further.

Thanks, 

[goslow]

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@alanwand wrote:

Today we had an engineer visit. He knew very little about the call waiting system. He called a colleague who apparently knew more. But he told us something that was not true.  The engineer checked out our line, confirmed it was all working as it should and basically said that if the call waiting system did not meet our expectations that was an issue for us but not the system.

<snip>  

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What happens if you turn off the call waiting feature as per the VM phone guide instructions? Presumably you would go back to the previous arrangement of the caller hearing an engaged tone and you carry on your existing call uninterrupted.

Do you make use of VM's voicemail service? Not something I have ever used myself but, in certain circumstances and combinations of features, I would expect VM's voicemail to pick up for a caller getting an engaged tone. (Don't think you can have voicemail on at the same time as call waiting though and you may possibly need to use the paid-for VM 'Voicemail Plus' to get the divert to voicemail for an engaged line).

As stated, I've never used any of these features (and don't even have a landline now!) so the above is very speculative guesswork from reading the online documents but some combo of the functions may suit your needs. Or just turn off the call waiting and go back to what you had before, waiting caller gets an engaged tone and has to call back later.

Perhaps one of the VM forum team can advise on how these different features are supposed to all work together and what further features need to be paid for.

(Incidentally, all suppliers are switching to a phone system via router and telecoms change is afoot everywhere. Even if you switch to another supplier, you will still get a phone line via the router and you may find their current phone service offering does not behave in the same way as things have done in the past, so worth checking out all the features, and how they behave, with any new supplier if you decide to move from VM)

[alanwand]

Once again very helpful.

When this first started happening I did not realise that Virgin had turned on Call Waiting, without either asking me or telling me.  I would not have noticed a single bleep. I then turned it on (yes again) to see if that cured the problem.  Obviously that made no difference.  I have now turned it off and yes it has cured the problem.  A second caller gets an engaged tone. So thats fine.

As for your other points.  I don't use the voicemail messaging service.  I have one in my home phone and that is simple to use. I can also listen to a message as its being recorded and then decide if I want to pick up or not.  Don't tell my friends. .

I realise that all suppliers  will also switch to a router operated system - I just think that some may think the system through better than I consider Virgin has. It might encourage me to change my broadband at the same time.   But I will check things out in advance.

Eventually we might as many have already go over to mobiles, but there is a convenience with the home phone that we can pick it up in a number of rooms and we can have a three way conversation using multiple handsets.

Once again I really do appreciate your constructive and helpful comments

[Evelu]

I had the same problem as the OP (same problem as everyone else though many people are probably not aware of it) and I'm grateful for the help given in this thread.

A third caller tries to phone you when the line is busy; you hear beeps but the other caller hears ringing instead of an engaged tone. The phone rings out and they assume you are out.

Typing #43# on the keypad turns off call waiting which is what is causing the problem. I cannot fathom why this is turned on by default on the Hub phone.