Constant "no number calls" since moving to IP Telephone from landline (Home) (Resolved)

[Chris_Myers]

My area has recently been migrated from landline to IP telephony which seems to work well with one exception.  My received calls report 10-20 daily calls from "no number".  There is no call made (no ringing) and no message left, just a report that "no number" called and a time.  OFCOM state it should be addressed to the provider and the Telephone preference service state they can do nothing with marketing or computer generated calls.  This did not happen until switched to IP telephony and has been daily since (coincidentally - I think not).  This appears to be a man-in-the-middle network attack and is therefore worrying (as well as filling my recent calls with rubbish).  Virgin media say they cannot see these calls, yet their system records it on my recent calls log. Anyone else having this problem or have a resolution?

[MOD EDIT: Please see post for an update ]

[fraserormston]

I received an email yesterday asking me to fill in a survey as to what I thought about my service from VM. Well did I have fun filling that in. I gave them all zeros as there were no minus options. I could not find anything positive to say about the service they provided me. I wonder if they will call me. 

[Ernie_C]

@ModTeam 

Having just converted, I too suffer this issue.

While the explanation seems viable, I personally doubt these ‘power fluctuations’ are the root cause.

These ‘no number’ calls, for me at least, are REGULAR, occurring every 3 hours 20 minutes.

For example, such calls were logged overnight for me at 23:45, 3:05, 6:25 and 9:45.

I await the next one at 13:05.

This would suggest to me that this is not some random fluctuation but some action your equipment is taking on a regular basis.

Please pass this on to the engineers looking into this.

Thanks…..

[Chris_Myers]

Good luck convincing them of that or even in getting some form of reply from the technicians/managers

[Ernie_C]

@ModTeam @Chris_Myers 

Having reviewed the appearance of these ‘no number’ calls today, I am convinced these are caused by some ‘heartbeat’ function of the telephone system.

This heartbeat data is either wrong or being incorrectly interpreted by the phones that show the issue.

Uninterrupted, these happen regularly every 3 hours 20 minutes but an active call will interrupt the sequence which starts again at this same interval when the call completes.

Those whose job it is to manage this telephone system should be able to understand what is happening and suggest a fix if possible.

[Client62]

Analogue phones were not intended deal with SIP calls, the time info logged could be quite spurious.

[Yorkie220860]

OK. Forgive me I've just happened upon this thread & found it both interesting & annoying.

So, basically, VM are saying that this issue has been known about since last year & still there is no definitive solution?

What I find strange is that when I called VM yesterday (both offshore & UK) no one seemed to know of the issue. Furthermore the technician who they sent today (13/6) didn't seem to know about the issue either? For an issue taking almost 200 pages you'd have thought it would have filtered down to someone by now?

So what next? Are VM advising everyone who THEY made switch to the VOIP systems change phones because their Hub has an issue? Have they issued a list anywhere of phones / systems that actually work as they should?

The "NO Number" calls are annoying but more worrying is that on occasions these calls have made it impossible to make an outgoing call without disconnecting the line from the hub !!!! Not ideal with a disabled partner who may need to call someone for help & find the handset is unavailable. Be assured if anything happens because of this there will be consequences.

Why not just bite the bullet and admit the Hub has issues? Develop one that actually works as it should and resolve this once & for all. In the meantime I guess we're all being told to "Like it or lump it".

[Chris_Myers]

I have today received my "letter of apology" regarding procedures (such as not flowing issues down to help desk, engineers, and wider customer base) as advised by the Ombudsman - but it did not come from Virgin Media. Rather it came from Liberty Global - more specifically, a Consumer Claims Specialist at Liberty Global Legal Operations. 

As we all know, Virgin Media O2 launched on 1 June 2021, what I did not know, and you may not know, is that they are the corporate brand of the 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica SA, certainly I have never had a communication from, or heard of, them before - nor do I have any contract with Liberty Global.. 

The "letter of apology" consisted of five lines of text. The main two lines stated "On behalf of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) I write to apologise for your customer journey, the issues and service you have experienced" and "I will ensure these issues are fed back to the relevant team within VMO2 to help process improvement and communication with customers" . A third line does say a small some of money will be winging its way to me as compensation for the inconvenience within 5 days (but won't even cover my time trying to get some form of response from VM direct).

So still VM cannot communicate directly with its customers even to apologise, or offer any solution. We all know by now not to expect any change from statements such as  "ensure these issues are fed back to the relevant team".  My advice, LEAVE NOW.

[NinjaMeerkat]

Liberty Global have owned Virgin Media since 2013. This is why all tv subscribers will eventually be forced give up our V6 set top boxes in favour of the inferior V360.

Telefonica have owned O2 since 2005.

[FundingNecker]

I haven't posted on here for a while, not because the problem has gone away – it hasn't – but because what little spare time I have now seems to be taken up with deleting these ghost calls so my BT phone at least has some memory capacity.

I've tried several reboots with no success (no surprise). I've also examined when the ghost calls occur, to see if they follow the same pattern Ernie C identified. Mine don't; they tend to be either 2.5 hours or 50 minutes apart, with some anomalies and the seemingly more frequent 63:44, a time of day unknown to all humankind except Virgin Media.

I've been a Virgin Media customer since 2003, with Broadband, TV and landline since 2016. Until now any problems were quickly and correctly resolved, but this is utterly depressing. I can do without the disruption of porting my phone, finding a new broadband provider, etc right now, but if this isn't resolved by the time I'm due to retire (which is imminent) I'll be following the example of several on this thread and taking my business elsewhere. Surely there must be other suppliers who are not so indifferent or uncaring about their customers' problems?

[Sheepasleep]

We’re away for a few days shortly as we’ve not had break in ages. 

My wife is waiting for a date for an operation and although we’re not away long, our answerphone will fill up with these non-existent calls long before we get back home! It’s ridiculous that this is still going on, with still no estimate on a fix date.

I’m sure Virginmedia are just relying on the fact that we’ll all either give up and be forced to replace our phones or they might lose the odd customer in the process (which they’re clearly not that bothered about).

Rehetorical question, but as we didn’t ask for it, I don’t suppose we could be switched back to analogue phone lines until Virginmedia are actually ready to switch us to a reliable digital service that’s been properly tested and that doesn’t cause this issue?