Hub 5 phone line problem - adds 1111 to numbers

[Crazyforcats]

I'm trying to help my elderley aunt with her landline. 

She recently was sent a Hub 5. Internet works great but nothing but problems with the phone. 

Plugged her BT Premium Phone in and it sort of worked. She started getting phantom calls showing up on her Calls list but no actual calls.

Thought it was a similar problem to this https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Home-Phone/Constant-quot-no-number-calls-quot-since-moving-to-I...

An engineer came round yesterday and said that her phone was incompatible with VMs Hub 5 - not sure how true this is as I wasn't there to ask questions. 

I tested the phone this morning and found it was plugged into TEL 2 port so wouldn't work, Swapped to TEL 1 and started getting somewhere. 

Manually dialled a number and it rang out fine. BUT added numbers to Contact list in phone (a must as she has TRUECALL added/built into the BT phone) tried dialling out on several contacts and it adds 1111 to the number - this immediately dials NHS 111.

Is it the phone or the VM line? Is there a fix without having to buy a new phone as that was not mentioned when the new Hub was offered?

[Molly_T]

Hi Crazyforcats 👋 welcome to the community! Thank you for posting to bring this to our attention!

Sorry to hear of these issues getting your Aunt's phone sorted with the hub 5. 

Sadly I am inclined to say that as there has been an engineer attend the property and advise the handset for the landline is not compatible with the hub 5 that this is the answer - it is not compatible. Sadly we don't have a list of compatible handsets are most are usually compatible, but not all. 

I can appreciate its not the best news, but sadly they have the expertise in this field, and have also been able to attend and test with the current handset. However, I do appreciate this may be frustrating and would like to help if at all possible - on this basis would you be able to let us know if;

1) you were present for the visit, and 2) if the engineer tested the handset in both telephone ports?

Just as you have also mentioned your aunt is elderly and may potentially be vulnerable - do you know if she is reliant on the landline to call emergency services if ever needed? Hopefully you are both already aware that in the unlikely event there’s a power cut or a fibre network disruption, you won’t be able to make or receive calls and most devices that are connected to your phone line (like care alarms) will be affected until the power or network’s back. However - we can get an emergency back-up line set up for her if needed! I'd like to think the engineer discussed this with you in the appointment, but please let me know if not and we can help arrange getting one installed. You can read more about this in the Emergency back up line section on this page 👉How to get a Virgin Media Fibre phone? | Virgin Media Help. 

Please let us know about the questions regarding the visit, and if you believe an emergency back up line would be needed, so we can help get this sorted for you!

All the best. 

[Crazyforcats]

Thanks for the reply Molly

Annoyingly I wasn't there yesterday when the engineer came round. The new Hub setup isn't very 'elderly friendly' especially when a lot of eldery people prefer and are more reliant on their landlines. She kept getting several phishing/scam phone calls each day and the Trucall system on the BT phone was perfect for stopping these types of calls - she now doesn't have a properly working landline and feels very vulnerable - I've been here since 9am this morning trying to look at the phone , but most of reassuring her that there will be a fix.

What do I need to look for in a new phone to know if it is compatible please? It's an unexpected expense and taking a LOT of time to resolve.

[goslow]

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@Crazyforcats wrote:

I'm trying to help my elderley aunt with her landline. 

She recently was sent a Hub 5. Internet works great but nothing but problems with the phone. 

<snip>

Is it the phone or the VM line? Is there a fix without having to buy a new phone as that was not mentioned when the new Hub was offered?

---

I think you should feel more than confident in testing the 'expertise' of the VM tech by trying some of your own tests! There have been plenty of past topics on here where a VM tech has condemned a customer's phone, only for the customer to buy a new one and find their fault issue remained.

The BT Premium phone is a modern device so should work with a VM hub. The Hub 5 has had numerous, and various, telephony issues since it was launched. Most recent one has been in your linked topic above ref phantom missed call notifications on BT phones (and some other models).

Are you able to borrow another phone (from a friend, family member, neighbour etc.) and try that to see if the 1111 prefix problem happens with a different phone via the Hub 5?

Alternatively/as well, can you try the BT Premium phone on another line (such as a neighbour etc.) to see if the issues happen on another phone line?

Have you checked the phone no. info logged against each contact to ensure it is correct and has not been corrupted?

Are there any outgoing call restrictions in place on the phone (the phone has that feature requiring a PIN for some calls if set) which might be affecting the dialling?

By working your way through the above combinations/tests you should be able to get an idea if it is actually a phone problem or a problem only when that phone is plugged into a Hub 5 (which would be a Hub 5 problem in that case!)

BT phones have a freephone product helpline for each of their phone models

https://shop.bt.com/content/uni2/documentation/d93t/premium_phone_quick_set-up_and_user_guide.pdf

which is shown in the footnote of each page above. You could try that if you conclude that the phone might actually be the issue.

[Crazyforcats]

I've reset the base and phone, deleted all contacts. Then I tried ringing a number manually - works okay. Added same number to a a new contact and it adds 1111 in front of the number as it did earlier today - rings through to NHS 111. Tried dialling the same number that was just added to contacts - it works and even displays the contact name on screen. 

Confusing. I was round here at my aunts on Sunday and this problem was not there!!! Really bloomin confused!

Going to go home, bang head against a solid wall, then return with my home phone and test. 

I'll no doubt be back on here. 🙂

[goslow]

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@Crazyforcats wrote:

I've reset the base and phone, deleted all contacts. Then I tried ringing a number manually - works okay. Added same number to a a new contact and it adds 1111 in front of the number as it did earlier today - rings through to NHS 111. Tried dialling the same number that was just added to contacts - it works and even displays the contact name on screen. 

Confusing. I was round here at my aunts on Sunday and this problem was not there!!! Really bloomin confused!

Going to go home, bang head against a solid wall, then return with my home phone and test. 

I'll no doubt be back on here. 🙂

---

If you are collecting your own phone from home to try at your aunt's, also take your aunt's phone with you and test it at your house. See if the 1111 problem happens there with the BT Premium phone. If it does, you would seem to have a problem with the phone.

[Ashleigh_C]

Thank you for updating us @Crazyforcats and we are so sorry that this has been confusing for you. 

Please do let us know how thing are looking after you have tried with another handset. 

[Crazyforcats]

Strangely I can dial in, as long as it is from the contacts list. So, the contact blocker from Trucall still works - I'll count that as a plus for today.

[Ashleigh_C]

That's great to hear and we are so sorry again that this has proved stressful for you @Crazyforcats

We will look forward to an update tomorrow. 

[Crazyforcats]

Update: yes I work quickly.

BT Premium phone works fine at my house on a BT landline. Took my own BT 3570 to my aunt's and that works fine. Only issue is that she doesn't have the Trucall blocker on the 3570.

Either it will be a new phone, once VM come up with a compatible list or VM are able to fix the issue so that the BT Premium works with a Hub 5.

Thanks for the replies. I might be back with updates in future.