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Phone only rings randomly

Hobbes1218
Dialled in

Hi folks, I only have a Virgin landline so my 97 year old mum can call me. For my mum it is a lifeline in case she needs me urgently. She does have other means of getting in touch but she may forget how. A few months ago I noticed that the landline was either not ringing when she called or had a strange strangulated sort of ring so I bought a new landline phone from a different company. This new phone has a similar problem. If I test it by calling from my mobile it either rings fine or doesn't ring at all. If I look at the landline phone when I call it, it sometimes shows the number that is calling but still doesn't ring. At other times the landline phone doesn't even show it is being called. If I pick up the landline when I call it there is always a connection regardless of whether it rings or shows an incoming call or not.

It would seem to be too much of a coincidence that I have bought two sets of phones that have the same weird problem. Can anyone offer any ideas as to the cause of this problem? I hate to think of mum trying to call and not being able to get me at her age.

Thanks for any help.

Chris

 

 

21 REPLIES 21

Zoie_P
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Okay thank you for clearing this up, I can get a tech to come and take a look for you, I will pop you over a PM to get some details and we can go from there 🙂

Just keep an eye out for the little purple envelope.
Zoie

nodrogd
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

This is likely the same type of "ring trip" fault I suffer from occasionally. The phone rings once, then only to partially ring or not ring at all.

This is usually a "line voltage too low" issue, or a switch problem. VMs cable phone switching equipment is located in the street node boxes & not at the exchange as is the case with BTs.

All the connections back to the street cabinet need checking, especially the connection in the omni-box on the front wall, which is exposed to moisture & therefore corrosion can result.

VM 350BB 2xV6 & Landline. Freeview/Freesat HD, ASDA/Tesco PAYG Mobile. Cable customer since 1993

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Thanks for all the good advice folks. I'm still waiting to hear back from Virgin. Unfortunately tonight my mum's landline phone also now seems to have a fault. She can recieve incoming calls but she can't call me. If I try and call anyone using her phone it just calls Virgin as if I had typed in 150 regardless of the number called. I took my landline to her house and the problem is the same.

Does anyone have any idea what might cause this problem?

My brother and I managed to get an engineer appointment but not until next Friday. She has an emergency mobile but I'm not sure she will remember how to use it. So a confused 97 year old woman is now pretty much cut off. I'll call Virgin tomorrow but it seems very difficult to talk to anyone who realises the urgency of this situation.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Chris, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this. I can see you're already in PM with Zoie regarding your own landline fault. 

In terms of your mother's fault, I can certainly have a look to see if we can get an appointment before Friday. To do this I will need to confirm some of your mum's account information though. 

I have sent you a private message regarding this. Just click on the little plum envelope at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox.

Thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

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Hi Chris, 

As we're no longer swapping any account sensitive information, we can move this back to the public space 🙂

Even though your mum has no broadband, part of the migration will include installing a broadband hub to allow the phone to work. There will be no active broadband connection though unless you decide to add this service at a later date. 

I'm glad I've been able to help though. 

If you have any further issues, just pop back and let me know. 

Thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

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Thanks very much Kath. You are a superstar!

Chris

 

 

My pleasure Chris. 

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Don't forget to pop back and let us know how your engineer visit goes. 

Thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

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Hi Chris, 

Thanks for sticking with me via private message and for updating me on how the engineer visit for your mum and yourself. 

Whilst we do what we can from this end, not all engineers have access to phones to let you know when on your way I'm afraid so I can only apologise no one called in advance. I am glad that you were there and I am hoping things are sorted for your mother now? 

With your phone line, if you're wanting it switched over, the team can arrange this for you in advance it just wouldn't be done automatically like your mum's has due to your address not being switched over yet. If you want to change then speak to the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111 and they can amend the account and arrange the switchover for you. 

Let us know how you get on. 

Thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

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OK thanks Kath. I'll give them a ring.

Cheers,

Chris

 

 

No worries at all Chris. 

Keep us updated on how things go. 

If you have any further issues, pop back here and let us know. 

Thanks, 

Kath_F
Forum Team

New around here? Check out the do's and don'ts, in our Community FAQs