Any telephone engineers out there?

[Stargazer]

Can anyone help my telephones are up the creek and it is an internal thing apparently.

[Maydup]

What's the problem stargazer?

[Stargazer]

A bit complicated. I rang BT and they said that if the problem was with anything other than something they were responsible for they would have to charge £130 minimum. They told me how to check and I believe the problem is with me and not them but it is to do with a socket that has an extension socket leading off it into a room on the first floor.

[JonnyBoy12]

Yes, I too, have heard that they can charge you up to £130 per call out. Would they tell you that they were charging this fee, or would you only find out when it was too late?

[Maydup]

Yes I have one of those and its recently stopped working. You'll either have to replace it or if that's too technical then best call a local telecom engineer, but not BT. Its a small job and shouldn't cost more than £40.

[boxtops]

Up until recently I had extension leads to take a phone into another room, and the wires worked loose at the extension end. You can easily buy a new cable and plug from B&Q or Homebase, if you think that extension is the problem.

[Maydup]

In the meantime, unscrew the piece that's added onto your socker for the extension and plug into the main point behind it. If that works you know it is definately the extension and not the whole socket. You'll be able to use the phone downstairs untill you get it fixed at least.

[emmie]

I was wondering about this, when you say local, should i be looking in yellow pages, or a local paper, as i want to get my phone cables sorted. Not too drastic i would think, its just i am not paying BT, not after their rip off charges

[Maydup]

Here's a list of independent local telephone engineers - chose your area and have a look through them.

http://phoneengineers.co.uk/index.html

[TWR]

Hi, Can you explain how the problem started, have you bought a new Exten Lead etc?

[anotheoldgit]

Maybe some of these links might help you?

http://www.wppltd.dem...one/uk_telephone.html

http://www.rob-r.co.u.../UKphonecatwiring.htm

http://www.britishtel...ring/socketwiring.htm

[TWR]

The reason I asked that Qs Star, I have a printout in front of me for problems such as the one you are talking about.

[Stargazer]

Thank you for your advice. It is the upstairs extension socket that only works once when I first plug a telephone into the socket. When I replace the phone and pick it up again there is a signal of sorts but not a dialling tone.

[TWR]

I take it all the other B.T.Sockets are working? have you put in a Filter? is the extenstion Socket New + the lead?

[ChuckFickens]

IT doesn't get much easier than telephone wiring, you only need 2 wires connected, pins 2 and 5 need to be connected from the main socket to pins 2 and 5 on the extension socket using a single pair in normal telephone cable.... there isn't much that can go wrong.