BT to EE and no Digital Home Phone

[WillKirk]

Been a BT customer for quite a number of years and had the pleasure of having a perfectly working Digital Voice service since switched.

A couple of days ago I phoned up and asked to change to the New EE as that’s the way things are going now and thought I would give it a go.

Have the new Smart Hub Plus and ever since I have had no phone service. The hub states Not Configured.

Swap back to the BT Smart Hub 2 and it appears immediately, shows phone number on hub, phones work when paired and dial tone.

Back to the Smart Hub Plus and stubbornly stays on Not Configured.

All I have talked to at EE over the phone are confused by this (once they get passed the: what does it do when you try to make a call? How many handsets do you have? Silly questions when they have already been told that the hub is showing no VoIP Service).

The case has now been ‘passed up’ to [some acronym] team but so far I have had no confirmation, proof or evidence really that this true and I’m not being left in the lurch because they don’t know what to do.

Seems to me that the Smart Hub Plus obviously has buggy software but, what do I do? Because no one seems to know what to do when the service is obviously being provided (as with other hub it activates) but nothing they do from within EE kicks it in on the equipment they have provided me…?

I haven’t paid my first bill yet and I’m thinking perhaps holding it to ransom will get me nowhere but I will be paying £12 a month for unlimited calls on a service that simply doesn’t exist (from the consumer standpoint).

Anyone know of anything similar and any solutions to this? A clever hit with a hammer in the right place, or twist of blue wire to red wire to Hotwire Digital Voice into life?

That aside I’m also disappointed with the lack of configuration backup and restore and the lackluster event log on this new Plus router… the font could do with changing too. So close to Comic Sans it hurts a little inside when I see the GUI 🙂

But back onto a serious note… I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do at this point as it’s not in my nature to lay down and be fobbed off but instead to ‘get it fixed’.

[gwe47]

Thanks for your reply.  All along it has simply said "Not configured"

I have been speaking with them again, this time a technical team rather than the value teams I've spoken with before.  It appears that the problem is something to do with the "order failing" on Digital Voice.  They sound as confused about it as I am.  I was then transferred to the value team, and another new broadband contract taken out, this time at the original speed I wanted with the Digital Voice included, with an engineer due to visit this weekend to make sure it's configured properly.  I really hope it works this time.  Overall, deeply unhappy with EE/BT...

[fennie561]

I think everyone's response to EE/BT should be "how hard can it be to provide voice communications?" - how about we fall back to good old copper?

[JimM11]

@gwe47 As it say's on the tin, EE or BT whoever has not included to have the DV setup to the router. Until it's done you will have NO landline, just hope if you are keeping your number it's safe and tucked away so you can have it.

[gwe47]

I can't disagree, but the fact is I had digital voice working through BT for over two years.  They seemed to be able to do it.  Despite some teething problems with BT over some aspects (I think we had 4 sets of SIM cards at one point sent through for mobiles for some reason...) there was never this level of trouble with them.  Since switching to EE, almost everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong.

[wadinga]

Hi gwe47,

 "Since switching to EE, almost everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong." 

Amen to that:

Cancelled orders and variations in scope of service without telling this new customer. Random SKY Q crashes through Ethernet connections (cured by going wireless) , Ethernet ports that only work at all to PCs through a 5-port splitter, double billing from EE and BT Business as phone number not actually transferred, and when it is, Yealink phones (required when line went digital) don't work any more and nobody at EE even bothers to make a test call to confirm successful transfer and it takes 5 days for a tech to come back and say only an old phone in the green port will work. 

Previous BT Business hub had none of these problems, and maybe my ignorance over phone compatibility is a factor but surely two arms of the same organisation could pass technical information on for the benefit of the customer? 

wadinga 

[Kend0]

I had exactly the same problem. I have a BT DECT phone and couldn't get it to work. With the EE Smart Hub Plus. You need to plug your phone into the back of the hub and it will then work (without your Digital Voice Adapter)  I couldn't do this because my hub is upstairs in my office and my phone is downstairs. Got over it though by doing away with the Digital Voice Adapter. I then plugged my downstairs phone into a nearby extension socket  which is  part of my old copper wiring.  Next, I went upstairs and plugged an ADSL Filter into my Master Socket, plugged an RJ11 lead into it and plugged the other end into the back of my EE Smart Hub Plus. It all then works fine.

[Paul526]

I'd just like to add that I'm not impressed with EE. First of all they gave me a brand new landline number that I didn't ask for, the one I've had for 25 years was fine, why on earth would someone, particularly someone 'upgrading' from BT, want to change. I rang, several times, on hold for over 15 minutes each time until a time amazingly I got through within a minute. Luckily my old number hadn't be reallocated so the customer support switched me back. Hilariously this resulted on her being cut off as the change went through.
All well and good you might think, but no, my digital phone tells me "No service on your line". Yet there is, it can make and receive calls no problem. Buried in the settings is the number EE allocated me, not my number. Cue several 15 minutes on hold before I get fed up calls to customer service. I've given up for today.

I've sent back the BT router.

All this for what has actually turned out to be a 31p cheaper monthly bill, faster broadband and an extra TV box. Also the mobile sim they sent me was for a more expensive deal that BT Mobile gave me. Not happy, going for a lie down.

[fennie561]

I've found that if you use the text service on the mobile, you can ask for a "guide" to call you back rather than waiting.

I think you text "phone" to 66033 and eventually respond "Guide" and someone will call you back.

I must say that the EE Router, extender and app are far superior to the Bt one.. it's just voice (you'd think there core service) which is sh$t...

[Paul526]

If the 66033 service, when it works, is anything like the BT equivalent it sets off a series off tests after which you get a text back which will then say text 'Callback' if you still have a problem. 

My issue is that I don't seem to be able to text 66033 in the first place! Maybe that's an issue with my new mobile provider?

[JimM11]

@Paul526 Yes exact same system PHONE to 66033 start's of the router test, if fault found then reported back, and eventually GUIDE text back initiates the EE or BT Guide service from there end to give you the call on your mobile. But if your phone service is stopping the text send then that needs to be fixed with your provider.