Customer Services

All Option Telecom phone lines are backed by BT Openreach – the Wholesale arm of BT, and as such we report any faults on your line to BT for investigation and rectification.

If a fault should occur on your line, please see the self-help guide here before reporting the fault to us. When reporting the fault, please email support@optiontelecom.co.uk with the following information:

• Have the basic checks been carried out and the fault is still assumed to be on the line?
• Phone number affected.  If this is a DDI we will need the underlying main number instead
• Nature of the fault: does it affect inbound and or outbound calls, is it continuous or intermittent (how frequent), do you have other lines and do they work? If there are problems dialling out, some example calls (number, date/ time and result) will speed up the diagnosis. A general description of the fault is also useful. If the fault is due to noise on the line, please state the nature, frequency and level of the noise.
• Contact name & number
• Normal working hours for site access
• Number to route inbound calls to for the duration of the fault (not available in every case)
• Question – If a fault is reported and Openreach decide that it was down to equipment (which they will do if they can’t trace the fault) then who pays the callout charge? EG there is a small hole in my line which attracts water. When the sun comes up the water dries and causes about half an hour of crackles and broadband failure. Running an automated line check gives a fault but by the time Openreach investigate the sun is well up and the line is Ok again. If I call them out they charge and blame my equipment.

Self-checking guide

If possible, please try the following checks before reporting a fault to us: -

1. Is the phone or fax machine plugged into the phone socket correctly?
2. Is there power on the equipment (if applicable)?
3. Remove all equipment from the line (faxes, routers, modems, card terminals, etc.) and just use a simple phone – do this work?
4. Unplug any extension cables and try the phone where the master socket is located.
5. Try dialling in to the number from another phone – what message do you receive?
6. If your line goes through a switchboard, are all extensions affected the same way?
7. If the fault affects outbound calls only, try dialling with 1280 as a prefix before the number – does this work?
8. If you have ADSL Broadband on the line, please check that your microfilter is plugged in.  Try replacing it if you have a spare.

If after all these tests the fault is still apparent with only a single phone attached to the line, then please see the Support guide on how to report the fault.
If dialling out with 1280 worked, but doesn’t without it, please also report this fact.

If you need any queries please

Call Us Now On +44 (0) 870 626 0626