Just joined Virgin Media, broadband great, have a question about the phone side of it
 

I've just joined Virgin from BT, i'm happy with the broadband speed, i've got a question about the phones i'm using.

I've just bought some BT8500 phones, they block nuisance calls if you have caller ID enabled etc. I can't get them to work on the new Virgin phone line, it keeps saying "Line Cord Error" and i can't get a dialing tone. I tested a basic spare phone that we have and it works perfectly, i've done a google search and i've seen that other people have had the same issue with this model of phone but it doesn't give the answer as to how they got them working in the end, any ideas ? Are Virgin sockets wired different and need an adjustment in the wiring ?

Happy with the broadband speed though

http://beta.speedtest.net/result/6414881980.png

The sockets should be wired the same, so that shouldn't be an issue - a friend of mine has a triple pack of the BT8500 and they work fine (I know, because I set them up for him).

I know he recently had an issue with one handset (I believe it showed up as a "dead" handset), but that was resolved by taking the batteries out and putting them back in.

That probably doesn't help much though...

Thanks anyway Simes. i've tried everything including resetting the handsets, resetting the base, taking the batteries out of the handsets etc ... Still can't get a dialing tone and the line error remains on the phone display.

Might be best to just ring VM for help ?

That's what they are there for.

Their tech line is usually pretty good.

I rang the tech line on 150, didn't get anywhere really. They said that as long as the line worked on another phone (which it does) then it must be down to the phones that i'm using as to why i'm getting the Line cord error message.

I know that isn't accurate really as i've done a few google searches and quite a few people have reported the same issue with Virgin, using the same model of phone with the same Line cord error message. One forum user said an engineer came out and made some adjustments in the cab box in the street and they then worked after, others got them working via a PM message from a tech mod on the Virgin website forum.

I'll leave the engineer visit for now, i'll register with that Virgin forum website and see what they come up with, if i get nowhere with that i'll request an engineer visit.

May be different now but you used to have to pay extra for caller IDs. The phone numbers would never show up on our phones display and when i asked i was told i had to pay extra per month. This was a good few years back though.

I've got casller ID enabled with Virgin, i managed to get it for free, normally it's £2 a month i think. This one is baffling me, no matter what i try i get the same result, "Line Cord Error".

I think i've solved the mystery as to why they wouldn't work.

It seems you can only use the original wall socket cable that's included in the box and use it direct from the phone to the master socket, the wiring in the included cable must be different to a stock phone wall socket cable.

In our house we have an extension cable that runs behind the skirting boards, i was using the original cable that came in the box to plug the phone base into the extension cable connector, as soon as i tried it direct to the master socket it worked fine with a dialing tone. Only prob now is having the base where the master socket is located is no good really, i'll need to get an extension cable made up which is wired exactly to the included cable as you can't use a stock cable with this phone.