‘Silly’ telephone goings-on leave Sussex villagers talking to the speaking clock

A telephone glitch is leaving people in a Sussex village on tenterhooks ... because they keep getting put through to BT’s speaking clock.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Feb 2019, 11:24 BST
Updated 26th Feb 2019, 12:45 BST
When people in Billingshurst try to dial out on their landlines they find themselves talking to the speaking clock SUS-190226-110857001When people in Billingshurst try to dial out on their landlines they find themselves talking to the speaking clock SUS-190226-110857001
When people in Billingshurst try to dial out on their landlines they find themselves talking to the speaking clock SUS-190226-110857001

A number of people in Billingshurst say that whenever they try to make a call from their landline - they end up being told the time.

And some say that, if it’s not the speaking clock which intercepts their call, they have found themselves put through to the emergency services, or simply given the ‘number unobtainable’ sound.

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They have branded the goings-on as ‘silly’ and ‘a total pain.’ In desperation, some have even replaced their telephones, thinking the glitch was the fault of their handsets - only to find they encountered the same problem on their new phones.

And to add insult to injury, phone-users are being charged 50p a time for accessing BT’s speaking clock service.

Now many have taken to social media to share their frustrations. One said: “We have had an engineer here this morning and he was confused - luckily we got him to dial out and he got the talking clock!”

Another spoke of multiple occasions of being put through to the time-announcement service and said: “Something is definitely not right in the village.”

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Residents in the village say the problem has been going on for about six weeks but when they have complained to BT they’ve been told the problem is with their own equipment.

BT has been approached for a comment.