BT reCONnection con

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/nov/10/moneysupplement.internetphonesbroadband
BT gets its lines crossed with a fee for all

Home movers must pay £125, even if it is already a BT line. Miles Brignall reports
Saturday November 10 2007



People moving home are being charged a £125 reconnection fee by BT - even if the previous owner was a customer of the telecom giant. Those who call BT to complain have been left waiting on hold for hours.
Two weeks ago, Guardian Money told how BT was penalising people moving into a new home where the previous occupant had switched their landline to a rival supplier.
Now it appears the former monopoly provider has been taking advantage of consumer confusion, and its dominant position, by applying the same charge randomly to thousands of customers moving house.
The £125 fee, which, some might say, makes a mockery of Ofcom's attempts to bring down the cost of phone and broadband services, came about because it seems no one at the regulator considered what would what happen to "movers" under its new regime.
It does not help that the BT department responsible for connecting new customers appears to be in chaos. People are complaining it is impossible to contact - and those that do get through are often given contradictory information.
Some customers told Guardian Money they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone trying to resolve the problem, while others complain the £125 fee was "absurd" and "exorbitant".
Meanwhile, engineers are not turning up to appointments. In 2005, Ofcom insisted that BT create a separate company (now called Openreach) to manage the engineers who connect homes to the exchange. The split was intended to give all the telecoms companies equal access to the exchange network, to stimulate competition.
However, one of the unintended consequences of the decision appears to be much higher reconnection charges when a customer moves house.
BT's residential arm is allowed to charge the £125 fee if the previous occupier switched their landline to a rival supplier, through what is known as local loop unbundling. It appears to have plucked this unregulated figure out of the air, as it pays Openreach considerably less for the switch.
The problem is occurring when someone informs their telephone provider they are moving and that they want to terminate their contract.
After extensive questioning this week, BT revealed that the imposition of the charge largely depends on whether the house is near a busy exchange, where demand for lines is high. In that case, lines freed up are being quickly offered for re-use. In quiet areas, they can sit undisturbed for up to five years.
New occupiers are automatically charged the £125 fee, regardless of who used to supply the phone service. However, BT said this week that the charge should not be payable if the previous occupier was with BT. This has been refuted by readers' experiences.
Police officer Fred Trott contacted Money after reading our original article. He said he and his wife had been charged £125 when they moved into their home in Haslemere, Surrey.
The previous owner had been with OneTel, but had agreed to switch their service back to BT before they moved out. The Trotts moved in but faced an endless battle to make BT see this - its staff insisted the £125 fee was payable.
The pair, loyal BT customers for many years, say they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone to various BT departments trying to get the charge repaid - but to no avail.
A spokesman for BT says the current position regarding the £125 fee is "not ideal" and that it is looking at how it can be changed. "Where a working line exists, our intention is that reconnection should be free - but a charge of £125 applies where we have to involve an engineer.
"Where a customer is returning to join BT from a local loop unbundled competitor, our systems default to charging £125. We do intend to change this as soon as possible. It is one of a number of complex changes arising from BT Retail's adoption of a new IT system to comply with its commitment to the regulator, Ofcom."
It also confirmed that it has now refunded Mr Trott's £125 charge.
Ofcom says it is aware of the situation and that it is working with the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to rectify this problem. "The matter should be resolved by next spring," says a spokeswoman. "It is important that customers are confident in the switching process and it is essential that there are no obstacles in the way. We are working via the OTA and industry to have all telecoms providers on the new system by spring 2008."
Kept waiting four months for an engineer
How long should it take BT to connect a phone line to a newly built flat in the 21st-century? Don't ask Swindon flat owner Lulu Yanglu, who has been trying to get the company to do just that since August.
The 32-year-old, who works in pharmaceuticals, has taken three days off work to wait in for BT engineers - who have all failed to show up. She says she has made endless calls to BT on her mobile, on one occasion waiting for more than three hours, to try to get the matter resolved, but all to no avail.
In the most recent call she received from BT staff, she was told that they could only manage to get someone round on December 17 - more than five weeks away.
"The whole thing is completely ridiculous. My neighbours had their service connected without a problem but all my attempts have been a disaster. I've taken three days off work but each time they have failed to show up.
"As if that wasn't bad enough, every time I call BT I have to wait hours to get through - all on my mobile phone, which is costing me a fortune."
If the Money postbag is to be believed, Ms Yanglu is not alone. Countless readers have got in touch to complain about long waits to get through to BT customer services.
In a statement, the company says: "BT has been experiencing some service issues for a minority of our customers who are ordering brand new phone lines and we apologise for the inconvenience that's been caused. These issues have resulted from some teething problems with a new IT system that we have installed to comply with Ofcom."