Landline without a minimum contact term?

caz567 · 19 June 2008 at 9:31AM

My other half has just spent half an hour on the phone to BT, been transferred from person to person and being told different things...

What he's looking for is to reactivate a BT line in a house he's about to move into. He doesn't want to be tied into a 12 month contract though as he's only going to be there for a few months.

Does anyone know if BT can offer this by paying an extra couple of pounds per month on top of the usual line rental (one of the BT people said yes!) and if so, what is the package called? Do other telcos offer such a package?

Any help you can give on this will be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

bryanb · 19 June 2008 at 9:40AM

Try BT websitee, at home, products an services, compare calling plans. I found no contract quite easily,£2.70 extra

Stuart_W · 19 June 2008 at 5:16PM

The Phone Co-Op

£5.88 line restart fee.
£10.90 per month line rental
3 month minimum contract - just give 1 month notice.
(calling plans etc available for high use)
Very easy to deal with.

http://www.thephone.coop/residential/linerental.html

caz567 · 19 June 2008 at 5:45PM

Thanks for your reply. It seems that the package you suggest doesn't in itself have a minimum contract, but you are still contracted to pay for the BT line rental (regardless of package) for 12 months. I've double checked with BT and they confirm that when a line is reactivated it is tied to a 12 month minimum contract :-(

So what I could do with knowing is, do any other telcos offer BT lines but without the 12 month contract??

Stuart_W · 19 June 2008 at 8:07PM

Hi caz567,

A LINE REACTIVATED BY BT (BT RETAIL) MAY BE SUBJECT TO A 12 MONTH CONTRACT BUT OTHER OPERATORS CAN RESTART BT-NETWORK BASED LINES (although not many do).

I'm not sure if you're replying to my post or bryanb but I can confirm that you can get your line restarted with the Phone Co-Op and then only have a three month contract. BT Retail may only offer 12 month contracts, but the Phone Co-Op WILL restart a line for a minimum contract of 3 months - even using a BT line, but you have no contract with BT, you pay rental to the phone co-op, the line is maintained by openreach (BTWholesale).

Just to check that it is only a restart required, dial 17070 from the phone - do you hear a phone number? If you do make a note of it, call the phone co-op with all your details and you should be up an running within 48 hours usually.

Hope this helps!

Quentin · 19 June 2008 at 8:13PM

If you only need the line restarting, then post office homephone do it free, with no minimum contract.

They just need 15 days notice if you want to quit.

Line rental is then £9.95/month, and you get all evening and weekend phonecalls included free.

MRS_TO_BE_2 · 19 June 2008 at 8:24PM

Be very careful with BT. They tied me into a 12 month contract when I moved home and didn't tell me. Needless to say I'm leaving them. They also won't confirm anything in writing to me.

Currently switching to Talk Talk who customer service so far is shocking but need the broadband!

caz567 · 21 June 2008 at 10:30AM

Thanks everyone for your replies. It's good to hear that there's quite a selection of companies out there that can reconnect on terms shorter than 12 months. The one that he's gone with is www.madasafish.com who don't charge for reconnection and is £9.99 a month for FOC evening and weekend calls and only a monthly contract. The line is being reactivated on Monday and they've been very efficient so far keeping us up to date with phone calls and emails.

Landline without a minimum contact term?

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