Bt Call Out Charges

Mabinogion

Bill received for £223.26 call out for fautly incoming wall socket.

I phoned the BT fault department the other day as I could only phone out but not receive any incoming calls, this fault lasted for about 3 to 4 days. I was asked by one of their staff to carry out the necessary checks which I did manually as I don’t have one of the ‘new boxes’ only the old style one, so using two corded telephones borrowed from a neighbour to double check only proved that the problem was not with my equipment but on the incoming box on the wall.

I phoned the fault department three times with some concern regarding call out charges as I am a pensioner and cannot afford the call out charge which was quoted to me and was told that if there was a problem with the incoming box on the wall which was put there originally by BT then it was BT’s responsibility and I would not be charged ~ I phoned three different members of their staff on the same night to make sure of this as I was very concerned about it and they all told me the same thing so went ahead and arranged the call out.

The engineer came changed the incoming box on the wall and said it was the incoming box causing the problem and went ~ he wasn’t in my house more than 10 minutes, so the problem proved to be the incoming box and not with any of my telephones ~ I still have the box which the engineer left with me, he pointed out where the problem was in the box which you can clearly see.

The other day I received a bill through email as I have gone paperless billing and £223.26 is charged to me, I am livid, so have phoned them again to try and sort out this problem and they say they will contact me within 10 days to sort out the 'dispute'. I am annoyed as on the bill it is noted as a FAULT/DAMAGE but really the box was not damaged at all on the outside as it just sits on the wall behind my curtain but the circuit board inside was damaged for some reason like 'old age' through condensation or something like that but not damaged in any other way ~ I am just waiting for them to contact me now to see what is going to happen.

Anyone else had this sort of dispute and WON?


I am very concerned about ths bill.

Buzby

The engineer who replaced it has entered the wrong fault code. Your Master socket (which remains BT's property) has been replaced. You are NOT liable for this, only if the fault is in your wiring or sockets, so it should be easy to reject this charge and have it credited to your account, the trouble is in dealing with India. In your situation, I'd call faults and ask why you were billed for the replacement of a fautly Master Socket - this may prove the quickest option.

Mabinogion

Thanks for the reply but have been waiting for the 'dispute dept' to get in touch with the engineer and apparantly the engineer said the socket had condensation in it causing the fault, so as far as they are concerned the fault is with us so they say the charge still stands and phoned me today to tell me this ~ I asked them if I could speak to anyone else and they said no as the dispute dept are the only ones to sort this out and I have to pay the £223.00 so have spoken to the 'bill dept' and they said the amount is now outstanding and has to be paid so I told them we are pensioners and haven't got this amount as if we had known we would have never called them out as we were told we wouldn't get charged but they stick by their engineers word and we have to pay it, she then told me that my next BT bill is due in the middle of November so she asked me if I could pay it by then or when did I think I could pay it by and I told her I cannot pay it by November she said 'well you have a couple of weeks couldn't you pay it by then?' I told her my husband gets paid his pension monthly and that amount is all accounted for as it's all put by for elec/gas etc you know how it goes..... and she said she couldn't give us any more time as her system wouldn't allow it and the full amount has to be paid by November so she said 'can't you pay it out of his monthly pension in November?' and I told her no because we don't get that much and if I had to pay £223.00 out of it we wouldn't have enough left untill December so she said she was sorry but there was nothing she could do and it has to be paid so I got all upset and put the phone down on her so don't know what to do now as you just cannot reason with BT at all.
Thanks for listening.

smmjh11

I suggest you e-mail BT CEO [EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL] and hopefully it will get sorted out for you. I used to work for BT and I do not think you should get charged for this as the siting of the master socket can easily be affected by condensation over a period time.

Hope everything works out for you

Mabinogion

Thanks very much I have just emailed the person with the above messages attached so hopefully he may be able to give me some advice.
Will keep you posted as to what happens.
Thanks again.

mikey72

BT try it on with pensioners.
I have experienced the same spiel over the phone, when I've rung after elderly friends have had problems, and I also point out that I have done all the tests, and the fault is with their socket, which they have come out to replace. They are a cheap metal push fit connection, and they tarnish over time, as well as get water in.
So far though there has never been a charge.
With regard to the fault.
1) It is their socket, their property, and should not be opened by the customer.
2) They fitted it is the position it is in.
3) No maintenance or care instructions are given, therefore the customer should need to do nothing to it.
4) If it suffers from condensation, in a normal house, the box is not fit for purpose. (Which is why they have to change them)

I have persisted with BT operators, and if you start in a British call centre, you can get a supervisor, generally these are human beings, and I've found them helpful.
Ring in the day, in office hours, if the email doesn't work. And if you can get a middle aged, male friend or relative to ring, you'll get a better response as well. (Sad but true)

Unity

Mabinogion wrote: »

Thanks for the reply but have been waiting for the 'dispute dept' to get in touch with the engineer and apparantly the engineer said the socket had condensation in it causing the fault, so as far as they are concerned the fault is with us so they say the charge still stands and phoned me today to tell me this ~ I asked them if I could speak to anyone else and they said no as the dispute dept are the only ones to sort this out and I have to pay the £223.00 so have spoken to the 'bill dept' and they said the amount is now outstanding and has to be paid so I told them we are pensioners and haven't got this amount as if we had known we would have never called them out as we were told we wouldn't get charged but they stick by their engineers word and we have to pay it, she then told me that my next BT bill is due in the middle of November so she asked me if I could pay it by then or when did I think I could pay it by and I told her I cannot pay it by November she said 'well you have a couple of weeks couldn't you pay it by then?' I told her my husband gets paid his pension monthly and that amount is all accounted for as it's all put by for elec/gas etc you know how it goes..... and she said she couldn't give us any more time as her system wouldn't allow it and the full amount has to be paid by November so she said 'can't you pay it out of his monthly pension in November?' and I told her no because we don't get that much and if I had to pay £223.00 out of it we wouldn't have enough left untill December so she said she was sorry but there was nothing she could do and it has to be paid so I got all upset and put the phone down on her so don't know what to do now as you just cannot reason with BT at all.
Thanks for listening.

I came across your message by chance and just wanted to say that I hope you get this sorted out. I am sure you will after the kind poster's inclusion of the CEO's e-mail address.

I can imagine how stressful this must be for you - but try not to worry. It's always awful when things like this happen over a weekend and you are left feeling powerless.

If the repair man showed you the fault, did he say it was down to condensation? More to the point can they prove it was condensation? I was under the impression that the socket was their property and therefore they should be responsible for it. Even if it was down to condensation - presumably they put the socket in that position in the first place? You can bet if you hadn't called them out and had tampered with the socket they would have had a different attitude!

You've done everything you possibly could and were assured on a number of occasions that you wouldn't have to pay, so I'd be tempted to tell them to be like a duck and still their bill up their behind.

Good luck,
Unity

atticuk

Mabinogion wrote: »

The other day I received a bill through email as I have gone paperless billing and £223.26 is charged to me, I am livid, so have phoned them again to try and sort out this problem and they say they will contact me within 10 days to sort out the 'dispute'. I am annoyed as on the bill it is noted as a FAULT/DAMAGE but really the box was not damaged at all on the outside as it just sits on the wall behind my curtain but the circuit board inside was damaged for some reason like 'old age' through condensation or something like that but not damaged in any other way ~ I am just waiting for them to contact me now to see what is going to happen.

Exactly the same thing has happened to me. After going through the Indian call centre procedure (rubbish service) I eventually had to threaten them with Oftel before I received a call back from somebody in Britain.

She said that the main socket was our fault because it was corroded. I did raise my voice at this point but remained firm and polite, eventually she told me that she was going to suspend the bill until the faults department investigates.

I'm wondering it BT have moved the goal posts and are trying to charge for this sort of fault, but as other in this thread have said, it was BT who sited the box and it's not up to me to mess about with it.

I'll post again when/if I hear from the faults department.:(

ORE

atticuk wrote: »

Exactly the same thing has happened to me. After going through the Indian call centre procedure (rubbish service) I eventually had to threaten them with Oftel before I received a call back from somebody in Britain.

She said that the main socket was our fault because it was corroded. I did raise my voice at this point but remained firm and polite, eventually she told me that she was going to suspend the bill until the faults department investigates.

I'm wondering it BT have moved the goal posts and are trying to charge for this sort of fault, but as other in this thread have said, it was BT who sited the box and it's not up to me to mess about with it.

I'll post again when/if I hear from the faults department.:(

As an Openreach Engineer, we are told that if ANY internal is suffering from damp and corrosion then a charge must be raised.

Unity

ORE wrote: »

As an Openreach Engineer, we are told that if ANY internal is suffering from damp and corrosion then a charge must be raised.

Well, that sounds like a good enough reason for everyone to move away from BT then .

It's totally unreasonable to expect the customer to pay for what is after all BT's equipment. Whenever there is a fault they always say to make sure to check your equipment - as if this is at fault there will be a charge. The fact is that everything from the exchange to the socket is BT's equipment and this is just them trying to pull a fast one!

When do they ever make an appointment to service the socket they have installed on a customer's premises or even to check that it is in good working order? - NEVER! They choose where to install it, they don't ask if it's okay and they never advise that it might be subject to condensation in a certain spot. Therefore if this subsequently fails due to whatever reason, it is beyond the customer's control and really is due to BT's neglect in not regularly checking it.

It's absolutely ridiculous for BT to try and offload this expense on to the consumer and it is certainly worth a letter to the regulating body, as well as Trading Standards, Watchdog and whoever else might be interested.

Let them sue you for it and in the meantime go elsewhere. I'll bet they'd be laughed out of court :rotfl:.

ORE

Unity wrote: »

Well, that sounds like a good enough reason for everyone to move away from BT then .

It's totally unreasonable to expect the customer to pay for what is after all BT's equipment. Whenever there is a fault they always say to make sure to check your equipment - as if this is at fault there will be a charge. The fact is that everything from the exchange to the socket is BT's equipment and this is just them trying to pull a fast one!

When do they ever make an appointment to service the socket they have installed on a customer's premises or even to check that it is in good working order? - NEVER! They choose where to install it, they don't ask if it's okay and they never advise that it might be subject to condensation in a certain spot. Therefore if this subsequently fails due to whatever reason, it is beyond the customer's control and really is due to BT's neglect in not regularly checking it.

It's absolutely ridiculous for BT to try and offload this expense on to the consumer and it is certainly worth a letter to the regulating body, as well as Trading Standards, Watchdog and whoever else might be interested.

Let them sue you for it and in the meantime go elsewhere. I'll bet they'd be laughed out of court :rotfl:.

unless you go cable then its the same whether your line rentals with BT,SKY tiscali or anyone...we work on behalf of your service provider...in the end up its down to them whether the charge stands not always BT.

Add to that when im doing an install the first thing i ask is where they want the socket