Bt Call Out Charges

Unity

ORE wrote: »

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

That sounds like a good idea - I never had any bother at all with my phone when I was with cable. I only changed because it became more economical to move.

However if something goes wrong with my electricity/gas/water meter I would not expect to have to a) take it apart and sort it out myself, or b) get out the relevant utility provider and then pay them for the pleasure of putting their own equipment right.

On all contracts - the wording states that the socket remains the property of BT - therefore it's simply not on for BT to be asking the customer to pay for putting this right. We are only responsible for the equipment we plug into the said socket. Furthermore we pay for the rental of a functioning line and we expect the line to be fit for the purpose for which it is supplied, i.e. to connect a phone to it.

Do we take it that BT are quite happy for us to take the socket apart and if necessary fix it ourselves?

I would like to ask, since there must be very few people who actually rent their handset from BT these days - are these 'Home Hubs' rented or paid for by the customer? If they are rented and something goes wrong, does BT then charge for fixing these? If the answer is no - then presumably this is because they remain the property of BT - and since they are plugged into the BT socket, it must follow that the same applies.

Presently I have my line with BT and my calls with Sky and was actually in the process of moving my calls package back to BT (changeover is due at the end of this week on a 12 month rolling contract) - but I can only thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will like others, also be checking this with the CEO and if this is the case I'll be cancelling.

Mabinogion

smmjh11 wrote: »

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

Thanks for the messages and especially to the poster of the quoted message above ~ this is what has happend since then:

I contacted the person in the email address and was contacted straight away and given another address to email to and this person answered straight away asking me for details of my BT account and my name and address etc so I did this and nice person called Linda Deegan phoned me to ask the details of my complaint.

After telling her all the details I have written about above she questioned us about the position of the box etc and that they had to stand by their engineers report that 'condensation' was the fault and we explained that the wall where it was put gets cold oweing to not being in the sun most of the day and by the window it's in a 'cold spot' she questioned why we have condensation and my husband explained that due to the double glazing etc sometimes the window gets some condensation because of the sun shining on the window on a sunny morning then going cold later on in the evening but it doesn't always happen but didn't think that was a problem ~ she then asked us 'why we had double glazing put in' and maybe the 'window people' may have caused the problem by making a hole in the window for the cable to come through so we couldn't believe her question as to why did we have double glazing put in ~ so this conversation went on and on for a while but all the time she was being very nice and understanding but wouldn't budge an inch and said that the engineers report had to stand and so the charge would also have to stand as far as they were concerned the condition of the wall is our responsibility and that any damp conditions is our responsibility which has caused the condensation in the socket, but we then told her that the engineer still put it back in the same place and he didn't even advise us that it could happen again and she said that if we had asked him he would have moved it somewhere else for us (another £200 I would say for that) so we told her there was no way we could pay this £223.26 and after about half an hour going over who is to blame she finally said that 'as a gesture of good will they would meet us half way' and we would have to pay £111.00 so we thought well there is no way out of this so half was better than all and she asked us how we wanted to pay the remainder of £111.00 and I asked her if we could pay it in two payments and she said she could let us pay it in four payments if we wanted so she has sent us some slips to pay £27.85 which will take us up to January so she told us that if we couldn't manage this then to get back in touch with her so have just accepted it.

After all this because I cancelled the D/Debit not for this £223.26 to go out untill it was all sorted I phoned back up to the Bill Dept to ask to go back on DD and they said bacause the outstanding amount was still outstanding untill January when it's all paid they couldn't put me back on DD so I mentioned about the £4.50 charge for an oridinary bill and that I had gone paperless billing saving a further £1.25 a month and they said I coouldn't get the discount for P/less billing because that only goes with the the DD so I was just about to scream and thought what is the point.......

I meant to say 'if it hadn't been for this website and the person who gave me the address to send my complaint to I would still be in the same boat as no one from the BT complaints dept replied from my letter I had sent to their 'Customer Services Dept' also no reply from their website complaints section and certainly no one listened to me from the phone calls to their numerous 'options' so if it hadn't been for the email address given to me from the poster above then how are people supposed to know who to contact? Trading stadards didn't want to know and Age Concern tried to help but only put me on to Trading Standards.

Sorry for being a bit long winded but felt I wanted you all to know how it all went and thanks for your replies.

atticuk

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.

Has that been a relatively new instruction because this particular problem has occurred twice before and we have never been charged.

atticuk

Unity wrote: »

However if something goes wrong with my electricity/gas/water meter I would not expect to have to a) take it apart and sort it out myself, or b) get out the relevant utility provider and then pay them for the pleasure of putting their own equipment right.

A very good point. I wouldn't dream of taking my electricity/gas/water meter apart. If condensation got in those meters it would because they were not fit for the purpose they were intended for.

Unity wrote: »

On all contracts - the wording states that the socket remains the property of BT - therefore it's simply not on for BT to be asking the customer to pay for putting this right. We are only responsible for the equipment we plug into the said socket. Furthermore we pay for the rental of a functioning line and we expect the line to be fit for the purpose for which it is supplied, i.e. to connect a phone to it.

I agree entirely. The fact that BT Openreach have now moved towards disowning the 'main socket' and are starting to charge for internal damage is worrying because , I guess, most 'main sockets' are positioned by BT Open reach there will potentially be quite a few complaints due to condensation creeping into a plastic box that isn't sealed because of the faceplate. This is a poor design and the customer should not have to pay for this.

atticuk

Mabinogion wrote: »

I contacted the person in the email address and was contacted straight away and given another address to email to and this person answered straight away asking me for details of my BT account and my name and address etc so I did this and nice person called Linda Deegan phoned me to ask the details of my complaint.

Oh dear, I've just had a call from the faults department telling me that the charge stands and so I emailed the same person [EMAIL="ian.livingstone@bt.com"]ian.livingstone@bt.com[/EMAIL] but it seems from your reply I'm not going to get an answer from him. So I thought I'd look at the Ofcom site and see what the complaints procedure is.

Ofcom's advice on your next step

Problems with your landline phone -
Phone bill, tariff and contract issues

If you’ve gone through the company’s formal complaint process and your concerns still aren’t resolved, the next thing to try is the company’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (or ADR) scheme. The ADR scheme acts as an independent middleman between the company and the customer. If the company’s in the wrong, the ADR scheme can order the company to fix the problem and, if needed, pay compensation.
You should find details of the company’s ADR scheme either on the back of your phone bill, or available from the company’s customer services staff.

Then below this they add:

The information you provide below will be used for monitoring purposes only.
Ofcom does not investigate individual consumer complaints and we will not respond to you about your individual complaint. However, we monitor all consumer issues and may investigate a company if monitoring data reveals a particular problem. You can help us by filling in our consumer monitoring survey form.
Please note that this survey form is for monitoring purposes only and you should not expect Ofcom to address your individual case. Individual complaints should be raised with your provider first, then with its Alternative Dispute Resolution service if the issue has not been resolved.

I'll go through the ADR scheme but I'm not hopeful. I'm scraping the barrel here I know, but I wonder if I could take BT to the small claims court for the cost of my time which is approximately £223.11? :rolleyes:

I can't believe the attitude of BT towards you. What's double glazing got to do with it??

Unity

atticuk wrote: »

A very good point. I wouldn't dream of taking my electricity/gas/water meter apart. If condensation got in those meters it would because they were not fit for the purpose they were intended for.

I agree entirely. The fact that BT Openreach have now moved towards disowning the 'main socket' and are starting to charge for internal damage is worrying because , I guess, most 'main sockets' are positioned by BT Open reach there will potentially be quite a few complaints due to condensation creeping into a plastic box that isn't sealed because of the faceplate. This is a poor design and the customer should not have to pay for this.

atticuk wrote: »

I can't believe the attitude of BT towards you. What's double glazing got to do with it??

If BT equipment is only suitable for use in non-doubled glazed homes then I don't think they will be retaining many customers!

I was so disgusted with BT's treatment of Mabinogion that I forwarded this thread on to the Editorial team to suggest it as a future article. To my mind this is as bad as excessive charging by banks and look where that has ended up - in Court no less.

Mabinogion

For the attention of atticuk from (Mabinogion)

I have just seen your message regarding these rediculous charges, I had to pay the first of four installments of £28 today (£111.00 which was halfed)~ it really isn't on is it?

I am fuming that they should get away with this ~ I have copied the original email reply I had received from the Ian Livingstone address (which was given to me by smmjh11) ~ and I had to email Linda Deegan so below is the original reply from her to me ~ so if I were you phone her on that number which is the one I spoke to her on as it's her office she told me she is there every day and mention my case too if it helps: email reply from her below: Let me know how you get on and all the best hope this helps.
Mabinogion

Hello Mrs Griffin

Thank you for your email to Ian Livingston. Ian has requested that I investigate and respond on his behalf.

In order for me to investigate can you please supply the BT account/telephone number and address.

I look forward to hearing from you. Should you need to discuss further with me please contact me on 0131 448 3675 or email [EMAIL="Linda.deegan@bt.com"]Linda.deegan@bt.com[/EMAIL].

Regards
Linda Deegan
Executive Complaints Management Team
Tel: 0131 448 3675

atticuk

Hi

Sorry I've been so long in replying. I started another thread here:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=btsupplier&Number=3486791&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1

Like yourself I received the same treatment from Leah. However, when asked how I paid I remembered that I still pay by credit card and explained this to her. There was silence and then she asked if I would buy her a very expensive Christmas present! I'm sure she meant it as a joke but the fact remains that the job was shoddy and therefore I should be able to claim back from BT the £99 I eventually paid.

I'm not about to let this matter drop as you will see from the http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ site.