Reconnection charges and dialing tones

callas

My brother has recently died and his flat has come to me. I cannot deal with the flat at the moment as its long way away and all a bit difficult at the moment but need to cut off his BT connection (he only had a telephone service with them) in an effort to save on costs and then perhaps in three months time or longer reconnect.

What I have tried to find out from the BT website is - will there be a reconnection charge?

It does say there is no charge if you can hear a dialing tone when you pick up the phone but surely that would mean that the line is still working and someone is still paying?

Any help here would be gratefully received.

Heinz

Ask for the line to be 'stopped', not disconnected.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=14698303&postcount=4

callas

Thanks Heinz. I will ring BT tomorrow and see if I can get the line stopped.

Buzby

Actually, if the renter (your brother) is deceased, then BT must stop the line and prepare a final bill. Reconnection for the replacemnt tenant/owner is usually FoC anyway.

callas

The update after contacting BT.

I tried filling in the online enquire box twice but no joy, a reply came back that did not really answer my question.

After searching on this forum I found the email address of the MD. He has since left the company and the new chap is [EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]. Same day response with a message that someone from his office would contact me.

They did, it seems that I can stop the phone but that BT need 7 days notice for this to happen and then they will only hold the line for 6 months after that depending on demand and work needed to be done the reconnection charge would be £124.

Dealing with someones affairs after they have died is difficult but BT have been the most difficult of all the utilities to contact and deal with. Unlike all the others BT are still able to keep a running bill going until they can be contacted and the account stopped which they don't make easy.

If it wasn't for this forum I would have wasted hours and hours on the phone, so a big thank you.