BT RIP OFF

pingu

Hi
i had a problem with my phone line (crackling)

i did whatever their adviser told me to do on the phone but it didn't solve the problem so an engineer called 11 days after the fault was reported in less than 5minutes he checked the line and told me that it is lead from sky digi box.

got an ebill today £135.12 inc VAT ???

tried to get in touch with them but gave up after a long wait?

sent them an email so hopefully they will get in touch.

System

I had exactly the same problem last year, the only difference being the operator gave me no advice, just sent for an engineer. He found the same problem, Sky box. Told me to unplug it and it was ok. The charge was, I think, £50 plus VAT. He told me to dispute it when I received the bill as I should have been given information over the phone to test the line myself. When my bill arrived I disputed it and did not have to pay. This also happened to another girl in my office at work, she disputed and also did not pay. I suggest you dispute when the bill comes. Good luck.

pingu

thank you

i have been busy finding car insurance

i will call BT tomorrow and hopefully it will get sorted

jake_bullet_2

While I can sympathise with you I'm not sure how this is really a rip-off?

A company sent out an engineer to repair a fault which turned out to be caused by something belonging to you, they have nothing to do with your sky box after all.

They have therefore charged you for their time (now, the amount...) it's exactly what any company would do, if you called out an engineer to repair your washing machine (even under guarantee) and it turned out that the water had been turned off they would still charge you for the call out and the time spent.

System

I also had this problem, and also have Sky digital.

I had everything out of the socket, even unscrewed the cover on it to see if there was something wrong underneath - all to no avail.

I had no problem getting through to BT - I also have my line ADSL enabled and the crackling played havoc with that too. It took all of 2 days for an engineer to come out, took him half an hour to find that the problem was based in the green box in the street.

No £50 charge, no hassle after he'd gone. I found them quite good.

Sky is known to cause some problems, I assume you have a filter that your Sky connection goes in to.

Additionally, BT should have told you when they were sending an engineer out that you would be charged if it was found that they were not at fault. They did warn me in advance.

Edinburghlass_2

I too had a crackling line, reported it online twice, they did all the checks and found no faults. Despite having two lines I finally called them on the faulty line to show how bad it was and the operator had to call me back on the other line so I could actually hear her.

I was well warned both by the operator and the engineer who came out that if it was proved to be my fault I would be charged. I therefore unplugged all phones and moved phones etc. In the end it was a loose cable coming into the house which the engineer fixed at no cost to me.

As it was their "fault" and it had taken several days to sort it out I was refund my last bill. Incidentally I don't have Sky but I would confirm that I was definately told there could well be a charge for calling out an engineer.

pingu

hi
i checked the main socket as told by the advisor unscrew the socket with two screws in it and it didnt solve the problem so they sent the engineer.

advisor told me the reason why i had to do the checks ie to avoid being charged(and to repeat myself i did do what i was told) the engineer said nothing to me as i said before he was here for only 5 minutes.

AND there is no problem with the sky its working fine.

are we supposed to be all technical minded to check all houshold equipment ???

i have sent them an email waiting for them to call till tomorrow if they dont then i will try to call them.

jake_bullet_2

Where is the skybox plugged in to?

It should be a lead connected to a thing like a doube adapter and plugged in to either the main socket or an extension socket.

When you take off the lower part of the socket it should disconnect all the extensions and therefore all the equipment that you are responsible for (including the sky box)

I'm left wondering why this didn't solve the problem for you in the first instance? Anything you can think of?

jake_bullet_2

Oh, I meant to say, when this kind of fault occurs the skybox isn't affected, it usually puts a partial/intermittent short circuit on the line and either kills the dial tone altogether or makes the line crackly.

The signal from the dish isn't affected and everything seems to be as normal.

pingu

hi
got a letter from bt today and i do not have to pay

shlitz

i had a bad line too. engineers came round not to the house as was "a general fault in the area" did not seem to help so 10 days later they came around again. this time i got no call so i called them to say it was not fixed, they said sorry and 10 days later someone else came round. this time they needed access to the house yet they did not inform me of this so i was of course at work.

we resceduled (yes another 8 days later) i took the day off work (unpaid) was told it was my equipment.

i bought a new extention broadband filter and 2 in 1 spliter (£30)

no luck

6 days later they came again and fixed whatever problem it was. (not my equipment another day unpaid)

7 weeks!!!!

i run a small business no emails or fax for 7 weeks and i pay all staff through internet banking, ( not easy with no internet banking)

talked about compensation havn't heard back but in the mean time i have recieved my bt bill. I was charged full line rental for the time my line was down.

is there any other providers out there???

i do not use the phone line for calls just recieve send fax and internet sky etc.

wish i could run my business like this and still turn a profit. (customer service is so inconveiniant.... kidding of course)