Post Office Connection Fee

patchy79

They seem to have an unspoken policy of ripping people off!

The same thing happened to me, but I did not chase things up, now I am moving, and once again they are saying that I dont have a BT line in the new place... but am stuck with PO broadband for another 6 months...

would also appreciate any advice

chrissio

Bjorn,

The exact same thing happened to me. I phoned to complain about 10 weeks ago and have written letters etc. It's difficult to begin to describe the sheer incompetency of Post Office Home Phone customer care. So many things have gone wrong but here is a flavour: Phone calls never returned, letters unanswered, sent debt collection letters before the agreed payment date had lapsed, lied to debt collection agency telling them the debt was outstanding for 4 months (not possible as I had only been a customer for 10 weeks!), bills were incorrect on almost every occasion, every department I spoke to blamed every other department for the !!!! ups to name a few.

Under the Data Protection Act, I have requested CD transcripts of my conversations I had with the sales staff prior to taking up the with service to prove I was miss-sold the product (they keep recordings of phone calls 4 months and are obliged to provide these upon request). They are supposed to comply within 40 days or else they are in breach of the Data Protection Act. Guess what, they failed to comply. When I challenged them on this they said the request was send to the wrong address. I sent it to the address Post Office Home Phone told me to send it to and they had cashed the £10 cheque you're supposed to send to cover costs! So now I've complained to the Information Commissioners Office but they have a 3 month back log.

In the mean time I have complained to Otelo regarding their conduct. Post Office are sending me intimidating letters and telling me to just pay. I think not. I'd rather take my chances in court if push comes to shove. Any advice would be welcome though.

1carminestocky

It sounds like they've picked on the wrong one with you, chrissio. Good luck with this. Post Office Home Phone tend to get generally poor user reviews on the net but, funnily enough, are frequently recommended on here. But care must always be taken when receiving recommendations on here, of course...

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews85601.html

11% Recommended - 4 out of 36 Reviews

Average Ratings
Reception 3.7/10
Customer Service 2.4/10
Reliability 3.3/10
Extra Features 2.6/10
Value for Money 3.8/10
Reviewer Rating 2.1/10
Overall Rating 2.1/10
Based on 37 ratings

chrissio

Post Office Home Phone? They should have just stuck to dealing with letters and parcels.

chrissio

Otelo found in my favour. Getting my money back. See my other post :-)

1carminestocky

Excellent - I wonder what Quentin thinks about this incident? I'm suspecting we will never know, lol.

chrissio

1carminestocky wrote: »

Excellent - I wonder what Quentin thinks about this incident? I'm suspecting we will never know, lol.

That's a shame. Post Office Telecom, being the bitter and spiteful company that they are, decided to submit additional representation but only after the initial verdict against them. Anyway, Otelo upheld the original verdict and I am due my money back plus compensation and a letter of apology. This is now a binding verdict so I'm looking forward to a cheque and an apology and no more BS from Post Office Telecom!

Mark_In_Hampshire

penrhyn wrote: »

I don't understand why people go with a third party for basic line rental, in the event of a problem with the line it will be BT that will fix it.
If you are with a third party, Tiscali, the Post Office, Talk talk et al, then you are going to have to book your repair via them and won't be able to talk directly to BT.

This is a common misconception.

The lines are installed and managed by BT Openreach.

Any provider whether BT Retail, Talk Talk (non LLU), Post Office, etc can order a line from BT Openreach and have it installed and/or repaired. There is no advantage whatsoever in choosing BT Retail as your line supplier.

Moreover, in the event of a fault, you cannot talk to BT Openreach directly nor do they have any accountability to you.

This forum alone demonstrates perhaps several dozen reasons to avoid BT Retail.

Mark_In_Hampshire

bjorn wrote: »

Ok, so i set up my line with PO after advice from talk talk pointed me towards this better option.,

You've made things complicated for yourself here. Your story perhaps illustrates why Talk Talk have no interest in setting the line up for you, as they would need to deal with BT Openreach. Easier to let the Post Office do it.

bjorn wrote: »

Despite me telling PO the line was active they said an engineer would have to come out - and that i may be subject to a £120 activation charge "why would i be charged this?" i asked - they said that it is when the line is NOT active, ie. an old or brand new line & that they would not be able to tell me the cost until the engineer came.

bjorn wrote: »

Engineer said there would be no cost for it.

The engineer cannot state this. The engineer does not work for your supplier with whom you have a contract to supply. What nobody knows, thanks to a lack of transparency here, is whether BT Openreach billed the Post Office for the installation regardless of what the engineer said. If they did, then the PO pass that cost on to you.

The PO can however investigate but if that's the case, BT Openreach can claim the line was not active and the charge to the PO stands, so the charge to you stands.

This could well have happened with any line supplier you chose. Instances of people being charged a connection fee when they were told they would not be are well documented on this forum across a variety of suppliers. Instances of people being charged for repairs by Openreach to their own network are also well documented on here and on BBC's Watchdog programme.

bjorn wrote: »

I said that I was mis-informed and was given the impression there would be no activation charge

That's not actually true, though, is it... you were informed that there might be a charge and you went ahead anyway.

I'm not saying that any of the above is satisfactory, it just illustrates what a mess the system is in.

ACDeag

PO Broadband and Phone services are actually BT Wholesale services provided under a white label agreement. BT runs everything for the PO.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/18/post_office_broadband_go/