Is the postoffice ripping me off?

patchy79

I moved into my current place in the summer, the postoffice said that I did not have a landline, and charged me £107 to reconnect. When the engineer came out to fix it, he said that I did have one, and ther had been no need for him to come out.

I was charged anyway, and like a muppet I kept quiet.

I am moving again, and guess what? my new place apparently does not have a landline...

Is there anything I can do to avoid paying reconnection charges and/or know whether there is a fiddle going on at my expense?

staffie1

Didn't know the Post Office did phones...?

1carminestocky

You aint the only one to complain about such a thing:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1586761&highlight=post+office

patchy79

staffie1: yep they do
1carminestocky: Thanks for the link, there really does seem to be something funny going on!

macman

patchy79 wrote: »

I moved into my current place in the summer, the postoffice said that I did not have a landline, and charged me £107 to reconnect. When the engineer came out to fix it, he said that I did have one, and ther had been no need for him to come out.

I was charged anyway, and like a muppet I kept quiet.

I am moving again, and guess what? my new place apparently does not have a landline...

Is there anything I can do to avoid paying reconnection charges and/or know whether there is a fiddle going on at my expense?

But you called them out on the basis that there was no line, so they charged you for the call-out. That is the standard call out charge, BT would have charged even more.
How can you apparently not have a landline? If there's a master socket and a cable going out of the property then you have a landline. Whether it's connected or not can be established by simply plugging a phone into it.

patchy79

macman wrote: »

But you called them out on the basis that there was no line, so they charged you for the call-out. That is the standard call out charge, BT would have charged even more.

I seemed to have a line (dialtone) when I moved in, but when I phoned PO + BT they said there was no line and that I needed an engineer to come out.

macman wrote: »

How can you apparently not have a landline? If there's a master socket and a cable going out of the property then you have a landline. Whether it's connected or not can be established by simply plugging a phone into it.

That's what I thought, but the PO disagrees

1carminestocky

Here's their scores on reviewcentre:

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

Average Ratings Reception 3.6/10
Customer Service 2.1/10
Reliability 2.8/10
Extra Features 2.4/10
Value for Money 3.6/10
Reviewer Rating 1.9/10
Overall Rating 1.9/10

Even BT seem to get better reviews. But PO Phone seem to be very much recommended on here, strangely...

macman

patchy79 wrote: »

I seemed to have a line (dialtone) when I moved in, but when I phoned PO + BT they said there was no line and that I needed an engineer to come out.



That's what I thought, but the PO disagrees

So there is a physical line and socket already there? So as long as they are undamaged all you need is a reconnection at the exchange-you don't need an engineer on site, so you shouldn't have to pay the full install charge.
Ring them up and tell them the number (if you can find it) and that you already have a master socket and an active dial tone.
A thought-is it a BT socket, not Virgin/NTL/Telewest?

patchy79

1carminestocky wrote: »

Even BT seem to get better reviews. But PO Phone seem to be very much recommended on here, strangely...

That's bad, they are the cheapest really, and I am kind of stuck with them since I took out a contract with them for broadband.

I dont think it would make much difference if I went with BT, in fact their charges and conditions are extortionate.

patchy79

macman wrote: »

So there is a physical line and socket already there? So as long as they are undamaged all you need is a reconnection at the exchange-you don't need an engineer on site, so you shouldn't have to pay the full install charge.
Ring them up and tell them the number (if you can find it) and that you already have a master socket and an active dial tone.
A thought-is it a BT socket, not Virgin/NTL/Telewest?

Not sure what kind of socket, I will need to check. But I have been through this before, and even though there was no need for an engineer visit they claimed there was etc. etc. etc.

I am waiting for landlord to reply to see what kind of deal the previous tenants had.

patchy79

It got weirder... turns out the flat 100% DID have a BT line, when I plugged in the phone there was a dialtone and I was able to make a call from it. This was last night, truied to get through to PO but was put on hold 4ever.

Anyway, engineer showed up today, and said he had to change the number... the previous tenants obviously did not take the number since the property had been empty for a month. The engineer said something about PO not checking whether there really was a line in the property (GRRRR!)

So, now I really feel ripped off. Any advice?

cheers