BT? Bloody Terrible

Liquid_Stool

hey all,

i wanted to try and save some dosh on my cable/broadband. i currenly have an unlimited 4mb service from Telewest, together with the phone and essential tv pack, in total my monthlies are £50.50 + calls + vat, giving me a average monthly total of £72.

after doing some research, i found i could get an 8mb broadband connection (20gb limit) from BT together with unlimited calls and 25% discount off all mobile calls for a much nicer £43, and after the CSR checked to make sure the line was ok, was told there would be no connection fee as it would be a reconnection - even better for me then!

I then contacted Sky and as a returning customer could get 6months half price, costing me a further £7.50

Great, or so i thought, i'd be saving at least £260 a year - not to be sniffed at :beer:

it turns out that the BT line has been cut outside, so BT wanted me to pay for an engineer which was a minimum of £75 + vat, when pushed the CSR told me that it would be £130 for the first hour and £75 for each hour or part thereof afterwards, potentenially costing me over £200 + vat :eek: . Furthermore i was unable to spread this cost over my bill as it was not considered a reconnection :eek: :eek: ! I then suggested that it would be cheaper to take a line as a NEW connection, and i could spread the cost over 4 bills, to which i was told "you can't because the line to the property already exists".

this is complete pants!

So, i'm not a reconnection, nor am i a new connection, and furthermore, why should i have to pay for either a re or connection when i didn't damage the line anyway? i've been in my house 5 years and there's never been a working BT socket here.

I made a complaint to BT and am waiting thier response - i did suggest that if they dropped the reconnection fee (i was going to have it free anyway), i'd be willing to go ahead with the change over.

The moral to this story? dunno, except that you'd think it's about time that a global company like BT dropped the connection fee, after all, my cable company installed the connection and set it up for me for free.

as things stand now, i'm stuck with telewest for ever probably as i can't find another company who can provide the services without a BT line - AND I AIN'T PAYING FOR ONE!

if i ever hear from Bloody Terrible, i'll post the response, don't hold out much luck though......maybe a word from our moneysaving god :money: would jog things along in MY favour??

Anniek1969

This is ridiculous. Since when were we responsible for something outside our home, surely as it's their line it's up to them to repair it.

I had a BT line a few years ago and then moved to NTL but last year I signed up with Bulldog and you needed a BT line. I paid them £1 to connect me and they arranged the installation with BT.

I pay £40 per month £10.50 phone line and £29.50 (it's just been reduced to £19.50) Broadband for 8meg unlimited with Bulldog. Had some initial setting up problems and a billing problem which has taken me 5 months to sort out but other than that the broadband is great.

Liquid_Stool

tried that option, unfortunatley Bulldog don't install their own services in my postcode - bummer!

Liquid_Stool

:j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j :j

Well, Well, Well

Further to my original post, here's a turn up for the books, i had an email from BT (Big Thieves) asking me to contact customer options, when i did i was told that my complaint had been reviewed and that there was going to be no charge for the reinstallation of my line, saving me probably hundreds of pounds - AND i was given my wireless router at no charge!

It just goes to prove that it never hurts to make a complaint, even when the odds seemed stacked against you!

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! :beer: :money: :beer:

Smiley_Mum

Good on ya for sticking to your guns. It pays to speak up and stand your ground. Well Done on the result!!!!!!!!! :beer:

cattie

That's great that you managed to get the connection fee waived.

The previous owners of this house had ntl phone & tv & their installers cut the bt wires when doing the installation.

Luckily I didn't have to pay BT for an engineer to come out & rewire as I was classed as an existing customer, having just moved that day. The bt engineer told me that it is common practice for cable firms to just cut the bt wires & a friend's husband who works for Telewest has confirmed this is what they do.

I think it's a shoddy practice really & obviously some customers end up paying for it.

Iona_Penny

In our area all the telegraph poles were replaced (had to be a few inches taller to comply with european ruling on giants catching theie quiffs on them or something) Anyone who wasn't with BT but with a cable company did not get a new phone wire to their house and so will presumably have to pay reconnection.

belleooo

Iona_Penny wrote:

In our area all the telegraph poles were replaced (had to be a few inches taller to comply with european ruling on giants catching theie quiffs on them or something)

Lol...... not relevant to the thread but I nearly peed myself laughing when I read the above.

IvanOpinion

SHould this not be in the 5-star board then ???

Ivan

Liquid_Stool

You'll remember from the starting thread that i had contacted sky and was told i could get 6 months at half price as a returning customer? Well, it appears Sky have reneged on that deal, and i'm shafted as i've already contacted Telewest and cancelled my services:

When i originally left sky and had the cable installed, it would appear that the telewest installer cut my cable from the dish so that they wouldn't have to drill through a 8" solid concrete wall and threaded the cable line into the hole the cheeky swine. Apparently some big nob decided that as i'd retained my equipment many moons ago, (i was perfectly entitled to do so, you buy the equipment not lease it or hire it) i shouldn't be able to benefit twice and get the 1/2 price deal. Basically i was told that i had three options: 1/ have a complete new install but not get the current 1/2 price for 4 months deal, 2/ book a service call free of charge, the engineer would fit the missing connector on the end of the cable and rethread the coax thru the wall, again not getting the 4 months for 1/2 price deal that everyone else seems to be entitled to, or 3/ fix it myself and they would "happily" give me the original deal of 6 months at half price.

Unfortunatley, i would think that going for 1 or 2 would lock me into another minimum term contract, at least 12 months i think, and does anyone know where i would stand on the service call should the box be damaged?

Call me a serial complainer here but i'm sick to death :mad: of being taken for a ride by big companies who's sole existence is to screw the little guy to death - we've got a government/dictatorship to do that!

Thoughts and lines of inspiration please folks.....

I'm gonna try booking the service call on line to get my completely free install, new equipment, half price for 4 months an d a crisp tenner credited to my account, i'll let you all know if it works