Help! Accidentally cut my BT cable - would appreciate some advice

jasonwatkins

This is my "work" ..

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/4088/myphoto0014.jpg

The story ..

Recently left Virgin to return to Sky. Had my Sky landline activated on Friday, so on Sunday morning I had the bright idea to try and remove the virgin cabling in the flat. Cut one end and almost instantly realised what i'd done.

Rang Sky (on my mobile .. :rolleyes:) and the woman I spoke to was very nice and very helpful but she said her hands were tied. She said that if she booked out the repair through official BT channels, it would be a £99 callout plus something like £60 an hour.

For a job that would take about 60 seconds.

So I tried to fix it myself - turned off the electric in the flat, stripped down both ends of the cable and worked out that it just needed to have two blue wires connected. As soon as i touched one, i got a jolt though so I decided to stop that, considering my overall DIY "skill".

I can't even begin to afford the BT callout, and I can't really afford to take a gamble on getting a sympathetic engineer who will just look at what i've done and reconnect the wires and forget all about it.

I've got a few local numbers for electricians to try as well, but i'm still looking - and hoping - for a sympathy vote and to potentially have to pay out no more than £10-£20 quid because i just can't afford it.

I have another possible option in that I go back to Virgin and spin some tale that i'm unhappy with Sky and since i'm in my 30 day "cool-off" period (or whatever it's called) I can cancel my contract and re-join Virgin.

Other than that, i'm stuffed .. So if anyone can think of any wonderfully random ideas in the next 20 minutes (i'm in the library and have to get off the PC by 10am) then I would be forever in your debt .. thanks

Strider590

Personally id get a connector block, stick on a pair of gloves and do it myself

If it blows up the fuse down the road, then the BT engineer will have to do it for free lol

Inactive

I believe that a BT Phone Line Cable only carries around 50 volts, I may be wrong, so check it out.

Browntoa

yes, 50 volts only, not going to do you any harm

Jaffa.

Unplug it from your master socket? Then mend it

DatabaseError

as everyone has said - it's only 50 volts..with a nominal amperage (I think) My line was cut just as it enters my house (upvc door fitted..the fitter slipped with his chisel
...I replaced all the cable from that point and added my own master socket (craps rather than connector block)
My only regret is not using better quality cable (wish I'd used cat5e rather than standard twisted pair)..as it's now routed under a solid oak floor then plastered into the wall there's not much I can do about it

timbim_2

Which is why you should run cables down some sort of loom so that you can rewire easily.

jasonwatkins

as the electrician told me yesterday, it was indeed only 50 volts.

i kept getting jolted though so considering my "talent" at DIY I started to think i'd probably end up another entry on the darwin awards, so I left it.

eventually found a sympathetic electrician who agreed to do it for £40 quid, and what really put the cherry on top was that when i watched him do it it was no different to what i'd tried to do on sunday.

i asked him if he was getting jolted and he said "no, but then to be fair i'm probably used to a lot more than this .."

so i'm just going to have to chalk it up to experience i guess ..

thanks for all the replies ..

DatabaseError

timbim wrote: »

Which is why you should run cables down some sort of loom so that you can rewire easily.

...which is why I frequent this and other boards..I learn a little more each day, sadly, sometimes, a little too late (at the time of the cut I thought telephone cable was all the same)

Glad it's sorted, Jason.£40 isn't a bad price to feel safe...like anything else..if you aren't confident pay someone..watch what they do...diy in future (a lesson I seriously learnt after paying a plumber £80 to fix a small leak...there's never been one (plumber) in the house since!)

timbim_2

DatabaseError wrote: »

...which is why I frequent this and other boards..I learn a little more each day, sadly, sometimes, a little too late (at the time of the cut I thought telephone cable was all the same)

It is pretty much all the same. It's network cable that's different! I say all this about cable routes, and I seriously want to get one under the living room floor to connect the sound output from the TV to a very nice Quad amp system, but I doubt that's going to happen as the only thing doing the route at the moment is a very high quality speaker cable, and I don't want to lose the end underneath the floor!