BT Advice Required Please - They want to charge a call-out fee

tom0407

Hi,

I really need some advice please.

We recently moved house into a lovely new flat. But unfortunately when we got here we found the BT phone line didn't work. We tried all the boxes on the wall and went through the whole BT India helpdesk fiasco when they get you to unscrew things. In the end they suggested it seemed likely the problem was with the line, so suggested that an engineer to come out to visit us.

When the engineer got here he spent ages playing around with wires until in the end he said the problem was with the phone wiring in the flat itself, and not a BT problem. He did manage to get one of the sockets working, so we at least have some connection, but most of the other sockets around the flat don't work.

However he said that as it wasn't a BT problem then we'd be charged a call out fee of £90!

Obviously as it was suggested by BT that it seemed like their problem and they suggested someone coming out, to be then faced with a bill for £90 seemed a bit harsh.

But we thought at least that's one of the joys of renting. If it's the wiring of the flat, we'll just forward the cost on to the landlord. However our new landlord is now refusing to pay, saying that the wiring is fine and we didn't ask for permission.

While I understand their point, we didn't give permission for BT to do any bill-able work either, they just charged us anyway.

The way I see it either a) BT has the problem and they shouldn't charge, or b) the flat has the problem and it's the landlords responsibility and they should pay. Yet we are the ones left with the bill which really doesn't seem fair. Moving house costs such a lot of money as it is, this is the last thing we need.

What should we do?

Thanks,
Tom

ColinAllCars

All wiring up to the main socket is the responsibility of BT Openreach.

All wiring AFTER the main socket is YOUR responsibility,as the account holder.

If you call out BT Openreach to a fault that is found to be on wiring after the main socket ( ie YOUR responsibility) BT Openreach will charge for this visit but will not repair it unless you request them to.

tom0407

Yes this is exactly what's happened, thanks for the summary.

Do you have any more specific advice about what we should do?

Dunx69

if you want your line to work your going to have to accept the possibility of charges.

hopefully the engineer will find a fault on the outside, chances are if its a new build theres something wrong with the wiring outside.

there are people who are ex-engineers of BT that you can pay a small fee to check it, they are normally in your local ad-mag or local newspaper.

iniltous

When you called BT to report the fault the BT rep will have quoted CAPC,customer aware of potential charges, if the line tested faulty in a way that suggested the line was faulty at or near the customers address,as already stated you are charged for the call out not if the engineer fixes your faulty wiring,but for calling them out on something that isnt Openreaches responsibility
if for arguments sake you said to the engineer while you are hear can you fix/replace my extension sockets then there would
be a further charge for that work
It may seem unfair that you may be charged but Openreach will charge the service provider (BT Retail) for what they consider to be customer own wiring or equipment faults, BT Retail pass that charge onto you but it would be the same if your SP was Sky, TalkTalk, The Post Office or any other SP, thats why they do try to get you loacte your master socket and try a known working phone in the test socket, before requesting an Openreach visit