BT Engineer Charge (RESOLVED) :)

burnleylad_84

Hi,

First i'll explain my phone setup in my house;

Outside my house there was an old Cable&Wireless box with a cable leading into my front room where it came through the wall and did not connect anywhere, just had a little box on the end that looks like a micro filter. Next to that was a the big Cable&Wireless box that i presume was used for cable, again this had nothing connected to it. Next to that was a phone socket.

I was a new tenant in this property in March and had no idea about this setup at first, all i saw was the phone socket and rang BT up and ordered the service, when my HomeHub came i plugged it all in and it would not work so they called out a BT Enginner.

I explained to the engineer there was this weird box outside and it lead inside where the cable ended, then he tried the phone socket and noticed it was empty so he took off the little microfilter thing on the cable and routed it through the empty socket, put a new face plate on then used his machine and we got a dialling tone, SUCCESS!

He specifically said to me you won't be charged because your a new tennant and it must of been previously ripped out and he used an old Cable&Wireless line to get a connection so all he did was add the face plate and re-wire that old cable into the empty socket.

He said they may try and charge you but you will get refunded as it was not your fault.

So guess what, they have charged me and ive made a complaint with the technical team and just waiting to hear more. Ive suspended direct debits in the meantime. Could anyone give me some advice on this?

Thanks,

P.S. Heres the bill

01 Jul-07 Aug	 16 May 2009 Engineer additional charge	£113.85
01 Jul-07 Aug	 16 May 2009 Engineer additional charge	£97.75
Total	£211.60

hobo123

Hi I think what has happened is this job should probably have been an installation order not a repair job as the line was not installed properly in the first place (although you may have had to pay an installation fee) Make sure you make it clear that the line has never worked since the installation was requested as charges like this cant be raised by an engineer on a installation job.

syko29793

burnleylad_84 wrote: »

Hi,

First i'll explain my phone setup in my house;

Outside my house there was an old Cable&Wireless box with a cable leading into my front room where it came through the wall and did not connect anywhere, just had a little box on the end that looks like a micro filter. Next to that was a the big Cable&Wireless box that i presume was used for cable, again this had nothing connected to it. Next to that was a phone socket.

I was a new tenant in this property in March and had no idea about this setup at first, all i saw was the phone socket and rang BT up and ordered the service, when my HomeHub came i plugged it all in and it would not work so they called out a BT Enginner.

I explained to the engineer there was this weird box outside and it lead inside where the cable ended, then he tried the phone socket and noticed it was empty so he took off the little microfilter thing on the cable and routed it through the empty socket, put a new face plate on then used his machine and we got a dialling tone, SUCCESS!

He specifically said to me you won't be charged because your a new tennant and it must of been previously ripped out and he used an old Cable&Wireless line to get a connection so all he did was add the face plate and re-wire that old cable into the empty socket.

He said they may try and charge you but you will get refunded as it was not your fault.

So guess what, they have charged me and ive made a complaint with the technical team and just waiting to hear more. Ive suspended direct debits in the meantime. Could anyone give me some advice on this?

Thanks,

P.S. Heres the bill

01 Jul-07 Aug     16 May 2009 Engineer additional charge    £113.85
01 Jul-07 Aug     16 May 2009 Engineer additional charge    £97.75
Total    £211.60

All depends what was said on the call when you placed your order with BT.

The advisor should have asked you "Is the wiring intact ?"

If you said yes then charges apply to fix any wire problems. If you said no then charges still apply but you should have been advised at point of sale that charges apply.

If you were not told at the point when you arranged an engineer there would be a charge then you should not be charged.

All calls to BT are recorded so if disputing and you know you are right just ask for the call to be cecked .

hayley11

I hate BT for these excessive charges, they got my Aunt with them a while ago and she just rolled over and paid it.

DO NOT pay it unless they can PROVE that you caused the fault and of course they won't be able to. Write to them and tell them you are not paying it, simple as.

Pay them how much you owe them for your line rental etc by other means until it's resolved, keep a note of every charge they put on your account (and there'll be plenty) and then demand every penny of it back when they come to their senses and realise you don't owe them this silly call out fee.

spark_deals

What i'd advise is that ask them to send you the transcript and also inform them that you shall withhold the payments till you get the transcript of the call. Donot 'agree or disagree' to pay. say those exact words.
Also keep note of date, time and the person you spoke to. Also ask them if you need to communicate in writing after the call, don't forget to ask the address where to write to, if that option is available.

BT_company_representative

Hi Burnley_lad84,

The charges raised for the repair of the line are correct as the damage caused was not as a result of BT. But I do understand that as a new customer you would have been better off if you had been charged for the installation of a new line, which costs £122.50. If you PM me your BT account details I will see if there is anything I can do.

Cheers

Paddy

BT Support,

espresso

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Burnley_lad84,

The charges raised for the repair of the line are correct as the damage caused was not as a result of BT. But I do understand that as a new customer you would have been better off if you had been charged for the installation of a new line, which costs £122.50. If you PM me your BT account details I will see if there is anything I can do.

Cheers

Paddy

BT Support,

How can a new customer be charged for a repair when BT have not yet provided them with any service? At the very least BT should waive all charges, especially in view of the current line connection special offer - details here that conveniently never gets mentioned by BTstaff.

macman

Whatever else the BT engineer did, he did not use the C+W cable line to make a connection. This is now under Virgin and the cable network is entirely separate from the BT network.
OP, did you actually check the BT line before you called them in, to see if there was already a dial tone on the line?

mrtom21

They normally ask if your wiring and sockets are in tact when you place the order, if you said yes to this question then it would technically be seen as a charge you could potentially be liable to pay. I would have recommended fully checking your sockets when moving in.

burnleylad_84

I ordered the service from an online sales person who popped up on my screen, for the life of me i can't remember the name but presume this is logged aswell for dispute issues?

I ordered my service and stated to him i have a phone socket but don't know if its BT or not as it says Cable&Wireless and i could not test, he did a check and confirmed to me all would be ok and then i purchased the service, then when line was activated there was no dial tone so the engineer fixed it. No charges was mentioned at any point by BT.

I can't explain what this engineer did but i know he used my existing cable which lead from outside to in (Old cable line) even though this sounds weird, so he did not fit a new line into my ppty just used what i already had.

I cant be expected to pay for something ive not done and something ive had no service fron, its bt's responsibility to provide me with a working line.

I will update you on my convo with them tonight.

burnleylad_84

UPDATE: Spoke to a complaints manager who advised me that they will reduce the full charge to just the standard £112 call out charge << Cant remember exact.

I advised that i want to escalate it further, and wanted their complaints procedure so they are having a senior manage call me in about an hour.

They stated that the engineer notes state not active bt line so they used my old cable and wireless connection and activated it. I informed them that i explained i could not test the line when purchasing and the sales person said all was ok for bt to be setup, then when i spoke to bt to arrange the engineer charges were not advised.

The woman said i was made aware of teh charges, so i asked for a transcript of the sales call and engineer request call and all she said was "not all calls are recorded"

I will give a further update once ive spoken to a manager.