Moving Home - Urgent Help Please

Tongue

Okay so the scenario is this.

BT customer for many many years is moving home.
They need to cancel the phone at their current address obviously and get a new one set up at new address.
I'm lead to believe from a BT Rep on this site that because they have the evening and weekend tariff on a 12 month contract then they will have to pay a £122 connection fee for the new phone as it's a new property.
This to me sounds like a load of old codswallop!
Surely you can just cancel your evening and weekend tariff when you move out of the property? If you move out you won't have the phone and can't use the eve and weekend facility!
Then if when you move into a new home the offer of a FREE connection should kick in.
If anyone knows the answer I'd be most grateful for some help.
Also which other phone companies could get a line connection at the new house or is it only BT who can connect you?
I know SKY do a phone service but does anyone else?
Thanks

macman

Depends if you are on a rolling renewable 12m contract. If so and you are not OOC when you move, then you will have to pay a termination fee.
But you do not have to pay a fee for a new connection, you can get it free (plenty of posts on this board concerning it, but you have to ask-BT won't volunteer it). However this means you must take 12m line rental and the minium call package with BT.
Post Office is another option for reconnection.

Tongue

Thanks macman.

I put the same situation to a BT Rep on here who said a connection fee would have to be paid but I don't think so.
She never said I could end the (evening and weekends contract contract) which I know you can do, EVERY contract comes to an end!

The phone will be for life, the person will not be moving home again and it should be a very simple process. To be asked for £122 for some fella to "flick a switch" is totally ridiculous. No wonder BT have an alarming bad reputation and I'm all for competition ASAP!

macman

Yes, you can end the contract any time you like, but if it's still inside the minimum term, then an early termination fee will be charged.

Heinz

Tongue wrote: »

To be asked for £122 for some fella to "flick a switch" is totally ridiculous.

New build = first telephone line installation = first occupant pays (been discussed many times, cost of installation of external wiring to the property etc. is expensive and someone has to physically connect the wires back to the exchange and to the rack at the exchange so expecting the first occupant to pay £122 - a fraction of the cost - is reasonable).

However, you're lucky, because there's a free installation offer available until 30/9/09 so you won't even have to pay that. Phone 0800 100 444 and ask for the Customer Options Team.

Tongue

Heinz

Many thanks for your input but it's all been sorted now hopefully.
£122 to join a piece of wire lol someone is having a larf aint they?
No wonder this country is in the sh1te.

littleboo

I think you've missed the point again. It's not for joining a piece of wire, its a contribution to providing the infrastructure to a new build property. How much of that would £122 cover ? Not much. Suddenly the rip off looks like good deal.

wantmemoney

Tongue,
BT 's 'fees' are set on the 'rip-off ' default.

There may be extra cost moving into a 'new build' but in general if an existing BT customer who is simply moving address there should be no disconnection charge, no reconnection charge, no charge what soever.

BT will try and pull the same stunt on any existing BT customer who moves into the property you are leaving.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/nov/10/moneysupplement.internetphonesbroadband
BT gets its lines crossed with fee for all
November 10 2007

People moving home are being charged a £125 reconnection fee by BT - even if the previous owner was a customer of the telecom giant. Those who call BT to complain have been left waiting on hold for hours.
Two weeks ago, Guardian Money told how BT was penalising people moving into a new home where the previous occupant had switched their landline to a rival supplier.
Now it appears the former monopoly provider has been taking advantage of consumer confusion, and its dominant position, by applying the same charge randomly to thousands of customers moving house.
The £125 fee, which, some might say, makes a mockery of Ofcom's attempts to bring down the cost of phone and broadband services, came about because it seems no one at the regulator considered what would what happen to "movers" under its new regime.
It does not help that the BT department responsible for connecting new customers appears to be in chaos. People are complaining it is impossible to contact - and those that do get through are often given contradictory information.
Some customers told Guardian Money they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone trying to resolve the problem, while others complain the £125 fee was "absurd" and "exorbitant".
Meanwhile, engineers are not turning up to appointments. In 2005, Ofcom insisted that BT create a separate company (now called Openreach) to manage the engineers who connect homes to the exchange. The split was intended to give all the telecoms companies equal access to the exchange network, to stimulate competition.
However, one of the unintended consequences of the decision appears to be much higher reconnection charges when a customer moves house.
BT's residential arm is allowed to charge the £125 fee if the previous occupier switched their landline to a rival supplier, through what is known as local loop unbundling. It appears to have plucked this unregulated figure out of the air, as it pays Openreach considerably less for the switch.
The problem is occurring when someone informs their telephone provider they are moving and that they want to terminate their contract.
After extensive questioning this week, BT revealed that the imposition of the charge largely depends on whether the house is near a busy exchange, where demand for lines is high. In that case, lines freed up are being quickly offered for re-use. In quiet areas, they can sit undisturbed for up to five years.
New occupiers are automatically charged the £125 fee, regardless of who used to supply the phone service. However, BT said this week that the charge should not be payable if the previous occupier was with BT. This has been refuted by readers' experiences.
Police officer Fred Trott contacted Money after reading our original article. He said he and his wife had been charged £125 when they moved into their home in Haslemere, Surrey.
The previous owner had been with OneTel, but had agreed to switch their service back to BT before they moved out. The Trotts moved in but faced an endless battle to make BT see this - its staff insisted the £125 fee was payable.
The pair, loyal BT customers for many years, say they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone to various BT departments trying to get the charge repaid - but to no avail.
A spokesman for BT says the current position regarding the £125 fee is "not ideal" and that it is looking at how it can be changed. "Where a working line exists, our intention is that reconnection should be free - but a charge of £125 applies where we have to involve an engineer.
"Where a customer is returning to join BT from a local loop unbundled competitor, our systems default to charging £125. We do intend to change this as soon as possible. It is one of a number of complex changes arising from BT Retail's adoption of a new IT system to comply with its commitment to the regulator, Ofcom."
It also confirmed that it has now refunded Mr Trott's £125 charge.
Ofcom says it is aware of the situation and that it is working with the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to rectify this problem. "The matter should be resolved by next spring," says a spokeswoman. "It is important that customers are confident in the switching process and it is essential that there are no obstacles in the way. We are working via the OTA and industry to have all telecoms providers on the new system by spring 2008."

cajef

wantmemoney wrote: »

BT will try and pull the same stunt on any existing BT customer who moves into the property you are leaving.

Not so, I moved into a property last December which had been empty for nearly twelve months as it was a deceased estate, the phone was disconnected.

I contacted BT who advised if I kept the original number the previous occupant had there would be no reconnection charge, maybe I caught them on a good day but I have had several bills since then and no connection fee has been charged.

iniltous

If someone moves into a property that has a working or stopped line then obviously the new occupant should be able to takeover the line at no or low cost, but some lines are not stopped but ceased, and that means the lineplant is not guaranteed to still be in situ to the property, if the service provider ( BT retail, Sky Talk Talk or whoever ) request an Openreach visit to the address, or the line doesnt work (on a start) and a visit is required to get the line into service then Openreach will bill the service provider, for the OR engineers time etc..
Because of this SP's will quote the install fee to the end user regardless , the status of the address will be on an Openreach database as being served, not served, ceased or stopped but the end user doesnt call Openreach they call BT or Sky or Talk Talk, and unless the property is served by the company you have called, they will have no record of service at the address, or any way of telling if the property is served or not (so will quote the install so they dont get a bill of Openreach that they cannot pass on to the end user )
Ofcom required BT to have separate systems from Openreach so BT retail cannot have a look at Openreaches records to see if an address has a cable pair to it or not
When BT were the only game in town if the engineer visited and the address had service in the past he could note this fact and charges would be reduced accordingly, but that was when the engineer worked for the same company that sent out the bill

Tongue

littleboo wrote: »

I think you've missed the point again. It's not for joining a piece of wire, its a contribution to providing the infrastructure to a new build property. How much of that would £122 cover ? Not much. Suddenly the rip off looks like good deal.

No I think you've missed the point littleboo.

In life you have to "specualte to accumulate" and BT having a monopoly on telephone lines have already been given the golden spoon in gob treatment and will recoup their "infrastructure investement" many many many times over the years.
For BT it is a win, win policy. It's a sure thing and an easy way for massive profit!

Open your eyes and smell the coffee, BT is a licence to print money!