BT charge for repair nowhere near my property?

gwhizz75

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on where I stand here. A couple of months ago I moved back into my flat (after renting it out for a year) and the phone line was no longer working. I contacted BT who said they would send an engineer out between 8:00 - 1:00 on a particular day. I took the day off, waited in and nobody showed.

I called them to ask what was going on and they said someone has been out, and your phoneline is fixed. Nobody had been to my house, or in my yard, or anywhere near my property! I was charged £120 for this although I have no proof that anybody spent a significant amount of time fixing anything.

I rang up to complain about the charge as I thought you only had to pay if the fault was in your property but they said that wasn't the case and I had to pay. Is this correct or should I be putting up a fight to get my money back?

BT_company_representative

Hello gwhixx75

In reponse to your post relating to the visit charge you incurred, due to the fault with your BT telephone line, I have sent you a pm, requesting further details, so I can look into this further for you.

Regards
Anne Louise

macman

Did you test the line from the BT test socket behind the master socket to establish where the fault was?

iniltous

I presume that when you moved out you asked BT to stop (or cease) the service into the property, the people who moved in may have never wanted the line made 'live' for them to use, so after a while the line is 'ceased' and even though the socket and a certain amount of the connection back to the exchange exists, it isnt still connected...when you ask BT to restore service, if it can be done just by connection in the exchange you get a 'start' for free, however if an engineer has to be sent out to get the line working regardless where the work is required you get charged for a 'provide'....I dont think you were charged for a repair, you were charged for a install because the line wasnt still intact from your property back to the exchange,
BT leave a 'soft' dialtone on the socket of a stopped line, if there was no tone at the socket, then a engineer install is required (and charged)
BT were offering 'free' installation in return for a 18month calls contract, you could try asking for this deal retrospectivley and they may
credit the £120 back to your account