BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

normanmark

Well demand its an asset to the property & not of your own benefit to the landlord?

ahrimaniac

Or offer to pay BT exactly what it costs to get you connected - ask them for the full actual price, broken down.

It'll be more than £125, easily.

Or you could ask cable? Oh but wait no...

chomius

I don't really understand why people are being quite so arsey. I understand that it costs BT more than £125 and I would have absolutely no problem with paying if it was for my benefit. Which it isn't. I wanted to know if there were alternatives.

Heinz

chomius wrote:

I wanted to know if there were alternatives.

Yes, there are. Cellphones or cable.

p00hbear

I've just bought a flat and need to connect for first time, does anyone know whether they charge extra for an extension, if so how much?

deefadog

yes i imagine they would, £60 springs to mind, but i'd ring them, there is an 0800 free number on the BT website!

ooo000ooo

deefadog wrote:

yes i imagine they would, £60 springs to mind, but i'd ring them, there is an 0800 free number on the BT website!

£139.70 at a rough guess cheaper to diy or pay a spark to do it.

macminiuser

tulips wrote:

This question is aimed at macminiuser but I welcome replies from all. Thanks!

I have a similar problem to others (renting for 6 months, so don't want to be tied in for 12).

I understand you work for youcalls so don't worry about that. In your post on page two of this thread you alluded to a company that could install a line (via openreach) for a few pounds less than BT and then not tie you into a 12 month contract. I assume that this company was yourcalls?

I WORK FOR YOURCALLS.NET BUT THIS IS A GENERALLY USEFUL POST ON THIS TOPIC (I HOPE!)

Sorry it took so long to reply - only just read your post.

If the phone line in your new property is currently inactive, Yourcalls.net are able to arrange for the reactivation/installation of a standard residential telephone line by an OpenReach engineer for £99+VAT (£116.33 inc VAT) with no contract, however you do not have to pay this charge up front - it will appear on your first bill (so you don't need to worry about paying it until the end of the following month). You can't pay in installments, which I think BT might let you do.

8th September Edit: I just found out about another company who offer line installation/reactivation for £99+VAT called DirectSave, with a rolling monthly contract, but I don't work for them nor have I used them myself so I can't vouch for the quality of their service.

Any standard residential telephone service provider will have to levy a charge of £100+ as this is more or less what OpenReach (the organisation responsible for maintaining the UK's telephone infrastructure, and the only company who can carry out this work) charge us as providers for carrying out the work on our behalf - we simply pass this charge on. Even if you were with us for 2 years spending £20 a month on calls we wouldn't make £100 profit out of you so we can't front this installation cost for you; and I'd be very surprised to hear of any other service providers fronting OpenReach's new line installation/reactivation charges for their customers.

It can take up to 10 working days to get an appointment (longer for new builds), and you will need to be present in the property on the day to confirm that you are happy with the work and that the line is functioning correctly. Appointments have to be weekdays, Monday-Friday, and will either be in the Morning (8am-1pm) or the Afternoon (1pm-6pm). These are OpenReach's rules, not ours.

You might want to approach BT directly and see if you can negotiate a deal whereby they reactivate your line for free (it is, after all, their network and they can choose whether to charge you or not, whereas they will ALWAYS charge us). If BT reactivate your line, you will be tied in to a contract for at least three months, but once those three months are up, you will be able to transfer your service to any independent telephone service provider of your choice.

Also what is the situation regarding broadband with a yourcalls supplied line?

As you were thinking about getting broadband once your new line is installed, you need to bear the following in mind:

When a broadband provider says that you need to have a "BT line" in order to use their service, what they mean is you need to have a "standard residential phone line." The only circumstances under which your broadband choices are limited is if you fall into any of the following categories:

1. You are a cable customer (like NTL/Telewest) as these companies operate on a completely different network.
2. You pay your line rental to an LLU provider like Bulldog or TalkTalk as these companies operate on a slightly different network and you are usually tied into using their broadband.
3. You live in Hull and pay your line rental to Kingston Communications.

If you do not fall into any of the above categories, you can use any broadband provider of your choice and you are not tied to taking out broadband from the company to which you pay your line rental to. Because Yourcalls.net arrange for the installation of standard residential phone lines, you will be free to choose any broadband provider of your choice and it will be 100% compatible with your Yourcalls.net line.

If you're not certain how long you'll be staying in the place, be careful which broadband provider you choose - again at wholesale, it costs a fair amount of money for a broadband provider to activate it on your line, so most will absorb that cost up-front in exchange for a 12 month contract. There are companies like Zen internet (highly recommended on ADSLguide.org) who will charge you around fifty quid to set it up, but you can cancel at any time.

Broadband companies fall into one of two categories - those that offer "free" setup but hold you to a 12 month contract and those that make the real charges clear, but allow you the freedom to switch at a later date.

Are there any restrictions or are you open to the market available to a tradational BT line? Cheers.

Specifically with Yourcalls.net, you can use 1899/18185/18866 etc, technically you could CPS your calls elsewhere if you wanted to, but there is a clause in the terms and conditions asking you not to do that (there isn't actually a formal penalty if you do, you just might get asked not to do it).

If you need on-the-fly call barring where you set and unset call bars to local/national/mobile/international/premium numbers using a PIN or unlimited ring back line services, don't use Yourcalls.net because they charge £9.99 for these services. Regular call barring is free (where you call in and ask to bar local/national/mobile/internetional/premium numbers, but can't set/unset from your telephone handset, and takes around 3 hours for the bar to turn on/off).

Also calls to 0845 and 0870 are expensive so use use Call18185.co.uk to call 0870 numbers for 4p per minute peak and 2p per minute off peak, and you can use Dialaround.co.uk by dialling 0844 462 34 34 before the 0845 number you wish to call and call for 2p per minute peak - this doesn't just apply to Yourcalls.net, you can use either of these with whichever phone company you choose.

Hope this has been useful.

macminiuser

p00hbear wrote:

I've just bought a flat and need to connect for first time, does anyone know whether they charge extra for an extension, if so how much?

I WORK FOR A TELECOMS COMPANY BUT IT'S NOT NECESSARY TO MENTION THEM IN THIS POST

Last time one of our customers asked for a second socket to be installed, OpenReach quoted us £55+VAT per hour with a minimum charge of 3 hours.

Don't know what they charge at retail, but it's not going to be cheap.

Nip down B&Q and get a splitter and long extension cable is your cheapest bet, or better still a Digital Cordless Phone (DECT) - don't hard wire anything into the phone socket cos if anything goes wrong with your line in the future, BT won't fix it without charging you because even if your handywork is the best in the world, it wasn't done by them so they'll blame the fault on the fact you've wired in your own extension even if a truck has knocked down the telegraph pole at the end of the road*.

* may not necessarily be true, but still, don't mess with your BT installed socket - they don't like it!

macminiuser

Heinz wrote:

Yes, there are. Cellphones or cable.

Cellphones? Urgh... next you'll be telling us 9/11 is the 11th September and not the 9th November.