BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

Max_Headroom_2

Dont listen to anything they tell you mate. They go through hundreds of staff every month. None of them are trained properly and are encourged to lie, lie ,lie just so that calls are answered. Be firm and get a manager on the case!

BT ARE A SHOWER

BigBumpaGirl

Hi all,

Just to let you know that the £29.99 connection deal is still working.


I just rang BT and arranged for a new line to be installed in a new build. They quoted the full connection charge so I mentioned the offer. They asked where I had heard about it and I said I had seen it on their website. As long as you are firm with them you shouldn’t have a problem.

The only downer is that they need 16 days notice so the new line will not be in until the 5th July, a week after I exchange!

BT_company_representative

Hi Max_Headroom,

If you haven't been able to get this resolved yet I can check this for you. If you'd like me to, feel free to email me your details so I can access your account and I'll get back to you.

I'll need your BT telephone and account number and a link to this thread, you can find my email address in my profile.

All the best,

Stephanie

Max_Headroom_2

Thank You for responding Stephanie but if you read my post you'll see that im not the one having issues. I was stating how easy it was for me and a few friends to reconnect our LLU lines to BT for free if the right team was contacted. The issue is another friend of mine wants a BT so he can use LLU broadband (BE).

charliesaidthat

Basically I have the same story as everyone else.

They tried to sell my girlfriend the £125 package. Bearing in mind we have a 6 month tenancy and the guys that lived here before had a BT line seems ridiculous.

Having talked to the guy at BT today, I have managed to get the 18 month deal (which even when cancelling at the end of 6 months is cheaper than the initial connection charge) however its going to take 3 weeks for it to be set up.

I want to use broadband from another company and my job entails home access to internet. Is there any way to speed this up - other than getting angry?

FannyHill

Max_Headroom wrote: »

Hi All

Back in 2008 I was with Bulldog Broadband as where two of my mates. We decided to get rid of them as their service was getting worse and worse. For those of you who don’t know Bulldog was an LLU supplier, when you went with them they bought the line from BT (all our lines were originaly BT ones, mine had been disconnect for 2 years as I was with NTL) and it was them you paid your line rental to plus whatever the charge was for their broadband service. So I read an article about switching back to BT to use another ISP on mybulldoghell.com. It said to ring the BT customer options team and ask for a "return to donor" which I did (can’t remember the phone number). I explained to the advisor that I just want the standard line rental with nothing else as it was going to be a ADSL line only, "No problem" they said and took the line back from Bulldog in April of that year and started to bill me the £10.50 a month line rental. Both of my mates done the same thing with no issues or charges so we promptly signed up to BE broadband and have never looked back since.
Now another mate of mine is ditching his Virgin service this month to join BE. He phoned BT and was quoted the £124.99 to reconnect his existing BT line in his house which has not been damaged in anyway and does not require an engineer to visit. I haven’t seen it for myself but he tells me it’s in good order. He’s going to try the 17070 code tonight to make sure the pairs are connected at the exchange. (infact he has two BT lines as the previous owner was a BT engineer!)

Now my point is that this nonsense with reconnection charge to existing lines has been going according to this forum since at least 2006. Why then did it cost three of us sod all when we actually WERE physically disconnected from BT to an LLU suppler? BT are LYING full stop!!

(FYI I worked for this shower in retail back in 2003 and I can tell you all they were interested in was new business and answering calls. They couldnt care less about actualy fixing someones problems. My uncle works for Openreach and is in the exchanges everyday so I get access to all the inside technical info)

Regards
Joe

Your uncle works for Openreach so I wonder what he thinks about this ?????


I had a friend who was an Openreach engineeer. He told me there is great pressure from his managers to try and make any call about a problem with a customers line to charge if they possibly can.
We know that it's supposed to be if the fault is outside it's free and inside the customers property it's chargeable.

I had this problem a few years ago regarding noise on the line when making voice calls and problems with my broadband connection.

They said they couldn't find a fault outside,they didn't check my equipment or wiring and yet they sent a bill to my ISP who were going to charge me.
The assumption was if it's not an outside fault it must be a fault with the customers equipment.

Now I didn't pay the charge and they eventually agreed to drop it.

This may have been because it
was an intermittent fault.
I am on a very long line.
The BT checker said broadband cannot be guaranteed on my line because of the length, and finally there are electric fences in the area.

So are the Openreach engineers at your property to help solve a problem or to make sure if they can...... that you will be sent a bill for £180 or whatever it is now.
Call me a cynic but I think the pressures from above will make an honest engineer do things he's not comfortable doing.

Mark_In_Hampshire

FannyHill wrote: »

I had a friend who was an Openreach engineeer. He told me there is great pressure from his managers to try and make any call about a problem with a customers line to charge if they possibly can.
We know that it's supposed to be if the fault is outside it's free and inside the customers property it's chargeable.

FannyHill wrote: »

So are the Openreach engineers at your property to help solve a problem or to make sure if they can...... that you will be sent a bill for £180 or whatever it is now.
Call me a cynic but I think the pressures from above will make an honest engineer do things he's not comfortable doing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/10/bt.html

FannyHill

Thanks for that.


The sad thing is they keep getting away with it.

cheekynige

I'm in a similar predicament.

I've just started renting (on a 9month contract) and everywhere is wired up but BT haven't connected the line (or it's been disconnected). They want £127 to send an engineer out and reconnect the line.

Now I think i'm right in saying if I get BT to do it im tied to a 12month line rental contract with them too.

Basically I want the line reconnected for as cheap as possible, all I want the line for is ADSL, not bothered about phone or tv. I really want broadband from O2 or BE (the exchange is LLU enabled and capable of this, however im in a broadband slow-spot).

I've heard you can get the post-office to connect the line (£110) and cancel everything just before the contract is due to start, thereby getting the line connected for free? Have people done this successfully?

I tried going through O2 and they say they're not doing line connections at the moment only moving people from existing providers.

Any advice?

Mark_In_Hampshire

cheekynige wrote: »

I've heard you can get the post-office to connect the line (£110) and cancel everything just before the contract is due to start, thereby getting the line connected for free? Have people done this successfully?

I doubt it, although it's perhaps possible and certainly immoral. However I'd have thought you'd still remain liable for the connection once it's been done.

Having the PO connect the line is your answer with regard to contract length.