BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

NeilW

gt94sss2 wrote:

Still, as I have posted before, BT have obviously noticed as from May they are scrapping their cancellation option which allows customers to break a telephone contract for a maximum fee of £18 but will instead charge line rental for the entire minimum term and add a £5 admin fee as well..

I'm sure that's true Sunil. However if the charge doesn't breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act now (and I reckon it does), then it certainly will if they go down that route. Another 'Bank charge' consumer revolt?

And in the meantime you still don't have any way to put a line in that TalkTalk can handle.

NeilW

NeilW

gt94sss2 wrote:

The problem for people wishing to join TalkTalk etc isn't BT but TalkTalk itself.

No, that is their business model and a perfectly sensible top-slicing model it is for the price.

If you want apples you have to plant an apple tree and make it grow. It is no good looking at a pear tree and imploring it to produce apples. It won't.

So let's do somethng about it.

NeilW

NeilW

Heinz wrote:

It's called Openreach.

Yes I know, and this is what we want

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/pricing/wlrprices.do


The question is whether it can be installed in a live state with dial-out set to network busy. (So that people can call the line, but it can't call out).

Can somebody read through the guff here:

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/products/wlr/pstn/pstn.do

And see if that is a possibility.

gt94sss2

NeilW wrote:

I'm sure that's true Sunil. However if the charge doesn't breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act now (and I reckon it does), then it certainly will if they go down that route.

I suspect you will find that the courts would find enforcing a 12 month contract as 'fair' - as that is the standard length of many contracts in the UK and not unduly long.

No, that is their business model and a perfectly sensible top-slicing model it is for the price.

No doubt the business model works for TalkTalk, but its not as good for its potential customers (those who need a new line) as it forces them to enter into an 'unnecessary' contract with BT

The question is whether it can be installed in a live state with dial-out set to network busy. (So that people can call the line, but it can't call out).

Yes, and telco's/ISP's (incuding TalkTalk) can order such a service if they want - TalkTalk chose not to offer such a option.

You see any telco/ISP can order these services from Openreach - TalkTalk choose not too offer these options, unlike say Andrews and Arnold who do

So, again - all these options are open to TalkTalk - they chose not to avail themselves of these or offer them directly to their customers.

Regards
Sunil

NeilW

gt94sss2 wrote:

So, again - all these options are open to TalkTalk - they chose not to avail themselves of these or offer them directly to their customers.

We seem to be struggling a bit here.

What is unfair to you, is to me a niche business opportunity - provide blank lines that the cheap providers can takeover.

Essentially like the A&A offering but without any baggage.

So you come to me, I put your blank line in and then you can pick any cheap provider you fancy to take over the blank line.

Problem solved.

gt94sss2

NeilW wrote:

We seem to be struggling a bit here.

Just a bit

What is unfair to you, is to me a niche business opportunity - provide blank lines that the cheap providers can takeover.

Essentially like the A&A offering but without any baggage.

So you come to me, I put your blank line in and then you can pick any cheap provider you fancy to take over the blank line.

Problem solved.

Yes, but this wont actually save customers any/much money at all - so there is very little point in doing it (otherwise someone would have)

Anyway, I think this is going way OT for this particular thread now..

Regards
Sunil

segawang

I can see that most of the people who's complaining are the tenants, who thought it's unfair for them to pay the one-off fee, which will benefit all the tenants in the future. They do have the point here. It would be fair if the charge is actually on the house owners and they pass the fee evenly to all the tenants over the time.

My only question about the £125 BT connection fee is why it's not put onto the house owners, just like the gas or electricity connection fee? As someone pointed out before, it should be seen as a part of the assets of the property, isn't it? Is it because phone line is not seen as essential as the gas or electricity, or there are some other technical problems? If it's the former, I think a phone line is becoming more and more necessary in the modern life, and hopefully in the future it would be regarded as a must just like the gas.

gt94sss2

segawang wrote:

My only question about the £125 BT connection fee is why it's not put onto the house owners, just like the gas or electricity connection fee? As someone pointed out before, it should be seen as a part of the assets of the property, isn't it? Is it because phone line is not seen as essential as the gas or electricity, or there are some other technical problems?

The people complaining tend to be those who have moved into 'new build' properties (whether they are owners or tenants)

The builders pay for the gas/electricity connections and build it into the selling price of the property as they know without these nobody would buy them.

However, most buyers either don't realise or think about telephone connections when buying property and hence builders know they can avoid paying BT for this work - thus increasing their margins sightly and letting the people who move in pay for the work...

Regards
Sunil

Mr_Gamgee

I have to say its the Tenants getting the rough end of the deal here.

I've been a tenant of a flat now for about a year and when I moved in it had NTL, no BT. NTL screwed me over after I'd cancelled and it took me a year and getting the ombudsman involved to get compensation - won't ever consider them again.

Anway, I was astonished at the price quoted to get a BT line installed (it had only just gone up then) I'd never had to pay before as rented properties had already had landlines. So after looking at the options decided upon a 3G datacard for my laptop. I already had a mobile phone so now rely on that for calls rather than landline.

The card (from 3 uk) was free and it costs £30 per month for 256MB. If you don't download lots or do bandwidth heavy things this is fine. Couple this with https://www.onspeed.com (quite good) which compresses the data - making it faster and essentially cheaper as less data is transferred. Another bonus was being able to take my internet connection anywhere where there was a 3G coverage (without it uses limited GPRS on roaming).

Compare this to the BT option paying for a new line, £120 odd quid over 12 months, plus £10 per month basic line rental, plus approx £10 for some kind of broadband = ~ £30 per month over the first year. Ok, you'd get more bandwidth and its dependant on how long you stay in the property, but if you're a tenant, can restrict yourself to medium internet usage and not likely to be staying anywhere for a long amount of time I reckon this is a viable option IMHO.

Why be the first to pay this charge that essentially benefits no one but the owner???

When my existing data contract runs out I'll be looking at upgrading to an unlimited option from another mobile provider (O2) that actually wrks out £1 per month cheaper and its faster (HSDPA rather than 3G).

Only thing I'd warn about is checking if you will get coverage first.

When I'm lucky enough to be able to afford bricks and mortar I'd be happy to pay this charge. Until then...

aquarian3

Hi,

My brother and my neighbour are both looking at getting home phones, both have been told by BT they'd need to pay over £100 to get connected - then more money upfront as they've never been customers of BT before.

In both houses they have the phone connection boxes.

So I'm wondering - do these families have any other choices? Is BT the only company they can go to?

I know that I've changed companies in the past (from BT to Talk Talk etc) but both of these households haven't had BT accounts to start with - are they stuck in a smelly river without a paddle?

Thanks in advance,

Lisa
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