BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

neo_napalm

After totalling about 14 hours on the phone I finally managed to sort everything out. They did connect me without my permission (plus sent me a bill which arrived today) but everything is now fine. Until the next time I have to sort something out...

normanmark

PayNowt wrote: »

Hi. Always a tricky one, this. I've just moved into a house and signed up with BT (hardware already in place) and then gone straight to TalkTalk (thanks Martin and team for the MS tip). I will have to pay BT £70 according to their T's & C's for breaking the contract but will still save £240-odd per year by doing this. Also had a chat with the OFT about competition rules as this seems a little anti-competitive - they threw up their hands and advised contact my MP(!) Why can't TalkTalk (and others) buy this service from BT at wholesale rates...? BT still have the monopoly on connecting despite many companies in the market. Something not quite right there... :-(

BT dont have any monopoly anymore. Do your research & question why is it that these other providers arent bending over backwards to do any physical engineering work?

They have the same access as any other provider (and before you panic, they're treated on the same level as BT Retail). They just chose not to do it because they dont think its financially viable for them

BritBrat

BT dont have any monopoly anymore. Do your research & question why is it that these other providers arent bending over backwards to do any physical engineering work?

They have the same access as any other provider (and before you panic, they're treated on the same level as BT Retail). They just chose not to do it because they dont think its financially viable for them

I thought Openreach do, if that's not the case then we can DIY legally.

smokingun4073

my wife works at bt and she is very annoyed at the way they are doing things, she says that they dont have to charge you but are being told to charge even if you have a full working line. they can tell this from there end in 2mins. and yes a working line will be charged again and again. they are also working on two systems at the moment. if you didnt know bt no longer owns any of its lines they have all been sold to open reach.
bt are the same as talk talk now there not the big company they once were.
so to have a bt account you need an open reach line there fore you need a line so open reach charge you not bt.

no dont be fooled by the name bt. bt open reach, and bt whole sale have no connection to bt, only by name. if you dont want to pay the £125 ask the advisor to use the old system called smart.
the new system by open reach charges you but its little known fact that there are only 6teams trained on the new system. my wife started training on it yesterday.
from what my wife says there tell advisors to fill in the forms incorrectly.
on the smart system the old one there telling them to tick boxes like, are wires in tact. even if the customner says they are they tick the no box. therefore you will need an engineer £125 please. if i was you i would arguee my butt of that your not paying it cos its a working line. if it went to court you would win cos i knoew what there doing.:A

BritBrat

Thanks for the info smokingun4073,

And welcome to MSE.

Drunkstar

smokingun4073 wrote: »

my wife works at bt and she is very annoyed at the way they are doing things, she says that they dont have to charge you but are being told to charge even if you have a full working line. they can tell this from there end in 2mins. and yes a working line will be charged again and again. they are also working on two systems at the moment. if you didnt know bt no longer owns any of its lines they have all been sold to open reach.
bt are the same as talk talk now there not the big company they once were.
so to have a bt account you need an open reach line there fore you need a line so open reach charge you not bt.

no dont be fooled by the name bt. bt open reach, and bt whole sale have no connection to bt, only by name. if you dont want to pay the £125 ask the advisor to use the old system called smart.
the new system by open reach charges you but its little known fact that there are only 6teams trained on the new system. my wife started training on it yesterday.
from what my wife says there tell advisors to fill in the forms incorrectly.
on the smart system the old one there telling them to tick boxes like, are wires in tact. even if the customner says they are they tick the no box. therefore you will need an engineer £125 please. if i was you i would arguee my butt of that your not paying it cos its a working line. if it went to court you would win cos i knoew what there doing.:A

Your wife is VERY wrong. The Smart system cant be used anymore to place orders for anything other than Pay and Call, and even then its stil subject to the engineers survey. Plus as of YESTERDAY it became compulsory that any ceased line to be charged the £124.99 regardless.
Oh and teh working lines bit is also crap, if its working you WONT be charged. YOur wife neds to either:

get a better trainer/manager, or learn her job properly (depending on if its por training or she mis-understood).

normanmark

Drunkstar wrote: »

Your wife is VERY wrong. The Smart system cant be used anymore to place orders for anything other than Pay and Call, and even then its stil subject to the engineers survey. Plus as of YESTERDAY it became compulsory that any ceased line to be charged the £124.99 regardless.
Oh and teh working lines bit is also crap, if its working you WONT be charged. YOur wife neds to either:

get a better trainer/manager, or learn her job properly (depending on if its por training or she mis-understood).

Pay & Call subject to an engineer survey? I was under the impression it was just a tariff?

And of course any ceased line will be charged, its ceased, the equipments been disconnected! It was the stopped lines which was causing the confusion!

Drunkstar

normanmark wrote: »

Pay & Call subject to an engineer survey? I was under the impression it was just a tariff?

And of course any ceased line will be charged, its ceased, the equipments been disconnected! It was the stopped lines which was causing the confusion!

The installation of the Pay and Call line is subject to the survey, P+C is the one that can still be set up on SMART.

And before the ceased line didnt mean that work would have had to be charged for at all. In fact prior to this the reconnection of a ceased line was usually free. You didnt, and still dont, get charged for a line with a stopped status.

christopher

While there's people around who might know the answer to this... When I got my line reconnected last year (September), I was told I'd have to pay £50 up front because I have a feeling the previous tenants didn't pay all of their bills on time (or scarpered before paying up in full) - either that or because I had no other utilities subscriptions I didn't pass the credit check (21 year old student).

Anyway, as my year's up in September, and we're already on cable broadband now anyway, how will I get this £50 back? As a credit into the account from which the direct debits come?

normanmark

Not 100% sure how you recieve it back, i'd hazard a guess at through credit into the account.

But the reason they do this is down to the credit check