BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

Drunkstar

Its down to the status of the line. A 'stopped' line is free, a 'ceased' line raises the charge. So its no differnce on who orders it.

Metermaid

Drunkstar wrote: »

Its down to the status of the line. A 'stopped' line is free, a 'ceased' line raises the charge. So its no differnce on who orders it.

Right, so is it worth me ringing BT again an asking if it is 'stopped' or 'ceased'? Or will they definitely have quoted me the correct charge when I rang the first time?

TIA

gt94sss2

Drunkstar wrote: »

Hmmm, guess I was told wrong then. If thats the cost I cant see how BT can justify the extra charge for customers.

£21.59?

Erm.. BT Retail staff time, cost of premises, profit etc..

Regards
Sunil

alan99_2

Drunkstar wrote: »

Its down to the status of the line. A 'stopped' line is free, a 'ceased' line raises the charge. So its no differnce on who orders it.

My Oxford Dictionary of Current English says.
Cease means end, stop, bring to an end.

Try getting a well educated BT call centre worker who has English as a first language to explain the difference. Then , if you really want a challenge ask an Indian in Bangalore the difference .:rotfl:

Maybe they mean 'Permanantly disconnected' and 'Temporarily stopped'

Alan

cece_3

i just activated the phoneline in my new home. I simply called in and signed up as a new customer but did not take up any of their deals simply the one that involves payment of line renatal, i think its option 1. Ihave noww taken up the 5 pounds anyutime deal from sky. My activation happened in 2 days. They are very difficult to get through to but when you do, try to get a reference number for your activation and ask for a call back and things should progress quicker. I never paid a penny

normanmark

alan99 wrote: »

My Oxford Dictionary of Current English says.
Cease means end, stop, bring to an end.

Try getting a well educated BT call centre worker who has English as a first language to explain the difference. Then , if you really want a challenge ask an Indian in Bangalore the difference .:rotfl:

Maybe they mean 'Permanantly disconnected' and 'Temporarily stopped'

Alan

Alan, its just the terms they use within BT to describe lines.

Stopped line means the equipment is still all there & the line is not active. ie. a line stopped for non payment, stopped so that if the customer pays the bill it can be put back on.

Ceased lines means the equipment has been fully disconnected/removed at either the exchange or the property.

HTH

Drunkstar

gt94sss2 wrote: »

£21.59?

Erm.. BT Retail staff time, cost of premises, profit etc..

Regards
Sunil

The time it takes a BT retail staff member to place the order certainly doenst come to that amount, cost of premises is irrelevent as its not efected by the activation order as its not retails premises. ONly the profit bit stands out.

Guess IM just fed up of defending BT Retail al the time, while geting crap from customers and less than great treatment as an employee.

Cherez

My son is waiting for a bt line and I rang them for him today, apparently if a line has been stopped for more than 3 months there is a full connection charge of £125.00. S'pose i've been lucky, when i moved into my rented flat recently there had been a bt line, so i paid nothing for it to be changed over to me, but the house I am thinking of buying (and before anyone snaps my head off it is a modest little 2 bed semi) has not had a b.t. line for 6 months so i will be paying the full changeover fee, can't go with anyone else till August next year as I am tied into a years contract.

I have been a customer for years now and i really dont think its fair. The girl I spoke to on the phone said there have been numerous complaints about the costs by existing customers.

bushy88

Hello. I've read this thread with great interest as Tuesday I phoned BT to reconnect - I've just moved into a rented flat, not new - and was told it would be £125. And when I sounded shocked she said that it was because there was no line in there. So I said that there was a box and a dial tone from it you just couldn't dial anything. She said as there was no record of a line with BT and that the previous tenant must have been with another provider and I should contact them. I've no idea who that is and I've looked since at the box and it's got the old BT logo on it so they've obviously installed it at somepoint in the past. Also, wouldn't a previous tenant have payed line rental to them?

Since reading the thead I've done a 1470 17070 line test and it gives a phone number and a quiet line - no idea what that means, if anything. If you dial the phone number it says - does not receive incoming calls. So it looks like the line is all still there.

When I phoned originally she said that I might be charged if they came out but I might not. I'd have to commit to the charge and then see what happens as they can't commit to not charging.

The latest info here seems to be if it's been like this for 3 months then I'll have to pay.

I'm going to take the plunge and will post with the result.

scottishstephen

When i asked BT to connect my line, I already had a phone line installed and just needed my line reactivated. When I asked Indian Telecom (BT callcentre based in another continent) about whether there was a way of finding out the phone line number and having it reactivated over the phone, I was informed that she did not understand what i was asking.

I then went ahead with giving her my address details for the order. Stating 1D ....... Street. I asked her to confirm my address of 1D ..... Street and even stated 1 Delta on one occassion.

To my disbelief 2 weeks later, i received a telephone call stating that 10 ..... street did not exist. the next day i received another call saying the same thing. So i reitterated that they had made a mistake and if it was not a problem with translating english to indian it must have been a computer bug.

25 calls later (74.01 of calling credit on my mobile) and about a month later an engineer called me up and said he would be at my property in five minutes to activate the line. I was on my way to an interview having no prior notification of when an engineer would be arriving. Luckily my girlfriend was in. With all my phone line and sockets previously installed by other previous occupants I am at my wits end as to why i have received a charge of approx £125.

I contacted TUSCAN who said i shouldnt have to pay such a fee if my line had a dialing tone which it had done.

I am completly frustrated at how BT have messed up at every stage and failed to give me the option of having my line activated over the phone. The Customer Service people based in India have very basic english litracy and take forever to understand a sentence. No wonder the simplest of instructions has become an impossible task for BT.

I even had a BT Supervisor called RAJ tell me he would call me back instantly and he didnt. BT is a joke

Apparently the Connection fee of £125 only applies if you need a BT Engineer to come out?

Im currently challenging them to refund my fee and also my mobile phone calling credit spent on calling them.