BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

Chris120A

gt94sss2 wrote: »

According to the BT Price list, 'Spread connection' is still available for residential customers, though it is no longer available for business lines.

Regards
Sunil

See?! BT either blatantly lie to you or have no clue what they're talking about :rolleyes:

Bufflowbill

Chris120A wrote: »

See?! BT either blatantly lie to you or have no clue what they're talking about :rolleyes:

You never have been able to pay it monthly, if you dont want to pay it in one go,its always been part payment up front then four instalments plus an admin fee.

Drunkstar

You can spread it over 12 months by using the MPP payment method.

Safetoy

Recently a friend switched to a different line rental from BT... and BT cut off the service early and would not connect except as a new line, asking price about £140... so no telephone for nearly a week, goodbye BT.

britters

A friend recently moved, and the phone line in the place she moved into had been disconnected for some time and so had to be re-connected. The fee of £125 was not enough for BT it seems, andthey also imposed a mandatory 12 month contract. My friend needs broadband, but can't afford BT's prices and wants to go with TalkTalk. Cancelling the contract, however, will cost her a further £70 penalty. Even with the penalty, the change will benefit her, but I'm not sure of the lagality of what BT is doing.

The contract was verbal and has force in law, but there is a 14 day cooling off period during which it can be cancelled. But the penalty issue was not mentioned at the time and I'm not sure that it can now be imposed. Can anyone tell me if terms and conditions are applicable even if they are not explained or made available at the time of completing a contract? Bear in mind that, at that time, my friend had no online access so T&Cs would have had to be posted to her.

Drunkstar

Long story short is that yes its legal, no there is no 14 day cooling off period, and lastly if you take a contract and break it then is it not standard that there is a penalty charge?

awaring

...in a fully wired (i.e. phone lines) new house. They then charged me £70 because I changed call provider before the date I was allowed (I didn't know there was a period during which you cannot change call provider). I e-mailed BT to complain but was told that the £500 charge was because they have to carry out a survey before they can connect you, but I don't beleive this. They shouldn't have to carry out 2 surveys for 2 phone points in the same house! The £70 charge they said was in the agreement that I was sent.

These charges are absolutely extortionate and BT should not be allowed to continue with their monopoly because we are not getting value for money.

I would welcome any advice on how to further this matter - I plan to complain to ofcom, any other ideas?

jhp

awaring wrote: »

...in a fully wired (i.e. phone lines) new house. They then charged me £70 because I changed call provider before the date I was allowed (I didn't know there was a period during which you cannot change call provider). I e-mailed BT to complain but was told that the £500 charge was because they have to carry out a survey before they can connect you, but I don't beleive this. They shouldn't have to carry out 2 surveys for 2 phone points in the same house! The £70 charge they said was in the agreement that I was sent.

These charges are absolutely extortionate and BT should not be allowed to continue with their monopoly because we are not getting value for money.

I would welcome any advice on how to further this matter - I plan to complain to ofcom, any other ideas?

1. The connection charge for two completely new lines in a new build would be £250 . £125 each.

2.Cancellation charge See: http://www2.bt.com/static/i/btretail.../informed.html

"From 1st May 2007, for customers ending their service early, we replaced the existing charges with a policy that requires customers who have ordered a line on or after 1st May to pay the outstanding line rental for the 12-month minimum term of their contract, up to a maximum of £70 (incl. VAT). "

Reeves68

I recently called BT to get my line connected after living phone-free in our house for 3 1/2 years.

We have a BT box with wires connected and wires from the telegraph pole going to our house. We also have the survey the previous owner completed for our solicitor which states that she was connected to BT. I phoned BT and was told I had to pay the £125 connection charge. However, a relative who lives within 5 streets of me and is in exactly the same position (bt box, wires to telegraph pole, phone unconnected for 5 years) has not been charged. I queried this with BT Sales and he confirmed that there was no charge for that property to be re-connected. I asked why I would need to pay and the guy agreed it seemed inconsistent, I was then told I would be put straight through to the Service department for them to check my line. 25 minutes later I got through to someone who just took my mobile number and said he'd call back. Today I received a call to say I would need to pay the fee (no explanation was given) and when I queried this I was told that I had been put through to the Billing section not Service and got a "I can't confirm what other customers have paid" when I queried the inconsistency.

Can anyone suggest what I could do to resolve this, or do I just have to pay the fee?

BritBrat

Is the new line installed?

If not plug a phone into the BT socket (old line) and dial 17070.

If you get a dial tone and a message after dialing 17070 then connection should be free. I checked my Daughters line recently and she got connected for free.

If on the other hand the line is dead then an engineer will be required and you will have to pay the £125.

To sum up, reconnection to a working line is free, connection for a new or none working line costs £125.