BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

scooby..chic

Im not sure if this thread is in the right place,
Ive recently moved house and had the new bt line activated, and bt have charged me £136, i was 100% unaware of this charge, apparantly bt sent a letter which i never received, and i have to pay this charge something to do with the engineer going to the exchange, which they've done every time ive moved house, but ive never been charged,

Do any of you guys know of anything i can do to avoid paying this, ive phoned bt many times reaching blinkin india, not getting anywhere, any help/advice very welcome.

Thanks

wantmemoney

scooby..chic wrote:

Ive recently moved house and had the new bt line activated, and bt have charged me £136, i was 100% unaware of this charge, apparantly bt sent a letter which i never received, and i have to pay this charge something to do with the engineer going to the exchange

This is how I understand it.
If there was a pre-existing BT working line you should not have to pay for it to be 'reactivated'.
If you were just transferring your BT line rental and service to another address with a working line there should be no cost

things you may wish to check from the previous occupier:
Did the previous occupier have a working line?
Was it a BT line?

you might want to read this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/nov/10/moneysupplement.internetphonesbroadband
BT gets lines crossed with fee for all
November 10 2007

People moving home are being charged a £125 reconnection fee by BT - even if the previous owner was a customer of the telecom giant. Those who call BT to complain have been left waiting on hold for hours.
Two weeks ago, Guardian Money told how BT was penalising people moving into a new home where the previous occupant had switched their landline to a rival supplier.
Now it appears the former monopoly provider has been taking advantage of consumer confusion, and its dominant position, by applying the same charge randomly to thousands of customers moving house.
The £125 fee, which, some might say, makes a mockery of Ofcom's attempts to bring down the cost of phone and broadband services, came about because it seems no one at the regulator considered what would what happen to "movers" under its new regime.
It does not help that the BT department responsible for connecting new customers appears to be in chaos. People are complaining it is impossible to contact - and those that do get through are often given contradictory information.
Some customers told Guardian Money they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone trying to resolve the problem, while others complain the £125 fee was "absurd" and "exorbitant".
Meanwhile, engineers are not turning up to appointments. In 2005, Ofcom insisted that BT create a separate company (now called Openreach) to manage the engineers who connect homes to the exchange. The split was intended to give all the telecoms companies equal access to the exchange network, to stimulate competition.
However, one of the unintended consequences of the decision appears to be much higher reconnection charges when a customer moves house.
BT's residential arm is allowed to charge the £125 fee if the previous occupier switched their landline to a rival supplier, through what is known as local loop unbundling. It appears to have plucked this unregulated figure out of the air, as it pays Openreach considerably less for the switch.
The problem is occurring when someone informs their telephone provider they are moving and that they want to terminate their contract.
After extensive questioning this week, BT revealed that the imposition of the charge largely depends on whether the house is near a busy exchange, where demand for lines is high. In that case, lines freed up are being quickly offered for re-use. In quiet areas, they can sit undisturbed for up to five years.
New occupiers are automatically charged the £125 fee, regardless of who used to supply the phone service. However, BT said this week that the charge should not be payable if the previous occupier was with BT. This has been refuted by readers' experiences.
Police officer Fred Trott contacted Money after reading our original article. He said he and his wife had been charged £125 when they moved into their home in Haslemere, Surrey.
The previous owner had been with OneTel, but had agreed to switch their service back to BT before they moved out. The Trotts moved in but faced an endless battle to make BT see this - its staff insisted the £125 fee was payable.
The pair, loyal BT customers for many years, say they have spent more than 10 hours on the phone to various BT departments trying to get the charge repaid - but to no avail.
A spokesman for BT says the current position regarding the £125 fee is "not ideal" and that it is looking at how it can be changed. "Where a working line exists, our intention is that reconnection should be free - but a charge of £125 applies where we have to involve an engineer.
"Where a customer is returning to join BT from a local loop unbundled competitor, our systems default to charging £125. We do intend to change this as soon as possible. It is one of a number of complex changes arising from BT Retail's adoption of a new IT system to comply with its commitment to the regulator, Ofcom."
It also confirmed that it has now refunded Mr Trott's £125 charge.
Ofcom says it is aware of the situation and that it is working with the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to rectify this problem. "The matter should be resolved by next spring," says a spokeswoman. "It is important that customers are confident in the switching process and it is essential that there are no obstacles in the way. We are working via the OTA and industry to have all telecoms providers on the new system by spring 2008."

espresso

wantmemoney wrote: »

you might want to read this

And you might want to read this forum rule:

Take care over copyright. Use excerpts and links rather than copying long text. This site asserts copyright on all comments posted on the board.

Post the link but not the text.

scooby..chic

Thanks for that ,ill contact the previous owners asap, just to double check as im certain theres was bt. Also when we moved in there was a dial tone, god i hate bt!!:mad:

Warwick12

I paid the BT connection fee when I first bought my new build house several years ago. I rented the house out for about 3 years and have recently moved back. I was disappointed when I contacted BT to get the line reconnected as they told me I would need an engineer to reconnect the house as the orignal line had been reused.

I wasn't going to bother with the BT line if it meant paying another £125 for reconnection. I have a mobile USB modem which works very well and use my mobile phone for voice calls.

The problem is my Tivo (think old fashioned sky+) needs a phone line to get the EPG information! To get it setup I ran a phone extension cable from my kind next door neighbour but this isn't practical to do every few weeks!

I had decided to go with Orange for the home phone and broadband. You pay orange directly and don't have to pay BT for line rental. I talked to BT, the saleman was very helpful. He suggested Orange could get the line reconnected. Talking to Orange about this has been very fustrating, nobody really knows anything!

So I think I've decided to bite the bullet and go back to BT. One thing worth mentioning is that the BT saleman offered me 1/2 price reconnection fee if I agreed to sign up for 18 months. I think this is a reasonable deal and you can transfer it to other properties should you move. You just have to pay BT line rental for the next 18 months.

Heinz

Warwick12 wrote: »

I had decided to go with Orange for the home phone and broadband. You pay orange directly and don't have to pay BT for line rental. I talked to BT, the saleman was very helpful. He suggested Orange could get the line reconnected. Talking to Orange about this has been very fustrating, nobody really knows anything!

Welcome to the MSE forums Warwick12.

Orange, just like all the other line renters now in the market could, just like BT has to do, employ Openreach to install/reconnect the line. Unfortunately, like one of the other big players, they choose not to do so (my cynical nature makes me think it's a cash flow issue because they'd have to pay Openreach before they could recover the money from you).

OK, so you have gone for the BT £62.50 installation and an 18 month contract. Don't forget you'll be able to CPS your calls and/or use indirect access providers like 18185 for your calls immediately the line goes live - so only sign up for BT Together Option 1 (please see the 'HERE' link in my signature below).

hammy_the_hammer

scooby..chic wrote: »

Thanks for that ,ill contact the previous owners asap, just to double check as im certain theres was bt. Also when we moved in there was a dial tone, god i hate bt!!:mad:

and by that one assumes that you didn't have dial tone when you wanted the line ergo it is possible that an engineer from openreach needed to work on the line to give you service

DaisyClaire

Can I just confirm I have something right?

I have not phoned BT yet as I only found out a minute ago when I paid my phone bill online, and the advice I am finding on the web is a little confusing.

We are moving house on the 31st Jan into a new build (shared ownership).
I know the new house has phone sockets installed.

Do I have to pay £124.99 to have a phone 'switched on'? (or what ever the term?!?)

I currently live in rented accomodation and have a BT phone line, broadband with AOL and would like if possible to take my excisting phone number with me.
Thanks in advance.

Heinz

As the first person to have a line in the new build, you will be charged £124.99 by BT for the line to be connected. Openreach, on behalf of BT, will connect up to the master socket but have no responsibility for the other sockets in the house (cross your fingers the sparks who installed them knew what he was doing and they are connected correctly and work).

You can only take your number with you if your existing accommodation is in the same exchange area (that may not be the case even if both have the same STD code).

Don't forget you can save money on calls by opting for a CPS calls provider and start using indirect access providers like 18185 and 1899 as soon as the line is live (see the 'HERE' link in my signature below).

jhp

DaisyClaire wrote: »

Do I have to pay £124.99 to have a phone 'switched on'?

Yes as explained by Heinz.

But if it helps your cash flow you can spread the cost of connection.

http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Exch_Lines_boo/0002_d0e63.htm#0002-d0e63

"Residential customers who apply for a new exchange line can choose to make a payment in advance of service of £23.39 (exc VAT) / £27.49 (inc VAT). This cost includes a facility fee of £10.60 (exc VAT) / £12.46 (inc VAT), followed by four further payments of £23.39 (exc VAT) / £27.49 (inc VAT) which will be added to their first four quarterly bills"


Or if you agree to sign an 18 month contract and place 30 calls a quarter through them you should be able to get half price connection.

See: http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/history/09-11-2007/FrameworkImpl10126/FrameworkImpl133605.htm#FrameworkImpl133605