BT Master Socket: no transparency on fitting costs

will-in-estoril

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi will-in-estoril

This really depends on if the engineer gets there and the fault requires the replacement of the NTE, however if charges were to be applicable this should have been discussed on the phone.

Send me an e-mail to the address in my profile with the account details, I can look into this for you.

Thanks

Stuart

Thanks for this. However, it is impossible to pin anyone down on specifics.

I now understand that BT has no record of those subscribers who have never had a socket installed officially. There was a time in the early 80s when BT published how much the charge was, with the result that many hopped off to Tandy (remember them?!), got a socket and did it themselves.

In terms of discussing costs on the phone, nobody gives guarantees. It appears to be all 'ifs' and 'buts', very much on par with a dodgy plumber, electrician or mechanic. Even the BT price list seems to be fluid: what you see is (apparently) less than what you will pay. The chap I spoke to in India was helpful, but had no idea of these charges.

On a more general point there must be thousands of subscribers with out of date wiring. Virgin Media is the obvious choice to avoid paying 100s of £s if crystal clear reception is desired. BT and others, on the other hand, seem content to provide services to households with wiring from the 1950s or 60s.

I will take you up on your kind offer and PM you with sister-in-law's details.

slotnicki

This reminds me of something that has recently happened to me. The builders who refurbished our house put in non-BT extensions. We developed a fault on the line earlier in the year. I spoke to BT and was told that BT would need to come and sort it out and that I shouldn't engage anyone from outside. The BT engineer came and charged about £100 for repairing the fault. He replaced all the extensions and cables with BT stuff. He never made it clear what he actually did to repair the line but definitely said that he repaired the cables which the builders put in.

The line has recent gone wrong again. It is the extension which he replaced. Assuming that the work that was carried out in June was under guarantee, I called BT. I was told that the BT engineer should never have touched our equipment and that he had left no record of what he had done. I have now been tod to find a 'local person' to carry out the repairs, as they will be much cheaper than BT. I am totally confused about what I should now be doing and at the conflicting advice given out by BT.

spike7451

slotnicki wrote: »

This reminds me of something that has recently happened to me. The builders who refurbished our house put in non-BT extensions. We developed a fault on the line earlier in the year. I spoke to BT and was told that BT would need to come and sort it out and that I shouldn't engage anyone from outside. The BT engineer came and charged about £100 for repairing the fault. He replaced all the extensions and cables with BT stuff. He never made it clear what he actually did to repair the line but definitely said that he repaired the cables which the builders put in.

The line has recent gone wrong again. It is the extension which he replaced. Assuming that the work that was carried out in June was under guarantee, I called BT. I was told that the BT engineer should never have touched our equipment and that he had left no record of what he had done. I have now been tod to find a 'local person' to carry out the repairs, as they will be much cheaper than BT. I am totally confused about what I should now be doing and at the conflicting advice given out by BT.

BT,Virgin & every other telecomms provider are only responsible for the cabling & equipment up to & including the NTE/CTE5 or older style master sockets or any other equipment installed by them.(ISDN/Centrex ect)
They are NOT responsible for any & all extensions installed by a 3rd party.(ie,your builders/electricians or diy)
Basically,your builders installed them so it's up to them,not BT,to fix them.If BT do fix them,you will be charged heavily.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/pricing/loadProductPriceDetails.do?data=kPriqYpFg3jSgidBE7HUkiUycYeyp0LS%2FM7XrdsmaHfgP3UPszSry78iVKC0gUAr

slotnicki

I know that BT shouldn't touch wires etc installed by other organisations - but in this case he did - but I can't prove it!

iniltous

slotnicki wrote: »

This reminds me of something that has recently happened to me. The builders who refurbished our house put in non-BT extensions. We developed a fault on the line earlier in the year. I spoke to BT and was told that BT would need to come and sort it out and that I shouldn't engage anyone from outside. The BT engineer came and charged about £100 for repairing the fault. He replaced all the extensions and cables with BT stuff. He never made it clear what he actually did to repair the line but definitely said that he repaired the cables which the builders put in.

The line has recent gone wrong again. It is the extension which he replaced. Assuming that the work that was carried out in June was under guarantee, I called BT. I was told that the BT engineer should never have touched our equipment and that he had left no record of what he had done. I have now been tod to find a 'local person' to carry out the repairs, as they will be much cheaper than BT. I am totally confused about what I should now be doing and at the conflicting advice given out by BT.

If you have a modern NTE5 type master socket with the removable consumer panel, anybody can fit extension wiring and sockets as it easy to split the end users own wiring from the 'line', if BT visit on a fault that is on the end users own wiring, they would disconnect it (to prove the fault is on the end users own wiring,) this costs the end user about £100 for the call out, BT will, on request , fix or replace the wiring/sockets and bring them up to standard, but this would be at a further charge, but this work is guaranteed for a year and the end user should be left a warranty card...if in this case the total charge was £100 it sounds like the extensions were fixed for 'free' by the engineer otherwise the bill would have been £200 not £100
With regard to the OP, on a fault the engineer could uplift an old master socket to a NTE5 for free, but if there isnt
anything wrong with the line you run the risk of being charged for a unneccesary visit, a way to consider if you want to use BT is to order a extension socket ( the BT people should all quote the same charge for this) by default if you dont have a NTE5 master socket the BT person would have to change to a NTE5 before he can fit any new extension socket,

PNPSUKNET

bt wont care, their third party companys who do the work are encouraged to drag jobs out and charge where ever they can. a company called pc callout does their home it side for anova on behalf of bt