Can BT Do This

wonderfullife_2

Hi
My phone went down on Sunday, following a violent storm. Phoned BT, engineer came today, apparently my BT box had blown, the master socket one. Anyway he changed the box and everythings fine now.
He then told me that BT are going to charge me £55+vat, so I said "Why, its not my property its BT's, the phone line that comes into my house is BT's, not mine. He agreed, but said that BT have told them to tell the customers that its not covered by an electrical storm.

So what can I do about this, do I have to pay BT for the storm hitting their equipment.

Thanks

Stonk

Sounds rather optimistic of BT. Like you say, the line is theirs. You pay line rental to use it, and it's their responsibility to maintain it.

I haven't read their small print, but I'd be rather surprised if it said that one particular kind of damage actually became *your* responsibility, which is essentially what they are trying to assert here. And it's probably unenforceable even if it does say so!

Also, why don't you charge them £55 + VAT for time you had to take off work to enable them to fixed their faulty equipment. Haha!

black-saturn

Phone them up and complain. Anything outside of your house is their responsibility and not yours. I had a similar thing happen and they were going to charge me £100. I told them I was moving to another provider in that case (and I was prepared to if they didnt do something about it) and they waivered the charge.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
I'll phone them and see what happens, I really don't see why I should pay to have their equipment repaired.

Thanks

headcovers

I was told by BT some time ago that anything up to the house was at their expense (as long as you didn't damage it yourself) and anything within the house boundary was the householder's financial responsibility.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Anything coming into your house upto the BT Master Socket is their responsbility, you cannot touch this as this is their property, but anything you plug into the Master socket is yours, ie extensions, sky etc.

Thanks

GardenMillie

I complained to BT that my friend had broadband from them at £15.99 and I was paying the same for dial up, they refused to give me the same package until I said I would move to Tiscali - yipee I now have broadband for £15.99 per month.

P.S. I had been with them as a dial up customer for over a year.:j

I would definitely try and get them to waive the fee - it sounds unreasonable.

rchddap1

Might be worth having a quick word with Ofcom and seeing what they say about the matter.

Astaroth

There is a box outside your house, forget its techinical name but it is something like the injection box. The line up to this box is owned by BT. From this box to the master socket and beyond is your property and whilst BT will fix it they charge for their services.

peter_the_piper

Surely if the surge came down the BT line and blew your socket then its a BT fault as they (their line) caused it. You didn't and their was no possible way you could have prevented it.

kenshaz

They did the same to me,they are trying it on,I got my money back,it is the engineer being a pr--- ,despute and tell them you are taking them to the regulator,this sort of practice makes my blood boil,the engineer was in my house for 10 minutes and they demanded £55 for something that was impossible,a storm dislodging my plastic box in my house ,a joke,trouble is it could have been my Mum AND SHE WOULD HAVE PAID