Reconnection BT no charge PO charge

Samjay2

Hi All

I have a phoneline in my flat which was switched off several months ago by previous tenant. There was a tone for several weeks after I moved in but that has now stopped. I rang BT about reconnection, and they tested line and confirmed it exists and that if I go with them there is no reconnection charge. I rang Post Office and they tested line and said there is a £110 charge to reconnect - it appears they cannot detect line at property. Is this some kind of BT scam whereby they only allow their company to detect if some lines are in existence so that I have to go with them or else pay a reconnection charge? Is there anything I can do? I really wanted to go with the PO as there is no minimum period, as I would like to switch to O2 as soon as they bring out their landlines. Thanks in advance.

Going_Digital

More likely one of the BT staff being clueless and you will end up getting charged anyway. Make sure you get it in writing that the connection is free as in BT the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

iniltous

Going_Digital wrote: »

More likely one of the BT staff being clueless and you will end up getting charged anyway. Make sure you get it in writing that the connection is free as in BT the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

How about the Post Office staff being clueless and not being able to find the ceased line info that the BT staff did, both PO and BT Retail have access to exactly the same info, this is an OFCOM requirement, perhaps the BT staff just looked a little harder

Going_Digital

BT charge a connection charge if there is no dial tone so chances are SamJay2 has been given misinformation by BT and the correct information by the PO.

syko29793

A dial tone no longer means reconnection is free as stopped LLU lines have a dial tone but BT still charge to reconnect.
The line has to be "suitable for takeover" and this is set by the response given from Openreach when a service provider checks an address for a telephone line. All service providers including BT Retail use the same systems to check for lines so the response should be the same from any service provider.
I dont think post office connect stopped lines (correct me if im wrong) They only arrange new lines. Hence the charge.