ISP want to charge for BT engineer!! advice PLS

TrishaM

I have had an email today from my isp's billing dept, stating that the Line test done on my line is going to be charged to me.£144 plus vat.
I had trouble from jan 25th with frequent drops in connection, and my isp technical dept could see these drops and agreed that they where becoming more frequent. I began to keep a diary and changed wireless routers 3 times, and it was determined that it was not my equipment. So on the 10th Feb a second engineer came out and did a SFI line test. He said there wasn't any fault on the line but thought it was the DSLAM equipment. Within 24hrs of him doing the test, the line stopped dropping out and I was getting continued connection times of 135 hrs, 144 hrs and so on. I have sent an email disputing the charges, and spoke to one of their technical advisors who agreed that I shouldn't have been charged but still needed to send the email.. Can anyone tell me if they insist on charging me where do I stand and who do I appeal to? The stress of this impending charge is making me feel ill. Any advice is appreciated. Glad I kept a log and diary of this prob. I even have the names of the advisors that I spoke to when I called.

ComplexP

Hi Trisha

You did the right thing in keeping a log. It is Openreach who send the engineers and then bill your ISP. If the fault was anything outside of your house then you should not be billed.

However, some ISPs reserve the right to pass on any charges to the customer (although this rarely happens in cases described above).

If they keep asking you to pay then insist upon them sending you a copy of the engineer's report detailing the work that was carried out so it can be proved it was not your equipment that was at fault. It sounds as though you are being billed because no fault was found when the engineer visited the property. The trick will be trying to prove that they did something to the DSLAM equipment afterwards to fix the fault. It sounds like there's a lack of joined up thinking going on from Openreach's end.

Unfortunately it appears that a lot of people get billed for standard callout charges in error, it even happened to me but I called and disputed it. If I was cynical I would say that it makes BT more money to bill everyone and then only drop the bills that are disputed.

If they fail to provide an engineers report then send them an official complaint in writing and say that you will be escalating the matter to ofcom. Assuming they are in the wrong, this should have them drop the charge like a nest full of vipers.

If you look at it from your ISPs point of view they probably have a note from the engineer saying no fault was found on a site visit and so the standard callout charge applies. The fault 'magically' clearing up a day later isn't much for them to go on.

Good luck.

TrishaM

Thanks for your reply, I have sent an email to the isp complaints dept, which is what has to be done, (you can't speak to this dept) detailing the probs and giving dates and times and the names of the advisors I was speaking to at the time.. The engineer said that there was not fault at my end, and by testing 3 different routers most certainly ruled out problems with them..infact I have been using one of the routers since and no probs. And when I spoke to the technical dept yesterday, the agent said that he didnot think that I would be liable for the charge, but had to send "disputing charge" email anyway.

Will have to wait and see what they come up with.

ComplexP

I think this basically boils down to a technicality:

When the engineer visited the property he could not find a fault on the line. If he then found a fault at the exchange he should have logged that on the report and you should not have been billed.

So either there really was no fault and it was just a huge coincidence that the connection stopped dropping when it did or the engineer's report did not mention the subsequent work that was carried out after visiting the property. If it was just coincidence then you are technically liable for the charge I'm afraid. If the engineer didn't write the report correctly then you might have a fight on your hands.

The final scenario is that the engineer's report does mention the subsequent work that was carried out and some brain dead monkey at your ISP didn't read it properly. This would be the best scenario since you would have undeniable proof of their carelessness to bash them over the head with.

Rufus_348

That sounds really stressful. I was reading about the digital economy bill the other day though and they were saying that there's no standard procedure in place for paying for checks to BT equipment so it sounds like it's likely that they reserve the right to charge you (not that that makes it fair in any way). Are you with TalkTalk?

Good luck with it, sounds like you've got it under control.

TrishaM

No not with Talk Talk, don't want to mention ISP just yet, want to see how they react to my "disputing the charge email".

I just fine it strange that they didn't find anything (BT), The engineer did say it was the DSLAM equipment. whatever that is.

Inactive

TrishaM wrote: »

No not with Talk Talk, don't want to mention ISP just yet, want to see how they react to my "disputing the charge email".

Why not, as long as you are telling the truth, you have nothing to worry about.

Name and shame.;)

TrishaM

Why not, as long as you are telling the truth, you have nothing to worry about.

I am telling the truth, but want to give them a chance to answer my email, or make contact with me. But believe me I have no problem naming and shaming, and I will take legal advice if needed and I will post any further developments, incase anyone is interested. I have cancelled my credit card, so they cant take money from that. Inconvenient to me, but will survive until another one is received.

kate252

oh dear- dont you know this will be the first of a long line of extra charges coming through by mistake casuing stress and worry and illness

BT must make billlions doing this kind of thing- im not joking billions- over the years they ahve sent me horrendous cancellation charges- when chaning option under their advice- fines for going over the usage- and extra charges for not paying direct debit
its nothing but a nightmare- id say they were really heavily rakng in the money if this is what they do to people
sad thing is they dont need it and have enough already
its a sad, sad, sad way to do business
customer services is also really bad- people often prmising compensation, discounts and not putting it on screen so theres no record of it so it never gets delivered, people setting up payment plans and direct debits that always change- i am defeated by them and have tried my best and have discovered they are unreasnable, unworkable and if i manage to get away from them my life would be better

TrishaM

I have heard from the intenet supplier, and they insist that the charges must be paid for, and that I am liable. I have taken legal advice and still dispute the charge. They now are looking for my telephone calls to the technical dept, but can't find my phone number on their system. Going to get in touch with ofcom in the morning.

macman

TrishaM wrote: »

I have heard from the intenet supplier, and they insist that the charges must be paid for, and that I am liable. I have taken legal advice and still dispute the charge. They now are looking for my telephone calls to the technical dept, but can't find my phone number on their system. Going to get in touch with ofcom in the morning.

Ofcom will not be interested until you have gone through the complaints procedure in full with the supplier. Have you made a written complaint opening a dispute?