Worrying about BT engineer's call out fee

rev_henry

I've recently moved into my own place, which, when we signed up were told by the letting agents there was both a BT and a Virgin cable connections. I ordered a phone line with BT which was meant to go live on 2nd September, but it did not. I have plugged 2 known working phones into the socket (its only a small flat so there's just the one socket) and the line is just dead. You can ring the number and hear it ringing down the phone, but it does not physically ring on the actual line iyswim.
Anyway, I've booked a BT engineer to come round on Thursday, but am a bit worried about having to pay a £127.99 call out fee if he decides the problem is with our side of the equipment. Can someone please reassure me? Can't see how it can be our fault, as there are no extensions connected.
Also, if they do decide they want to charge us, I can't see how it was us who caused damage as we've only just moved in. I've emailed the letting agents to ask them; pointing out that surely as the property was advertised as having a BT connection the landlord should bloody well pay to make sure the BT line is working.

Any advice? I've read quite a few stories of BT spuriously charging their call out fees...

keystone

Its a standard BT disclaimer when you make a call to moan that you don't have a telephone service to say that.

If you've plugged known-to-be-working telephone into the BT Master Socket and they still don't work then the fault has to be BT.

Do you have a Master Socket that looks like this:



Have you removed the User Removable Panel of the Master Socket. There is a second socket into which the panel plugs in. Plug your working telephone into there and if it rings when plugged in there then you have a loose wire at the back of the front cover. The wires should be connected (conventional colour coding stated) as follows:

Connector 1 - Not Used
Connector 2 - Blue with White Bands
Connector 3 - Orange with White Bands
Connector 4 - White with Orange Bands ) not actually used but connected to save it flopping around in there
Connector 5 - White with Blue Bands
Connector 6 - Not Used

If one of 2, 3 or 5 is loose then thats the problem (and I suspect it may well be). There is a special "insertion tool" for connecting them but in truth it can be done with the back of a stanley knife blade without causing damage. No need to strip the insulation. The connector does that itself automatically.

Do NOT interfere with the screw connections - thats for BT only.

Hopefully this may allow you to get your telephone working yourself.

Cheers

mobile48

Some information here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/10/bt.html

Mark_In_Hampshire

rev_henry wrote: »

I've recently moved into my own place, which, when we signed up were told by the letting agents there was both a BT and a Virgin cable connections. I ordered a phone line with BT which was meant to go live on 2nd September, but it did not. I have plugged 2 known working phones into the socket (its only a small flat so there's just the one socket) and the line is just dead. You can ring the number and hear it ringing down the phone, but it does not physically ring on the actual line iyswim.
Anyway, I've booked a BT engineer to come round on Thursday, but am a bit worried about having to pay a £127.99 call out fee if he decides the problem is with our side of the equipment. Can someone please reassure me? Can't see how it can be our fault, as there are no extensions connected.
Also, if they do decide they want to charge us, I can't see how it was us who caused damage as we've only just moved in. I've emailed the letting agents to ask them; pointing out that surely as the property was advertised as having a BT connection the landlord should bloody well pay to make sure the BT line is working.

Any advice? I've read quite a few stories of BT spuriously charging their call out fees...

Your story sounds a little like ours:

1. Connection date given;
2. Card through the door (not on that date, but days later) to say that line connected - it wasn't;

In our case, we repeatedly called the provisioning department who put you on hold for half an hour and then cut you off.

Our only recourse, like you, was to report a fault. Only then was the line actually connected.

Personally, I wasn't worried about a bill for the fault repair, as I'd have told them to shove the bill and gone to another company for another line.

However the above advice stands - in that if you only have one socket, and it's not working - and you're certain of that - then you shouldn't be liable for any fault repair costs.

It doesn't mean you won't be charged them, however, so be prepared for a... debate.

On a final note, the landlord is not responsible for the utilities, and there is no way for him or her to ensure the landline is "working" anyway. All he or she can do is to say that there are sockets, or that the property is covered by cable and BT; he or she cannot vouch for the competence of BT to actually connect the service.

keystone

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

......................
On a final note, the landlord is not responsible for the utilities, and there is no way for him or her to ensure the landline is "working" anyway. All he or she can do is to say that there are sockets, or that the property is covered by cable and BT; he or she cannot vouch for the competence of BT to actually connect the service.

+1 The property may have been "advertised with a BT connection" but that doesn't imply or mandate a working BT connection.

Cheers

macman

If you ordered a phone 'to go live' then that implies that the line was disconnected anyway, in which case you will pay the standard new line provision/reconnection charge of £129. What status on that line did BT indicate when you phone up to take over the account?
Did you test the line status yourself before placing your order?

rev_henry

Keystone - I'm not home right now so can't check it but will do a little later today when I am home. Thanks very much for that. I've a feeling however that the socket is not split into 2 sections like that picture though.

Macman and others - when I called BT to order the line they told me the property had a functioning line already that just needed activating (free of charge), this was meant to be switched on on 2nd September. Not sure what you mean by test the line. I plugged a phone into it and it was dead. I just thought this was because it wasn't in use - the previous tenants used cable I think. I certainly wouldn't have agreed to a £129 connection charge!

Mark_In_Hampshire

rev_henry wrote: »

Keystone - I'm not home right now so can't check it but will do a little later today when I am home. Thanks very much for that. I've a feeling however that the socket is not split into 2 sections like that picture though.

Macman and others - when I called BT to order the line they told me the property had a functioning line already that just needed activating (free of charge), this was meant to be switched on on 2nd September. Not sure what you mean by test the line. I plugged a phone into it and it was dead. I just thought this was because it wasn't in use - the previous tenants used cable I think. I certainly wouldn't have agreed to a £129 connection charge!

Personally I've always gone for cable. When the installers have arrived, on two occasions, they found their own ntl socket had been stolen by BT to provision a BT service and had to disconnect it and wire their service back in.

That's not meant to happen - each company is meant to put its' own sockets in.

If the house has only one socket, and the previous tenants had cable, and in addition if your socket looks different, it's possible that the socket connects to the cable network not BT's.

In which case, a "new line installation" is required which costs £129.

Since you were told it would be free, however, I'd try pushing the sales/provisioning people to get moving and get your installation finished.

rev_henry

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

Personally I've always gone for cable. When the installers have arrived, on two occasions, they found their own ntl socket had been stolen by BT to provision a BT service and had to disconnect it and wire their service back in.

That's not meant to happen - each company is meant to put its' own sockets in.

If the house has only one socket, and the previous tenants had cable, and in addition if your socket looks different, it's possible that the socket connects to the cable network not BT's.

In which case, a "new line installation" is required which costs £129.

Since you were told it would be free, however, I'd try pushing the sales/provisioning people to get moving and get your installation finished.

Right well the engineer came this morning. Almost immediately said 'that socket (the one I thought was it) is an extension hooked up to the cable line, there must be a master socket somewhere. I then found the BT master socket behind the sofa. Feel really really stupid now. I could have sworn I looked there. Anyway he changed the extension over to the BT line and went. So now just waiting for that nice bill to hit the doormat, not sure what to do now as we can't really afford it...

rev_henry

Does anyone know how long a charge takes to appear in my online billing account? Someone at BT first said up to 48 hours, then someone else said it would appear on my next bill. It hasn't yet appeared on my recent usage, which has been updated twice since the visit, so here's hoping...

jem16

rev_henry wrote: »

It hasn't yet appeared on my recent usage, which has been updated twice since the visit, so here's hoping...

As far as I know recent usage is just for telephone calls made.