Onetel Line Rental WARNING!

mazeppa

Read this – it may have implications for all of us, especially if the line to your house is exposed to the weather.

I rent my line from Onetel. The line went dead in August and after failing to turn up for two appointments (that’s another story), the BT engineer arrived after a week and traced the fault to lightning damage to the line quite some distance from my house, not on my land. (My phone line is hung from telegraph poles for about 2 miles from the exchange to my house.)
Imagine my shock and fury on receiving a £262.00 bill from Onetel for the repair.
A spokesman for Onetel told me that it was now their policy to pass on charges to the consumer for damage to phone lines caused by “Acts of God”.
Surely this cannot be correct (or legal?). I rent my line from Onetel so they must be responsible for the maintenance and repair. I haven’t bought the line, I rent it. I have not damaged it.
Other people in my area who had the same problem but who still rent their line from BT had their fault corrected at the same time by the same engineer and were not charged for the repair. And they received compensation from BT for their loss of service which I did not.
As a gesture of “goodwill”, the Onetel spokesman offered me a £100 refund and asked if I was happy with that. I was obviously not. So then he offered me a 50% refund (£131) and asked me if I was happy now. Can you believe that?
Needless to say, I am not impressed with Onetel to say the least. I am also dreading the next thunderstorm. What if the next lightning bolt takes out something really expensive and not just a few inches of wire? If the line providers can pass on the charges for any repairs deemed necessary, I suppose it could be possible to be landed with a bill for thousands. No! This cannot be correct.
Have any of you had experience of a service provider charging for repairs to the line outside their property?
I am in the process of contacting the OFT and other organisations and will keep you informed of any progress.

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums mazeppa.

[cynicism on] OneTel is now part of the Talk Talk (Carphone Warehouse, Tele2 et al) 'family'.

Families help one another.

You, as a member of that very 'family' are now helping other family members - those who are getting their 'free' broadband! [/cynicism off]