Moving Home - Sky Talk - No Dial Tone

LHDF

Hello

I moved into a rented flat a few weeks ago and transferred my full sky package through their home moving call centre.

The tv was set up straight away. I was told the phoneline in the new flat was active but I would have to have a new number. This was supposed to be active on Feb 14th.

There is no dial tone on the phoneline in the new flat, although sky say that the line is active. Therefore there must be a fault on the line. If the problem is inside the property I will be charged £98 + £66 / hour fees to fix it. If its outside the property it will be free.

I can't afford this and have informed my landlord. I was told prior to moving in that there was a working phoneline. He says its not his problem as it was working before I moved in. Whilst going through all the trouble shooting with sky (on my mobile) yesterday I noticed that the cable leading to the BT socket has damage to the plastic casing. I hadn't noticed this before and still don't have an inventory for the flat so I don't know if its noted on there. The previous tenant had a virgin phoneline, could this be the reason that I now have no dial tone?

If I have to cancel my sky package because i can't afford the repair charges would I be charged by sky or would I be able to keep the TV package and get broadband through virgin (do you need a phoneline for virgin broadband)

Thanks for your help!

Mark_In_Hampshire

There's the way I think it legally works, and the way Openreach - a division of BT - works.

You ordered your services and agreed a price. The price was fixed. You supplied the address details and everything else that was required.

It isn't working. Now that might be because the previous tenants damaged the circuitry, yes. However you are not the previous tenants. You have signed up and paid the sum demanded for the installation, so in my mind, there cannot be any repair charges under any circumstances. Phone lines and their accounts belong to subscribers, not properties, so it is not up to you to pay for damage caused by someone else.

The way Openreach seems to work is that generally it's chargeable, as if somehow, you're the person to bill for the damage, whereas of course the people to bill are the people who damaged it.

Your landlord is probably right and unfortunately it doesn't have anything to do with him or her as utilities are the tenant's responsibility unless explicitly agreed otherwise.

Do check, however - this has happened before - that you're using the right phone socket. If it's dead because the one you're using is the cable one, and an engineer attends and points out the BT socket is in fact under a radiator somewhere and working perfectly, you get a bill for the visit which is justifiable.

This could simply be a mistake by Sky in ordering, and/or a mistake by Openreach in providing. You'll need to pursue it with Sky. However I would not accept the terms as quoted to you because they are incorrect. It doesn't have to do with whether it's inside the property. Openreach are responsible for everything up to and including the master socket. So the agreement is that you will pay only if the fault is with equipment which belongs to you.

macman

I agree that the first thing to do is check the available sockets-if the previous tenant was on VM cable then the BT socket is not going to be active, and there should be another separate VM termination.
BT OR are responsible for the line up to and including the master socket, but not for user-inflicted damage. If the previous tenant damaged the cabling, then they will charge you as the current account holder, and it would be up to you to recover the cost elsewhere-which could be difficult.
Are you sure that the damaged cable is between the master socket and the wire from the street, and not between the master socket and an extension? If the latter, you can just get this fixed independently, or do it yourself. BT are not responsible for any internal extension wiring or equipment.

LHDF

Thanks for your replies.

The socket is the one explained to me by the sky trouble shooter - it has BT on it and a line across it and I had to take the front off to reveal another socket on the inside right. There are 2 other smaller phone sockets elsewhere in the property which dont have any screws or any markings.

The cable which looks as if it is possibly damaged, is the one which comes through from outside the house underneath the window sill and into the main box.

I wasn't sure if I was allowed to fix the cables myself or if they belonged to BT, that is good to know.

Sky have told me they will get back to me by 16:10 on Friday to let me know if BT have found a fault outside of the property. I presume at this point I can refuse for them to send an engineer if they say the fault is inside, I can't afford to pay out hundreds of pounds and would rather just not have the phoneline and get internet by another means.

Thanks again:money:

macman

What you have there is a BT master socket (NTE5). Legally you can't touch that cable as it's BT property. The cabling and extensions beyond it are yours to do as you wish with.
Of course that's not to say that you wouldn't be able to find an independent telecoms engineer locally who would be prepared to bend the rules and splice the cable for you, probably for around £40.
But of course I wouldn't dream of recommending such a course of action .

LHDF

A BT openreach engineer came to our house yesterday when we were at work and put a card through the door stating they needed access to assess the problem. Sky did not explain that BT would need access to my house, I thought it was a check they did remotely. I presume that this visit will be charged at the £98 +£66/hr fee which sky mentioned would be incurred if the problem was found inside.

I have seen a deal on the BT website which says that if you sign up to their phone and broadband package they will install a new line for free. Would this apply to me as there is already a line which is probably damaged.

Thanks

macman

If the damaged cable is inside your house then yes they'll need access to inspect it, Sky should have confirmed the OR appointment if it was made.

LHDF

Would this be chargeable? I really can't afford £98+£66/hr, will I have already incurred charges by not being home?

macman

Did Sky confirm the appointment or not? BT will certainly charge Sky, if Sky never confirmed the appt then they can't justifiably charge you.

LHDF

No, all they said to me was that BT would investigate the problem and I would hear back from them by 16.10 Friday (today). They then said "that if a problem was identified inside the property then I would be liable for the charges I mentioned above, but that wouldn't happen because we had already checked the main box". I then said "but i can see that there might be some damage to the cable" and he said "all wires up to the box were BT responsibility". I havent heard from Sky since. They didn't explain to me that an engineer would be coming yesterday, I thought I would be told that by 16.10 today, if they needed to.

I'm so confused and so upset, I was told by the tenant agent that there was a working landline, why should I have to pay for someone elses damage :-(

thanks for your reply, I appreciate your help.