BT line active or connected?

Heinz

duchy wrote: »

Try Sky for a quote for both line rental (which you'll need to pay whoever you go with) and broadband together. So long as there is a working BT socket in the premises they won't charge you anything like what BT want (and Everyday lite BB is free with line rental -the unlimited BB is £7.50 pm)

If you work for them, you will know (and should disclose) that only those in exchange areas which have been LLU'd by Sky can get that price.

They wanted a damned sight more than that - well over DOUBLE for 'up to 8Mb' (less than HALF the speed) broadband - when I asked.

Inactive

Heinz wrote: »

If you work for them, you will know (and should disclose) that only those in exchange areas which have been LLU'd by Sky can get that price.
.

Agreed, it just demonstrates the competence and honesty of Sky staff.

steveE2

duchy wrote: »

Try Sky for a quote for both line rental (which you'll need to pay whoever you go with) and broadband together. So long as there is a working BT socket in the premises they won't charge you anything like what BT want (and Everyday lite BB is free with line rental -the unlimited BB is £7.50 pm)

(Disclosure -Yes I work for them)

My Bold:
No its actually free with Sky Talk, no line rental need be taken and as long as you're spending at least £19.50 on a TV pack.

Also the Unlimited broadband is only available for £7.50 if taken with both a call and tv package,otherwise £12.50 without calls or £15.00 as standalone Broadband and subject to the exchange having Sky kit installed.

Here endeth todays training lesson

Heinz

Thanks for that. It appears duchy is a shining example of the quality of Sky's training!

garybryan

OK, an update. I plugged in a phone, and I could hear a high-pitched tone that I'm quite sure wasn't a dial tone, and dialling numbers did nothing, so I'm quite sure the line's not active.

Going with BT rather than Be for line rental works out cheaper if they indeed only charge £30 for the setup, since I'll still get my £40 cashback from Be just for broadband. BT also claim to have a "line rental saver" offer where you can pay your year's line rental upfront for £120 (provided you make at least two calls a month), however I went through the entire ordering process and couldn't find the option for this anywhere; do I need to request it after the line is ready?

Despite saying an engineer visit shouldn't be necessary, the BT site says that I need to arrange a date for an engineer visit, although they might not need to actually visit the flat. And the earliest available date for this is the 1st of April. !!!!!!... So not only do I have to fork up for the privilege of having someone plug in a cable at the exchange, I also have to wait almost three weeks for them to do so AND probably take half a day off work for the 5% chance that they need to visit?! This is getting ridiculous. When I moved into a flat with an inactive phone line a few years ago, I just needed to call BT and the line was activated within a day at most (and for free of course).

Be also require an engineer visit, and I'd guess that it's still a BT Openreach engineer who has to come, so the availability dates will be the same.

Perhaps I should phone BT, maybe their staff are more helpful than their website...

Re Sky, quite a few people in my area have told me that their broadband is awful (and yes, this is LLU, not Connect); I'm all for saving money but I still want a decent service, so I've ruled them out.

macman

You need to be available on the day in case the reconnection at the exchange or cabinet end is made and things are still not working properly. In that case the OR engineer would need access to the property in order to check everything up to and including the NTE5, which might need replacement. OR have no way of knowing the condition of the line and equipment inside the property. This is standard practice. And 3 weeks is pretty good.
But if you want a 'decent service', why is BT even on your list?

garybryan

Is BT known for bad service? I've very rarely had problems with BT phone lines in the past, and I phoned their customer service today and they were nothing but helpful. But for other reasons I'm probably reconsidering my choice:

Turns out that that mysterious £100 off the connection fee is for signing up for an 18 month contract rather than 12. Obviously I missed that in the small print somewhere. I signed up for a phone line a couple of days ago, and just looked at the order status in the My BT site, and under payment details it said "18 month contract". I was sure throughout the whole signup process that I was signing up for a 12 month contract; I'm already taking a bit of a risk with that since I don't know for sure if I'll still be in the flat in a year, so I'm unsure about 18 months. Partly because of that and partly because I'm just unhappy about what seems like being deceived into an 18 month contract (as I say I didn't see that mentioned anywhere, and there was no "pay £130 and get a 12 month contract" option; I assumed the discount was for already having an existing but inactive BT line, especially since it came right after the step where they ask about your existing equipment), I'm seriously considering cancelling the order and going with BeThere since with them I'll pay an £86 connection charge and get a 12 month contract. And also there's none of that Line Rental Saver nonsense of having to pay upfront and make two calls a month. Just seems more straightforward and honest, although maybe they have some tricks up their sleeve too.

cbrpaul

garybryan wrote: »

Is BT known for bad service? I've very rarely had problems with BT phone lines in the past, and I phoned their customer service today and they were nothing but helpful. But for other reasons I'm probably reconsidering my choice:

Turns out that that mysterious £100 off the connection fee is for signing up for an 18 month contract rather than 12. Obviously I missed that in the small print somewhere. I signed up for a phone line a couple of days ago, and just looked at the order status in the My BT site, and under payment details it said "18 month contract". I was sure throughout the whole signup process that I was signing up for a 12 month contract; I'm already taking a bit of a risk with that since I don't know for sure if I'll still be in the flat in a year, so I'm unsure about 18 months. Partly because of that and partly because I'm just unhappy about what seems like being deceived into an 18 month contract (as I say I didn't see that mentioned anywhere, and there was no "pay £130 and get a 12 month contract" option; I assumed the discount was for already having an existing but inactive BT line, especially since it came right after the step where they ask about your existing equipment), I'm seriously considering cancelling the order and going with BeThere since with them I'll pay an £86 connection charge and get a 12 month contract. And also there's none of that Line Rental Saver nonsense of having to pay upfront and make two calls a month. Just seems more straightforward and honest, although maybe they have some tricks up their sleeve too.

Gary

If you order bethere online and through quidco you get £40 off ok

Paul

garybryan

cbrpaul wrote: »

Gary

If you order bethere online and through quidco you get £40 off ok

Paul

I know, but I was already going to get that anyway for ordering just broadband with them, so it's not really any more money saved. (edit: although the offer I found was through Topcashback... it's basically the same thing right?)

garybryan

The saga continues... I failed Be's credit check for a landline so apparently I have to pay an extra pound for call barring. It's not much I know, but it's more the principle, and having a landline to make free 0800 calls etc. would be nice if I'm paying for it anyway, and I've never failed a credit check before (I had no problems with BT's)...