New house - my external BT line has been cut!

McCreary

Hi all,

I've recently bought an old property and will be looking to get a new BT line activated in a couple of months. However, I've searched for a BT master socket in my house and couldn't find one. It turns out that the original BT line from the telephone post has been cut half way down the wall of my house. It seems that the original cable was installed down the back of the porch roof, which seemed to be causing a leak, so the previous owner has removed it.

BT recognise that there is no active line at my property but my worry is that when I try to get a new line activated in my house they are going to charge me a lot of money to replace the cut line as I know BT owned cables are not supposed to be cut! Does anybody know what will happen in this instance? Would it be treated as a brand new install or would I be subject to repair charges?

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

macman

If there is no active line they you'll be charged the same £130.00 fee for reconnection as you would for a new line to be provisioned, so it make no difference.
No necessity to pay BT's inflated prices though, lots of cheaper providers.

jb66

So what were the previous occupants using? Virgin?

McCreary

Thanks for the replies!

The previous owners must have been using mobile phones instead of a landline I suppose.

Would it not be best to go with BT initially to get the line set up properly since they own the line and it will need to be installed as a new line?

macman

No, you are confusing BT Openreach with BT Retail, no connection in terms of operations. You will be contracted with BT Retail if you go with BT for line rental, but BT Openreach own the line and are responsible for provision and maintenance, regardless of whether you are with BT or another provider. BT Retail get the same terms from OR as every other telcom.

McCreary

macman wrote: »

No, you are confusing BT Openreach with BT Retail, no connection in terms of operations. You will be contracted with BT Retail if you go with BT for line rental, but BT Openreach own the line and are responsible for provision and maintenance, regardless of whether you are with BT or another provider. BT Retail get the same terms from OR as every other telcom.

Huge thanks for clearing this up for me. So if I ordered through Sky would a BT Openreach engineer to install it? Who would you recommend instead of BT Retail?

Many thanks

Heinz

Recent consensus appears to be http://www.idnet.net/solutions/home/phone/ (I have no personal experience).

McCreary

Heinz wrote: »

Recent consensus appears to be http://www.idnet.net/solutions/home/phone/ (I have no personal experience).

Thing is, I don't actually need the landline to make calls since I have a really good mobile phone deal (with inclusive 0800/0845 numbers etc). The landline will only really be for the internet and for Sky. I'm wondering if the BT 'pay-up front' deal for line rental may be cheaper for me at £120 a year.

Mark_In_Hampshire

McCreary wrote: »

Hi all,

I've recently bought an old property and will be looking to get a new BT line activated in a couple of months. However, I've searched for a BT master socket in my house and couldn't find one. It turns out that the original BT line from the telephone post has been cut half way down the wall of my house. It seems that the original cable was installed down the back of the porch roof, which seemed to be causing a leak, so the previous owner has removed it.

BT recognise that there is no active line at my property but my worry is that when I try to get a new line activated in my house they are going to charge me a lot of money to replace the cut line as I know BT owned cables are not supposed to be cut! Does anybody know what will happen in this instance? Would it be treated as a brand new install or would I be subject to repair charges?

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

If you're getting the phone line for broadband - do try and make sure the line can support it unless you're simply looking for a voice service. (www.samknows.com, availability checker, use phone number if you know it, or postcode)

In particular, if you know the last occupants had an internet connection then the lack of presence of a line there might indicate the previous occupants used mobiles and mobile broadband.

If you do get the line activated, an engineer might visit and install a new socket, or, it will just be activated at the exchange but you'll have no socket to plug into (happened to us) and you'll then have to get the provider to call them back out to fit the socket. Importantly, don't report that as a fault, because it isn't one.

hunkyidol

BT will charge around £130 for a new install, unless you take a bundle of all 3 services. But if your looking at having sky, you wouldn't need BT vision. I personally chose Sky to provide all 3 services and only paid £29 for a phone line install. This price included Openreach digging up my garden as I am in a new build and laying cabling to the house. Shop around obviously, but I thought this was quite cheap considering the work involved.

diamonds

Talk Talk Business are doing install for FREE just now instead of £99 in exchanges where they have TT, £24 a month buys uptp 24MB (priority data) broadband and line rental.

easy enough to be a business - open a FREE Santander Business account if needs be -MR/MRS/MS/MISS McCreary "trading as" McCreary Enterprises