Open Reach charge when fault not repaired.

emilyj

I am with BT; I had a problem with international calls being cut off after 5 or 6 minutes.
I reported it to BT, who sent an Open Reach engineer. They said if the problem was my equipment I would have to pay; I agreed. He was not at all sure what the problem was, and eventually said that he thought it was a two-way switch in the bedroom. I was sceptical, (I could not see how only international calls were affected...) but said I would replace it (he did not have one) which I did. This engineer did not mention a charge.
The next international call I made had the same problem.
I called BT again and another engineer came who at first said the problem was outside, then inside, then outside. He went off, and and called me to say that he had found the problem at the exchange; my line was being routed thorugh an old part of the system for international calls so he re-routed it. He said I would not have to pay.
I have had no problems ever since.
I have now received a bill for £130 for the first call out.
BT tell me that Open Reach have charged them, so there is nothing to be done, even though the fault was clearly not on my equipment. They also say the engineer told me there would be a charge, which he did not.
Does anyone know what, if anything, I can do?

iniltous

Openreach are responsible for the physical cable pair between the exchange and your property, given the nature of your fault, its almost impossible for the problem to be on anything BT/OR can fix...if BT Retail are your calls provider for the call type (international calls) you were having problems with, then the fault should have been passed to BT Operate/Wholesale who are responsible for the exchange switching and transmission systems not BT/OR...I wonder what the BT/OR person did on the second visit to fix the problem, presumably he passed the fault yo the correct BT department (BTO/BTW)
You could argue that BT retail should have passed the fault to the correct BT department, you also need to ask them what the 'clear' was, in other words what was fixed to solve the problem, as you say the fault has gone...however if you use another provider for your international calls and you reported the problem to BT and you should have reported the problem to whoever you pay for your international calls, then the charge probably is valid

emilyj

Thanks iniltous. I use BT for both my UK and international calls, on a contract, which is why I contacted them.

BT_company_representative

Hi emilyj

Just seen your post and would like to look into this for you to clarify what the cause of the fault actually was and see why this charge has been raised on your account. Checkout my profile section and you will find my contact info.

Regards David

emilyj

Thank you David. I have emailed you.

emilyj

David -I tried to email you at the link you gave ...... but my account is not for Broadband, and so this form is not recognsiing my Account number, which is just for a telephone line.

Please can you give me a link to use that will recognsie my telephone account number.

Thank you.

emilyj

David -I tried to email you at the link you gave ...... but my account is not for Broadband, and so this form is not recognising my Account number, which is just for a telephone line- so I can't post the reply

Please can you give me a link to use that will recognise my telephone account number.

Thank you.

emilyj

Resending this as can't DM you...

Mark_In_Hampshire

Thread bookmarked to send over to BBC Watchdog when the count gets to ten.

emilyj

Dear Mr BT Company Representative,

Please can you tell me how to get the information to you via a BT enquiry page- the link you have on your signature is for, I think, Broadband problems, as it does not recognise my account number which is a phone line only.

I need to get in touch with Open Reach if BT are not able to do that.

Thanks!

Transformer

Openreach will not deal with the customer directly, it is up to bt complaints to liase with them. If they continue to ignore your request for them to help as they offered I would ask for a deadlock letter and pass the complaint to regulatory bodies including all history and letter of what happened. They can fine bt and will charge I believe it is 300.00 just to look into the complaint, so raising it alone as a poss further move with bt might get them to get their act together

emilyj

Thanks Transformer.

I am getting the feeling the BT post was just to shut me up..!