BT lines - who is responsible?? PLEASE HELP!!!

2522laura

Hi,

I have two black cables coming out of the BT junction box on the outside of my house. One goes up the wall and is connected to a master BT socket in the front bedroom, the other goes along the wall and in to the line box in the lounge. Back in September the line to upstairs stopped working so an engineer came out. He said the wiring had come out in the junction box so he re-connected it but warned us it may happen again as the wiring had been cut too short. It happened again in April so I called the engineer out. Again, the problem was that the wiring had become loose inside the junction box. He fixed the problem and went. Then, to my surprise, I get a £130 call out charge for the exact same work that was carried out free of charge in September!!! I am at the end of my tether with BT, I had chatting to and emailing a lady there but she is now saying they condsider the matter closed and the charges stand as the engineer says the problem was with an extension and they dont maintain extensions. As this runs from the junction box and runs up to a master socket, how can this be classed as an extension? in any case the issue is with the wire inside the jnction box not the socket end. I did email her over photos of the wiring outside our house but now she is just ignoring me.

Please please someone help, I dont know where to go from here and its totally stressing me out

macman

Wiring on your side of a master socket would not be covered even if it's running into the master socket, as it's part of the extension wiring. Everything up to and including the BT NTE5 is BT's responsibiliity.

brewerdave

macman wrote: »

Wiring on your side of a master socket would not be covered even if it's running into the master socket, as it's part of the extension wiring. Everything up to and including the BT NTE5 is BT's responsibiliity.

Sounds like the OP has got the same sort of wiring arrangement as me - ie a mini-master socket wired direct from an external junction box, and other extension(s) wired independently from the same external junction box - it is not an external NTE5. This is how BT were wiring up in the mid 80s.

Some BT "engineers" seem to be counting this external junction box as the equivalent of a modern master socket-but it isn't - you'll need to raise a complaint via snail mail to get the charge removed.

spike7451

brewerdave wrote: »

Sounds like the OP has got the same sort of wiring arrangement as me - ie a mini-master socket wired direct from an external junction box, and other extension(s) wired independently from the same external junction box - it is not an external NTE5. This is how BT were wiring up in the mid 80s.

Some BT "engineers" seem to be counting this external junction box as the equivalent of a modern master socket-but it isn't - you'll need to raise a complaint via snail mail to get the charge removed.

That's how I read it too.If you open up the back of the downstairs socket & see a yellow capacitor,then it's a mini master.If not it's an extension.



https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2855286

info in there you'll find useful.

2522laura

Thanks everyone, I have got it all sorted now

macman

So please share the result with us-did BT see sense?

2522laura

Yes, I sent them over pictures of the box outside and where the wires go and they agreed that it should have been covered by BT and were very apologetic. I'm just glad it is sorted now!! If it happens again I'll just send pitcures over straight away as our wiring seems to be different to everyone elses!

spike7451

2522laura wrote: »

Yes, I sent them over pictures of the box outside and where the wires go and they agreed that it should have been covered by BT and were very apologetic. I'm just glad it is sorted now!! If it happens again I'll just send pitcures over straight away as our wiring seems to be different to everyone elses!

Laura,

I have been to many many faults while working for NTL/VM & TBH,I have never came across a 'simple' wiring job from BT.