BT - Engineer call out charge - why?

joyfull

Just rec'd BT bill. Horrified to see £130 charge for Engineer call out.

In May had a lot of intermittent crackling on line. Enough to not be able to hear caller. Some days not there at all. Eventually called BT. Explained very clearly intermittent nature of fault (also checked problem using 2 other phones I have- still crackling). Even said to BT 'I won't be charged will I? Oh no....'

Engineer came & heard no crackling. Was a good day - no crackle, of course. Again, I broached the 'charge question'. He laughed & said 'no...'

Fault still pops up occasionally, have decided to live with it.

And now the £130 charge. BT are going to investigate, but have been told the charge may well stand as Engineer found 'nothing wrong'.

I'm flabbergasted, (and broke). How can one ever have an intermittent fault investigated without the risk of being charged?

birkee

If he found nothing wrong ........?

Had the same thing with a boiler installed by BG. It rattled loud enough to scare the granchildren and send the cat fleeing. Of course, NEVER when the engineer called. Had to keep a record of the number of times it happened in the end, before they accepted a fault existed, and they came and fixed it.

Ask them to come and try a phone supplied by THEM, to see if crackling occurs on that. If so, it's a line fault, not your phone.
Try other phones on the line too, if you have access to them. It will bolster your case. (borrow em!)

joyfull

birkee wrote: »

If he found nothing wrong ........?

Had the same thing with a boiler installed by BG. It rattled loud enough to scare the granchildren and send the cat fleeing. Of course, NEVER when the engineer called. Had to keep a record of the number of times it happened in the end, before they accepted a fault existed, and they came and fixed it.

Ask them to come and try a phone supplied by THEM, to see if crackling occurs on that. If so, it's a line fault, not your phone.
Try other phones on the line too, if you have access to them. It will bolster your case. (borrow em!)

I tried two other phones and still had the problem. It's definitely not my equipment, so why charge me???

I will pursue this to the bitter end. They may yet drop the charge. I have to wait 10 days max for them to 'investigate'. Oh, and I still get intermittent crackling, so it's not even been fixed.

useless_git_requires_wife

Phone them and ask to be told what their official complaints procedure is.

I'm pretty sure the charge will be wiped before the end of the day if you start/threaten to start an official complaint. Tell them you'll be sending them a bill for all the days your line hasn't operated normally and let's see their reaction.

zappahey

Is it possible that the crackling is coming from your extension wiring? BT only have responsibility from the street to the master socket, and that might have checked out OK.

joyfull

zappahey wrote: »

Is it possible that the crackling is coming from your extension wiring? BT only have responsibility from the street to the master socket, and that might have checked out OK.

I plugged phone directly into the wall socket to eliminate extension fault & still had crackle.

spike7451

joyfull wrote: »

I plugged phone directly into the wall socket to eliminate extension fault & still had crackle.

Did you remove the faceplate of the NTE & connect into the test socket behind it?..



If not,then that's why you've been charged as the faceplate,where the extensions connect to,is not BT's resonsibility & only when this is removed & the test socket used will it eliminate faults on the extensions.

joyfull

spike7451 wrote: »

Did you remove the faceplate of the NTE & connect into the test socket behind it?..



If not,then that's why you've been charged as the faceplate,where the extensions connect to,is not BT's resonsibility & only when this is removed & the test socket used will it eliminate faults on the extensions.

No I didn't remove face plate. How would I know to do that? BT did not instruct me to do that prior to their visit in order to avoid their charge.

I've only ever understood, and been told by BT, that the charge would be levied if MY equipment was faulty which BT have not proved to be the case (because it wasn't).

spike7451

joyfull wrote: »

No I didn't remove face plate. How would I know to do that? BT did not instruct me to do that prior to their visit in order to avoid their charge.

I've only ever understood, and been told by BT, that the charge would be levied if MY equipment was faulty which BT have not proved to be the case (because it wasn't).

They should have instructed you to do that when you called them,it's one of the basics in diagnosing fault's on phones,heck I think it's even printed in the phone book...

Have a read of the thread below,the's a link in that I provided to Skintlass who got her charge reversed.

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


I'd argue that as BT didn't instruct you to connect to the test socket,then you had been given inadequate advice on what to do,so you were unable to remove the extensions from the phone circuit.

Idiophreak

spike7451 wrote: »

If not,then that's why you've been charged as the faceplate,where the extensions connect to,is not BT's resonsibility & only when this is removed & the test socket used will it eliminate faults on the extensions.

I might be wrong, but I think the issue is that the OP wasn't able to demonstrate the issue AT ALL when the engineer came - as it's an intermittent issue that wasn't occurring at the time (as these things never do, of course).

I wish the OP all the luck in the world, but my own experience of BT shows that complaining's much like pushing on water - they just don't care. I tried the "official complaint" tactic that UGRW suggested - and they just refused to tell me how to complain. Simples. :mad:

duchy

Complaints go to OFCOM if you hit a wall with BT but I agree with the previous advice. Take the cover off your master socket (first socket where the line comes into the house) and leave the phone and BB connected for a few days in the test socket (depending on HOW intermittent the fault is depends how long). Also see if you can find a corelation -ie does it crackle when it's windy or raining only -or when the router is connected.