Unfair BT charge

JamesF2

Hello,

I had problems with noise on the home phone. I agreed to having a BT engineer visit and if the fault was with my phone equipment I would have to pay £99. I was getting desperate so agreed.

He came, found corroded terminals on the master socket (where you plug in your phone). He replaced this and all was well again with the phone line. As this socket marks the point of demarcation with BT having responsibility from this point outwards I thought this was the end of the matter. I have just had a bill for £99 and have spoken to BT who maintain the corrosion was due to damp. The engineers did not mention damp but said it was due to the sockets age (we think it was the original from 1985 when the house was built - it had a logo that BT stopped using in 1991).

I have found quite a few other instances of this situation on BT forums.

I read that there are two types of corrosion:

• Oxidation, which naturally occurs on copper surfaces, that blue/green colour stuff.
• Galvanic corrosion, this is caused by the copper getting moisture onto it over a prolonged period of time. The colour of that is a dirty white/grey.

It was definitely the former.

I asked to speak to a supervisor and they will ring me tomorrow.

I see in BT's Ts and Cs "You agree to look after any of our equipment. If you do not do so and the equipment is damaged other than through fair wear and tear, you will, have to pay for it to be repaired or replaced."

Surely anyone can see that this is just wear and tear?

Any thoughts please?

Thanks,

James

poppasmurf_bewdley

How can 'corroded metal terminals' (your words) be fair wear and tear?

Worn out terminals would be wear and tear. Terminals that had lost their thread would be wear and tear. Terminals that were worn away would be wear and tear.

Terminals that are corroded are ... corroded, not worn or torn.

JamesF2

Okay - I mean to be expected and not caused by me not looking after "the equipment".

Buzby

You were just unlucky - some engineers would have let this go as being outwith the control of the consumer unless, the damage was directly related to actions of the customer. Say, as the NTE5 is BT's property and you have not tampered with it, how can you be liable - was it a faulty installation?

Ady87

Keep raising it with BT's TRC (Time related charges) team who handle escalations over these charges. They will maintain it if they believe they should but i've seen them give in a few times when someone pesters them enough.

mattyprice4004

They'll give in for that, trust me. Keep at the team above.

I've had all sorts cleared of charges, much more 'borderline' than yours - I deal with this every day.