BT line ceased - reconnection charge...

olly_jeopardy

I have just moved into a new property where apparently my telephone line has been 'ceased' (there is no tone/dial tone on the telephone line at present). BT would like £125 for a re-connection.

Is this standard? Or is there another way around it? If not, I'm just going to pay it but just wanted to get someone else's opinion!

Thank you

davy_fulla

olly_jeopardy wrote: »

I have just moved into a new property where apparently my telephone line has been 'ceased' (there is no tone/dial tone on the telephone line at present). BT would like £125 for a re-connection.

Is this standard? Or is there another way around it? If not, I'm just going to pay it but just wanted to get someone else's opinion!

Thank you

I work as a BT engineer. If all the wiring from previous owner is in tact there is no charge for the reconnection. The £125 refers to the charge if the wiring has to be reprovided. Ring the sales team again and tell them this.

Drunkstar

We HAVE to quote the cost on certain calls due to extra issues (such as lines ceased for more than 5 years) just in case.

olly_jeopardy

Is there any way I can find out if the cabling still exsists without calling out a BT engineer?

And if I do call out an engineer and the wiring is still there, surely I still have to pay a call out fee?!?

Heinz

davy_fulla wrote: »

I work as a BT engineer. If all the wiring from previous owner is in tact there is no charge for the reconnection. The £125 refers to the charge if the wiring has to be reprovided. Ring the sales team again and tell them this.

Or, according to an Openreach engineer, perhaps not:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=15709527&postcount=8

BritBrat

Who holds the licence to work on a BT line?

Is there such a thing, it can't be a company called openreach as they never existed at the time so can anyone do it now?

Heinz

BritBrat wrote: »

Who holds the licence to work on a BT line?

Openreach does - see HERE.

hadid

We have the similar problem, we just moved into a new property with existing BT line. But the owner have disconnected the socket from the cables.

Can any one please advise me on the correct way to connect the incoming BT line (three colours Blue, Green and Orage) to the master telephone socket.

Thanks,

Vici

What is the set up? Is this just for your main socket? Do you have 6 wires in your internal cable? ie White/Blue, Blue/White, White/Orange, Orange/White, White?Green and Green/White? Do you have the main socket where you can take off a little front plate to leave a testing point and then 2 more screws revealing 2 large screws underneath?

davy_fulla

hadid wrote: »

We have the similar problem, we just moved into a new property with existing BT line. But the owner have disconnected the socket from the cables.

Can any one please advise me on the correct way to connect the incoming BT line (three colours Blue, Green and Orage) to the master telephone socket.

Thanks,

It's difficult to say without seeing at first hand. The wire you're describing sounds like it is what is known as a 6wire , i.e. 6 copper conductors with striped blue, orange and green insulation. This is officially an internal cable and will be used to wire from your main linebox to any extensions you have or from one extension to another. That said I have seen it used to bring in the main feed from outside. Can you trace it back to see if it is the line coming in from outside? If this is the line feed and the socket is definitely your linebox/master socket then 9 times out of 10 you would connect the blue/white and white/blue across the main screw terminals in the back of the socket (in older master sockets these same terminals use an IDC connection and will be labelled 2 and 5). This again is not a definite as the line sometimes get swapped on to the other colours if there has been a fault on the blue/white wires. Give it a go though - it's only 50v so you can't cause any damage or hurt yourself.

davy_fulla

Heinz wrote: »

Or, according to an Openreach engineer, perhaps not:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=15709527&postcount=8

This is the problem we all had when we changed to Openreach - confusion over charging and equivalence coupled with the introduction of MPF, SMPF and now WLR3 lines. TBH, the info I gave on the £125 charge was to the best of my knowledge from when I last worked as an installer/jointer before moving into the planning office about 6 months ago. Things may have changed since then so I stand corrected if that is the case.

That said, I did ring BT sales on behalf of my sister-in-law just a few weeks ago after they told her she would be charged to come back to BT from Pipex. I explained to the sales advisor that as I understood it there would be no charges as all the wiring was intact and it was an ex-BT line. The bloke at the other end agreed with me and couldn't understand why the previous advisor had told my sister-in-law she would be charged.

Confusing or what?

I'll try to find something a bit more definitive when I'm back at work tomorrow