BT charged us for their own technician's fault

littleboo

I'm a bit confused reading this, but as the electrician appears to have resolved the extension problem, the problem was surely with the extensions wiring or sockets. He cant (shouldn't) have touched anything that was Openreach's responsibility so he must have resolved something on the customer side ?

cajef

yhmoon wrote: »

And there were two BT main point intalled in my house, which caused the problem.

There may be two main points but if you only have one line the one that the incoming BT line is connected to is the master any others are extensions.

iniltous

Obviously there should only be 1 master socket, this will probably the one nearest where the phone service comes in from outside, usually at the front of the property, if that's where the foot way joint boxes are located, this should be an NTE 5 type socket with a removable bottom section which exposes the test point, OR are only responsible upto this point, any extension wiring from here to other sockets in the property should be connected to the removable panel of the master socket, so when the panel is removed only the bit OR are responsible for is connected to the line, everthing else is disconnected, if wired correctly in the first place.
In new builds OR supply the builder/developer with the NTE 5 sockets and tells them how to fit them, the builder gets paid by OR for this work...if the builder has used NTE5 for extensions that is wrong and shouldn't happen, similarly if the builder connects extension sockets incorrectly that stop the line working, then you, when reporting the line as not working, would be asked to check in the test socket, and if everthing is ok there, by asking for a OR visit you are liable for the call out cost

Heinz

It doesn't matter if you have more than one NTE5 though.

JJ_Egan

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.php?searchid=152485633

tonycottee

I had a poor experience with a BT engineer last week.
After heavy rain, our landline went dead. Arranged an appointment and he arrived that afternoon!
However I wasn't in when he arrived. He didn't ask my wife about the problem, he just went to the main socket and started unscrewing and fiddling. The thing is, we dont use the main socket to plug our phone into, we use an extension in the living room.
After about 45 minutes of huffing he went outside. He replaced the box that went into the house and then went to fix the main socket that he had unscrewed originally.
He took almost an hour to fix it back on. I'm fairly sure he swore a couple of times (my 4 and 3 year old were in the house) but I'm not positive so I didn't say anything, and he also went on about "bloody builders". He also went on about how he should have finished an hour ago and that he was on overtime.
When he finally "fixed" it, we plugged the phone in the extension... and it didn't work. He said at first that we had a faulty phone, but when we plugged it into the main socket it worked. He then said that the extension wiring must be faulty and that if he was to look at this it would become chargebale. He said that I should get an independent to come and look at it as they were much cheaper than BT.
I checked before he left what the problem was, and he confirmed that it was the box from outside. So I was left slightly perplexed why the extension now failed to work.
Slightly annoyed that I would have to buy a custom-made table for the hallway where the main socket is, to stand the phone on (a very narrow area), I tried the phone in the upstairs socket which has never worked. And surprise surprise, it worked! So the BT engineer had managed to rewire our sockets and not realised and our wiring wasn't faulty.
I'm annoyed that after heavy rain, his first port of call wasn't to the box outside, then all of this may have been avoided. That said, I suppose they may have a set way of dealing with these issues.

Retrogamer

Heinz wrote: »

It doesn't matter if you have more than one NTE5 though.

This is a new build as per the OP

On new builts the NTE socket is outside the home. BT Connect the line up to the grey box attached to the outside of the home. Anything inside the home them becomes the customer's responsibility as the demarcation points is moved outside.

yhmoon

tonycottee wrote: »

I had a poor experience with a BT engineer last week.
After heavy rain, our landline went dead. Arranged an appointment and he arrived that afternoon!
However I wasn't in when he arrived. He didn't ask my wife about the problem, he just went to the main socket and started unscrewing and fiddling. The thing is, we dont use the main socket to plug our phone into, we use an extension in the living room.
After about 45 minutes of huffing he went outside. He replaced the box that went into the house and then went to fix the main socket that he had unscrewed originally.
He took almost an hour to fix it back on. I'm fairly sure he swore a couple of times (my 4 and 3 year old were in the house) but I'm not positive so I didn't say anything, and he also went on about "bloody builders". He also went on about how he should have finished an hour ago and that he was on overtime.
When he finally "fixed" it, we plugged the phone in the extension... and it didn't work. He said at first that we had a faulty phone, but when we plugged it into the main socket it worked. He then said that the extension wiring must be faulty and that if he was to look at this it would become chargebale. He said that I should get an independent to come and look at it as they were much cheaper than BT.
I checked before he left what the problem was, and he confirmed that it was the box from outside. So I was left slightly perplexed why the extension now failed to work.
Slightly annoyed that I would have to buy a custom-made table for the hallway where the main socket is, to stand the phone on (a very narrow area), I tried the phone in the upstairs socket which has never worked. And surprise surprise, it worked! So the BT engineer had managed to rewire our sockets and not realised and our wiring wasn't faulty.
I'm annoyed that after heavy rain, his first port of call wasn't to the box outside, then all of this may have been avoided. That said, I suppose they may have a set way of dealing with these issues.

I fully understand your feeling. Today, we received a letter from BT,saying that this is the final decision on our case, and based on the evidence(they mean their engineer's report), the charge will stay. I was not surprised that they did not mention anything we have sent them, even the key evidence from the third party electrician. They suggest that if we are still unhappy, we could phone Ombudsman Service,which is free. OK, I will definitely phone them!