BT Customer Moving House

DarthPhillius

Hi, I'm a BT Infinity customer at the moment. Tomorrow I move to a new flat (which isn't fibre ready). I contacted BT about moving house and they said as no phone line has ever been activated in our flat they would need to send an engineer round. When looking for available appointments it seemed we might get someone round on the 14th of this month. Their system was playing up so they said they would get back to me with a definitive date and time. They text me today and told me it would be the 12th of May. Over two months away.

Firstly; is this an acceptable timeframe (doesn't feel like it)?
Secondly; if we're locked in a contract, does this mean we have to pay for these two months we don't get any service?
Thirdly; is a timescale this big not a breach of contract and if so can we realistically switch providers?

I don't really want to leave BT but 2 months is a hell of a long time to pay for nothing. Especially since I game online and have both PSN+ and Xbox Live subscriptions. Thanks in advance.

macman

How can it be breach of contract if you haven't yet started the new service? No, you won't be charged for the downtime, your new minimum term contract will commence once the line is enabled.
4-6 weeks is a perfectly normal leadtime for a new line provision: 8 weeks is not unknown. Why didn't you order the line once you knew your moving date, rather than one day before?
Going to another provider will make no difference, as the same company (BT OR) does the line provison regardless, so you'll still be at the back of the same queue.

DarthPhillius

We were locked in with infinity and that contract wasn't finished. As for the timeframe; we only viewed and accepted the flat two weeks ago and even then it was only confirmed last week when we paid the deposit. I'm having to move house with no time off. Can't see why that has any bearing on waiting 2 months for an engineer.

force_ten

bt openreach suffered badly in the recent storms and the fault levels are much higher than they normally are

in the areas that were not badly hit they sent engineers to the areas that are struggling

so they are focusing on restoring service to existing customers rather than connecting new customers