BT Fault Charges

Mikvyv

I am currently in dispute with BT about a £129.99 charge they made to fix their own faulty equipment.

I believe I am in the right. However, that is now in the hands of the Obudsman.

The point I was going to make was as follows:-

How do BT get away with carrying out a repair, without telling you whether or not you are going to be charged? In my case, the engineer could/would not tell me if it was BT's or my responsibility.

Surely the fairest way to do it, is for BT to asses the fault and then, if they are going to charge you, give you a chance to shop around to get the repair done.

Also, the standard charge of £129.99 is excessive. Considering it could be just a minor issue.

Is anyone else involved in this type of dispute with BT or is it just me?

JJ_Egan

Its the standard charge from BT OR .
What was this fault that you where charged for .

Retrogamer

That's the engineer's call out charge for them to attend and diagnose a non BT related fault.

What was the symptoms of your fault and what did the engineer do to fix it?

iniltous

Mikvyv wrote: »

I am currently in dispute with BT about a £129.99 charge they made to fix their own faulty equipment.

I believe I am in the right. However, that is now in the hands of the Obudsman.

The point I was going to make was as follows:-

How do BT get away with carrying out a repair, without telling you whether or not you are going to be charged? In my case, the engineer could/would not tell me if it was BT's or my responsibility.

Surely the fairest way to do it, is for BT to asses the fault and then, if they are going to charge you, give you a chance to shop around to get the repair done.

Also, the standard charge of £129.99 is excessive. Considering it could be just a minor issue.

Is anyone else involved in this type of dispute with BT or is it just me?

It's not just you, but if when you reported the fault you were told of the potential for charging, and didn't isolate the things that Openreach are not responsible for, like extension cables/sockets, broadband filter/routers, Sky TV boxes etc, then if Openreach attend and find the problem was not on their network but something you are responsible for , then a charge is warranted,
You don't say what you were charged for, if it were something simple that you could have done yourself, that wasn't OR's job, like disconnecting a faulty broadband filter, then the charge is valid, the amount charged should be advised by your provider before you get a visit, and that would focus my mind to making sure the problem was on Openreaches side of the master socket and not on mine
You say the fairest way would be for OR to assess first, but then they have had the expense of sending out an engineer , for you to then presumably say OK , I'll fix it myself ( something you presumably could have done anyway) or employ someone cheaper , after getting the diagnosis of the problem for free by OR
In my view you do have a point about not knowing about the charge until the bill turns up, but the way OFCOM want the system to work is for you to speak to your provider, presumably BT Retail, and BT Retail, or any provider, Talk Talk Sky etc, to speak to Openreach, OR didn't bill you, they bill the provider, the provider usually passes the charge on, if it wasn't a problem on OR's network
If you say you were not told about the possible charge or the amount , then you could have a case for getting your money back, your provider would have to check if you said ok, when asked do you accept the possible charge, or ticked a box if reported on line,
If you did say ok, then obviously the charge isn't in itself a surprise, but until you say what the problem is it's impossible to comment on if it's reasonable

Mikvyv

The fault was corrosion inside the master socket caused by moisture coming from outside the house. The engineer only put on his report corrosion, but told my wife at the time that it must be from outside.

Understand what the charge is for. However, the consumer is at a distinct disadvantage as they have no choice but to pay the charge once the engineer has come out.

If the fault is obviously the responsibility of the customer, like an unplugged phone, I get that BT should make a charge. But 129.99, really?

In my case I could not possibly tell who had responsibility, so was in a situation where I could not avoid the charge, dispite the fact I could have had the fault fixed by someone else much cheaper.

A fairer way to do this would be to charge fairly for the call-out (if customer's responsibility) separately and then quote for repair. That way the repair cost would be proportional to the fault and the consumer would maintain the right to shop around.

iniltous

Your fault is probably the biggest area of contention, damp inside the master socket...OR 'own' the socket but you have to keep it in good condition, they obvious argue that the damp wasn't their fault, your position is that how could you know it was damp until they come and look at it...as it's OR property you couldn't legally get someone else to repair the socket ( but people do)
Usually , regardless of if £130 is reasonable or not, OR would diagnose the problem and remove the problem ( by replacing the socket I would imagine) ..not sure how else it could work, OR turn up ( for say £60 ) and say what the problem is and say do you want me to fix it for a further charge ?
I tend to agree £130 is a lot of money for what gets done, but I guess a plumber changing a tap washer , a few pence , would charge a lot more than the price of the part, but you do have a choice with plumbers

Retrogamer

Mikvyv wrote: »

The fault was corrosion inside the master socket caused by moisture coming from outside the house. The engineer only put on his report corrosion, but told my wife at the time that it must be from outside.

Understand what the charge is for. However, the consumer is at a distinct disadvantage as they have no choice but to pay the charge once the engineer has come out.

If the fault is obviously the responsibility of the customer, like an unplugged phone, I get that BT should make a charge. But 129.99, really?

In my case I could not possibly tell who had responsibility, so was in a situation where I could not avoid the charge, dispite the fact I could have had the fault fixed by someone else much cheaper.

A fairer way to do this would be to charge fairly for the call-out (if customer's responsibility) separately and then quote for repair. That way the repair cost would be proportional to the fault and the consumer would maintain the right to shop around.

It's a bit like a garage though. For a mechanic to diagnose a fault on your car, they have to charge you for the labour for doing so.

As Openreach engineers are a very limited resource the charge of £139 is the charge for them to come out and diagnose a non BT related fault.
Some engineers will fix faults for free on top of this charge but strictly speaking it's a call out charge and covers diagnosis and not repairs.
Repairs on top of this are usually not passed onto the customer.

If the fault was caused by corrosion inside the master socket then BT should not charge for this. The master socket belongs to them and it's their responsibility to ensure it's sealed properly for the environment it's in. They are liable for the costs on this one.

Mikvyv

Retrogamer wrote: »

It's a bit like a garage though. For a mechanic to diagnose a fault on your car, they have to charge you for the labour for doing so.

As Openreach engineers are a very limited resource the charge of £139 is the charge for them to come out and diagnose a non BT related fault.
Some engineers will fix faults for free on top of this charge but strictly speaking it's a call out charge and covers diagnosis and not repairs.
Repairs on top of this are usually not passed onto the customer.

If the fault was caused by corrosion inside the master socket then BT should not charge for this. The master socket belongs to them and it's their responsibility to ensure it's sealed properly for the environment it's in. They are liable for the costs on this one.

Hope you are correct in your last comment as BT insist I am at fault, despite no detail of how the corrosion was caused on the engineers report.

The whole transaction seems unfair and weighted in favour of BT. Usually when a consumer is in such a disadvantagious position, there is something wrong with the process.

hgotsparkle

I'm worried about this happening to me. My broadband is going very slow, and theres no dial tone on my landline, and the phone handset says cord line error, I reported with BT who are sending an engineer to fix it, but have warned that if its not a fault of theirs, I'll be charged the £129.99. They have already said that the fault looks to be loacted outside the property and that they won't need to enter my property so I'm hoping that it is a fault on their side....

Enterprise_1701C

If you have no dial tone then you should be fine. BUT you need to ensure that you are plugged into the Master socket, if you have more one phone socket in the house then you need to find the master socket which is normally a split socket. You need to carefully remove the bottom part of the front plate and plug a phone into the socket revealed under the plate. If you still have no dial tone then it is definitely BT, if you get a dial tone by doing this then it is a problem with one of the extensions off this socket and you would be better off finding an independent telephone engineer and canceling BT.