Engineer visit and BT master socket

tired_dad

Hi,

In our new house the master socket seems to have been replaced by the previous owner with a brushed steel faceplate unit. Presumably as part of a renovation at some point as these were in fashion.

Now having moved in and recently changed BB supplier, I have been unhappy with the adsl speed.

Formally logged issue with the ISP. They have done line checks at the cabinet etc but have now called to say I need a bt engineer to visit the house. Booked in.

Just checking but reading around I'm worried they will change it back to a master socket and charge an extortionate amount.

Would that be correct?

Also, I am considering moving to fibre to the cabinet. If I did that, would that change anything? i.e. would that change the faceplate?

Advice welcome

forgotmyname

If your socket is the fault then thats what they are there for. Is the charge £180 if the faults in the home?

When i upgraded to FTTC Oct 2013 an engineer visited and swapped my faceplate.

JJ_Egan

Fibre the engineer will change the box or the faceplate .
Its free part of the fibre setup but subject to BT OR finding no fault .
BT OR visit is charged at £180 if the fault is not BTs .

tired_dad

just to be clear, I don't have fibre and am not currently having it installed.

What is happening is that a bt engineer is being sent around to investigate poor line speed with adsl.

JJ_Egan

Yes you say you are considering fibre .
Key is no be nice to the guy that visits and possibly a bit baffled by the chrome faceplate .They don't work for your ISP and are often sub contractors to BT Open Reach .

ruggedtoast

Second being nice to the engineer. The master socket is the property of bt and you aren't meant to mess with it. If he's in a good mood he will probably switch it over for you but they have a right to charge you or bill you for the call out if you decline.

tired_dad

feedback

was getting 3-4mbits speed.

BT engineer arrived. Lovely chap, very helpful.

We had an aftermarket socket. We also have 2 other phone sockets in other parts of the house. He said that they were coming off the master socket before the socket itself thereby reducing the signal.

Swapped it out for a new BT master socket. Filtering is done at the socket and extensions come off after the filter.

He tested it and said we would be getting up to 9 bits.

After leaving speed stayed the same for 2-3 days and then I got an email from plus net saying speed would go up.

Lo and behold am getting 7-8 bits now and its stable.

Happy.

Thanks BT OR.

brewerdave

The good news -you got a conscientious and competent BT Openreach engineer.:j..potentially the bad news, the work sounds as if it should be chargeable as he has corrected a previous c**k up -watch your bill closely for a big BT charge:eek:

C_Mababejive

You should have kept schtum and just got someone who knew what they were doing to fit a standard BT master socket or a filtered socket.