£237 bill for BT line I've had less than a month

embelliss

I've just had bill for BT,
which included line rental, connection fee, administration fee, and cancellation fee, which has amounted to £237- I've been connected since the 17th of July.

I am quite angry about this, since I was told an engineer will come to connect me the 17th July between 8 and 1.
I picked my house phone up at 8am (note: I had a dial tone before this date, so it wasn't a ceased line, although it hasn't been active since january) and phoned my mobile. it worked.
I waited in all day for the no show engineer, what a waste of time. The phone line worked nicely after this.

Anyway, the following monday 23rd July, an engineer calls my mobile at 8.20 am asking where my house was because he couldn't find it on the map.
I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he had to connect the line. I said that it has been working for a week now, so I don't see what he has to do (I am trying to avoid him coming near my house so I don't get chrged, haha) and he said that since it's been woking all week he isn't sure why he was booked by BT, and he will tick me off his jobs list. I said ok.

Now, I have a charge from BT, of £124.99 for the 23rd, for being ticked off a list! Great!

I have an additional charge coming my way of cancellation fee or something, some arrogant BT agent informed me, as I am trying to get TalkTalk broadband/phone, which is £70.
This is because I'm breaking the contract of 12 months.

Having just moved out of my mums for the first time, in with my partner, and we are welcomed as new customers by BT with ridiculous customer service (I've been on hold to them for hours and hours) and disgusting charges.

Sorry about the rant, I'm just so frustrated.

I have written a letter of complaint to them, does anyone think I will get any kind response out of this?

Thanks x

MrsPhillips_2

OMG! That's horrendous! We got our line on 8th July but the bill that came through was only for £33 and info only as we opted for DD. I hope it doesn't come to any more than that cos we only got it for our BB. Same thing, I'd been on hold for, in total, 11 hours trying to sort out this that and the other and wrote a letter to them 2 weeks ago but still no reponse.

Lavendyr

It sounds like they think your house was actually not connected at all - as this is what they normally charge the £125 for. This does require an engineer's visit.

You will need to explain to them that they've made a mistake, in that they told you it was necessary to send an engineer out when it wasn't, and that they should therefore not charge you the £125.

Have a look on their website under "Complaints", they should say how long they will take to respond. You should expect a response within max. 28 days, though, and probably less. If you're unhappy you can complain to Ofcom as well.

Heinz

£237

£124.99 (installation charge) + £70 (for breaking the contract) + £37.50 for BT Together Option 1 advance rental fee = £232.49

Assuming the remaining £4.51 is for calls, £237 is about right.

OK, perhaps the £124.99 should not have been charged (you can dispute that) and most of the advance rental should be refundable (because you've switched to Talk Talk - you can dispute that too) but £237 is about right.

Drunkstar

Sometimes the charge applies even when the engineer doesnt have to turn up as they still have to do work and BT still get charged, therefore so do you.

If you break the 12 month contract then yes you can expect a £70 fee.


Nothing you have said isnt covered all over this forum and all over the news. What did you expect? That you would get BT to do all the work and then let CPW take over the service and make money leaving BT out of pocket?

MrsPhillips_2

I was told that because there is a line already in here and all it needed was for something to be done at the exchange, there was no need for the £124.99 charge.

telephone_man

Drunkstar is right. This could have been avoided if CPW had followed the correct procedure and connected the line for you instead of trying to get BT to connect the line (at a huge cost to BT) then once the line is connected they transfer the service without any charge to themselves (very sneaky). I would personally forward the bill to Talk Talk.

Drunkstar

MrsPhlips the connection fee would have shown on the first bill from BT, so youre probably safe.

LilMissEmmylou

i got the £125 charge in december, but we had a hole in our wall as its a new build hence the charge, guessing you shouldnt have had this for a reconnection as the line was already there. Call them and tell them your refusing to pay for it but will pay the other charges u think r called for, see what they say. if your adamant enough they should agree to remove it.

patwa_2

Do you have the call to the mobile that you said you made on the BT bill? How could you have made that call if the line wasn't connected until the 23rd? That in itself, one would think, would set some kind of alarm bells ringing, unless of course there are lots of BT lines just randomly lying around connected but not showing on their system, or if they have fantom new lines in place that do not in fact exist?

The cancellation charge is of course justified, although the arguement could swing either way as to who's 'fault' it is that this is actually necessary.

Re: CPW connecting the line, they told me that it would have to be BT, but BT said CPW have the ability to do this under the new open access agreement, or whatever it's called. However, when I went back to CPW, they didn't seem to want to tow this line. I do not think you could get anywhere trying to push that point, but certainly the connection fee is one that needs to be looked at - how can you make a call through an unconnected line yet still have it billed?

H.

embelliss

patwa wrote: »

Do you have the call to the mobile that you said you made on the BT bill? How could you have made that call if the line wasn't connected until the 23rd? That in itself, one would think, would set some kind of alarm bells ringing, unless of course there are lots of BT lines just randomly lying around connected but not showing on their system, or if they have fantom new lines in place that do not in fact exist?

.

I made quite a few calls during the week the line had been connected since the 17th, so it should show on the bill.
I read somewhere else that the 125 charge is usually only applied to ceased lines- a line with no dial tone, but mine had a dial tone even before it was 'connected' on the 17th.
BT said to me that the charge would have been for an engineer connecting my line on the 17th, but the charge is on the bill is on the 23rd- the day the engineer called me and I told him I was already connected.

When I phoned BT, I asked what the charge was for, and he said 'for the engineer connecting your line on the 23rd'
then I said 'But my line has been connected since the 17th, and the engineer personally told me on the phone that he didnt need to do anything and he would tick me off'
then the agent said 'oh well, it's possibly for one of our own BT engineers coming out on the 17th then'
This really frustrated me, because he didn't really know my line was connected on the 17th until I said it.
Why on earth would BT send out 2 connection engineers?
They obviously didn't know I had been connected since the 17th a the call centre, and there is no talking these people round, they just don't listen!

I have written a letter to BT complaints.
I've already paid the bill though, as I received the bill on saturday, I didn't really look at it because Ive been working all weekend, then I come to look at it on monday, and it says 'payment due 30th'!!
Jesus, they gave me 2 days to pay the bill!

Sorry for ranting some more, I'm just so livid, I'm being bled dry of my money lol.