Council workers cut my phone cable (now fixed by BT!) - claim back phone expenses??

GustyGardenGalaxy

On Wednesday afternoon some council workers (or possibly contractors) were trimming the verges and hedges near me and they managed to accidentally cut through my telephone cable where it exits the ground and starts to go up the side of the telegraph pole.

Four days later the problem has finally been fixed by BT Openreach, but in the meantime I've spent a small fortune on making phone calls with my mobile (I rarely use a mobile so only have a Pay As You Go SIM card, this works out very expensive when making essential calls and calling my ISP for an update on the line fault). I've spent about £50 on Pay As You Go calls over the past four days.

My question - as the council workers caused the damage will I be able to claim back that money from the council?

Or should my ISP be able to reimburse me?

Thanks

gjchester

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

My question - as the council workers caused the damage will I be able to claim back that money from the council?

Or should my ISP be able to reimburse me?

Thanks

If anyone's liable its probably the people who cut the cable, and I guess as they are employees or contractors to the council then that who it is.


However you'd need to show they were negligent in cutting it, or not performing with the right duty of care, which would be very difficult to do. It could also be the said that BT are negligent if the cable protection was missing, (normally they are in a case of some sort) which makes it a lot harder to say.


Either way its not your ISP...

GustyGardenGalaxy

Thanks.

So presumably my "best" course of action is to contact the council department who are responsible for hedge trimming.

brewerdave

Be aware that BT will probably raise a bill for the work -and it will be sent to you -they won't pursue the council contractors!

GustyGardenGalaxy

Really? BT will charge ME???

Surely not?

Edit: just checked with my ISP and they assured me that I wouldn't be charged.

teddysmum

If your council is like ours, they will make claiming difficult.


Bin men left bins on the very uneven grass verge, instead of on level pavement some distance away, (where we place them for emptying) on a very windy morning, with the result that a bin fell over and damaged my car door. We were sent a claim form that was over 40 pages long and , as they hoped,we couldn't be bothered to fill it in.

iniltous

BT or whoever your line rental provider is, would pass on any repair charge Openreach raises with them,to whoever caused the damage, or you , but only
if you employed the people who did the damage, or if the pole in question was within your house boundary, but presumably the council wouldn't be trimming hedges inside your property, so you shouldn't get charged for the repair.
if you told your provider or the person who performed the repair, it was the council or their contractor that caused the damage OR would persue them for costs,
It's unlikely they (OR, line rental provide or ISP) would also pay you any compensation that they couldnt get back from those that caused the damage, OR claim from council, who would probably claim from the contractors insurer ( if it were a contractor) , OR loss is obvious, yours is less so,
so in short apart from getting a credit for the days without service for line rental and broadband service, you are not likely to get anything else from your ISP or line rental provider, and definitely not OR, you could try making a claim from the council,

GustyGardenGalaxy

What is the refund policy for days without service? Presumably it's necessary to be without service for a fixed amount of time before any compensation is offered?

stephenliverpool1

Ignore the above. I had a problems with my phone & b/band connection a few weeks ago, which BT disconnected. I complained and got a gogw from plusnet a while ago.

iniltous

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

What is the refund policy for days without service? Presumably it's necessary to be without service for a fixed amount of time before any compensation is offered?

This would vary depending on the provider, you would have to check the T&C's of your provider or providers if ISP different from Line rental provider, but as line rental is about .50p a day so 4 days is £2, and that's if they don't exclude the first day, it's not going to amount to much, and they would probably apply it as a credit to your bill, not write you a cheque, and ISP , if they load line rental to make the broadband rental a few £'s a month, days out of service could be a few pence

northernway

BTwill charge the contractors.