BT Broadband/Calls offer via MSE w/£125 pre-paid MasterCard and £40 Boots voucher

MrsShazbat

Signed up for this deal via MSE on 27 January, switch happened yesterday.

Hub won't connect and BT say there's a fault needing an engineer which may of course cost £129.99 if it's found to be a fault in the house. It worked perfectly well until Sky switched the BB off on Tuesday and the phone works fine.

Can I still cancel and return to Sky? There's no reason for it not to work that we can see and if we get charged I'm gaining nothing from the MCard/Boots card deal!

lee111s

You'll likely not be charged. There will be a fault in the exchange, most likely something hasn't been connected somewhere.

You won't be able to cancel unles you give BT a "reasonable" time in which to rectify the issue.

MrsShazbat

I know they have to threaten a charge but it worked perfectly until Sky disconnected it on Tuesday and it's incredibly frustrating having to wait till Wednesday for an engineer to call.

DavidP24

They put that statement out to protect themselves in case you have done something like plug in a phone to an extension without a splitter or installed an extension.

A friend of mine installed an extension and had stapled through wire.

You can test your obligation by going to the master socket, removing faceplate and plugging in router to there.

They should have also walked you through a reset of the router to defaults

Do you have a friend who has BT, plugging in the router at their place should show if the router is faulty if it does not work there.

What lights do an do not come on (with labels of lights please).

Have you been able to get a wifi connection to the router?

Have you been able to plug in a PC/Laptop via a wired connection?

If so what does the admin page show?

If you do get an Engineer watch everything they do to fix it to make sure it is external to the house or to do with the router

MrsShazbat

None of the sockets were installed by us. Nothing has changed except I unplugged the hub and the modem from the mains and each other, and the lot from the socket. When we had early issues with Sky, they installed a dedicated socket for the modem which I can't remove a cable from and the cable coming into the house went straight into the main phone socket, from which it is just currently hanging.

The lights go in sequence: green, blue, orange, flashing orange with flashing red 'b' logo. The service status when I phoned the freephone number said there was an issue in our area, yet online it showed as good service.

We have no connection to the router, WiFi or otherwise and we no longer have any cables to test a hard wired connection. My sister has BT but doesn't live locally as no one will take responsibility for the main phone socket or its appallingly flimsy installation, I'm loathe to start dismantling it lest someone accuse me of causing it to go faulty.

The fact remains that Sky was working fine until approx 5pm on 9th February.

Anyhow, in a fit of pique I asked BT about cancelling and returning to Sky. They very obligingly cancelled my engineer visit (misinterpreting what I actually asked) despite texting me 2 days ago to say they were attending today. Fortunately my husband was at home and no one's time was wasted. I am now stuck in limbo until I call Sky this evening and hope to be able to just plug everything back in and go back to Sky. The incentive isn't worth the hassle. Better the devil you know and all that.

MrsShazbat

Needless to say BT have got me over a barrel with either cancellation charges or a potential engineering call-out charge.

DavidP24

You do have cancellation rights...

Those under new rules that came in June 2014, they are 14 days from your "acceptance" of the contract, I suspect that they have built their system to say your ACCEPT the contract on sign up but you are not far off the 14 day period. More info here:

http://www.choose.net/media/guide/features/broadband-distance-selling-regulations.html

Regardless of the Consumer Contracts Regulations that replaced the Distance Selling Regulations in ANY legal contract is subject to BREACH of contract. I suspect they cover themselves but generally if they say it will be installed in a ten working days and it isn't then they are in breach.

Here they said you would have broadband and you do not, reject their implied liability, tell them you had a working service before and do not now.

Tell them that if they send an engineer it is at their own cost or they can cancel it with no fees.

Tell them if they try to charge you then you will see them in Court.

System

I'm sure their delightful overseas staff will take that onboard and cancel

More likely you'll get a default and debt collection letters for your trouble - that's what happens when you deal with lucifer.

DavidP24 wrote: »

Tell them if they try to charge you then you will see them in Court.

MrsShazbat

Engineer scheduled for 8am-1pm today after FOUR phone calls on Wednesday evening. Confirmed it this morning. Husband still waiting at home. Can't chase up the engineer until the time of the appointment has lapsed as BT Openreach will only speak to BT people and not riff raff like the paying customer, and won't respond on 'where are you' until the appointment time has been and gone.

MrsShazbat

DavidP24 wrote: »

You do have cancellation rights...

Those under new rules that came in June 2014, they are 14 days from your "acceptance" of the contract, I suspect that they have built their system to say your ACCEPT the contract on sign up but you are not far off the 14 day period. More info here:

http://www.choose.net/media/guide/features/broadband-distance-selling-regulations.html

Regardless of the Consumer Contracts Regulations that replaced the Distance Selling Regulations in ANY legal contract is subject to BREACH of contract. I suspect they cover themselves but generally if they say it will be installed in a ten working days and it isn't then they are in breach.

Here they said you would have broadband and you do not, reject their implied liability, tell them you had a working service before and do not now.

Tell them that if they send an engineer it is at their own cost or they can cancel it with no fees.

Tell them if they try to charge you then you will see them in Court.

That's exactly what we did have as in a working service. But they want £271 for us to cancel the contract so we can return to Sky. I signed us up on 27th January, switch was meant to happen 10th February so that was our 14-day period there and then. Looks suspiciously intentional to me.

MrsShazbat

Husband has just called, and the engineer call was never actually passed through to Openreach so no one was ever going to attend this morning or any other morning.

I'll try and contain my amazement and also my annoyance at my own naivety that this would be anything other than a massive pain in the a**e. Just proves the grass is never greener.