BT Bill for work done - shock for elderly parents!!

KerryHawk

From previous experience I am sure some lovely person out there in MSE world can offer advice on this little problem.

My OAP parents recently had new front and back doors fitted. During the process the fitter accidentally damaged the BT line when putting the new door frame in. The phone was cut off by this. My parents rang BT and arranged for someone to come out to repair the damage. When the engineer arrived he infomed them that the call out fee was £100 an hour :eek: :eek: .

He repaired the fault - approx 20ft of cable and a couple of boxes and left all in working order. Today they recieved the bill - nearly £340 :eek: :eek: including the VAT. For Gods sake - what the bl***y hell are BT on. I don't think even Gordon Brown earns £100 an hour. The bill does not explain what work was done and considering the job took only an hour what are the charges for!!! Mum is going to ring them to ask for an itemised bill but I feel they have grounds to complain. They are not contesting that a bill has to be paid - they are going to speak to the door company about them paying it. But it is the sheer amount for a small job that riles.

Has anyone else had this type of problem and where do they go to complain.

BT - sheer rip off merchants.
Thanks for reading.:o

normanmark

Await to find out the itemised bill, the fitters should foot the bill really as they caused the problem.

But BT does charge its engineers out at £100 an hour for work.

chilli_dog

Definatley call BT and try and get that charge justified. Call the fitters company to get them to pay, they have insurance (or should do) to cover these things.

Lastley check your own home insurance ploicy to see if you are covered for this.

Good luck

KerryHawk

Thanks for replies so far. Parents will check home insurance and speak to the fitters. They do feel though that no-one should have to pay such an extortinate price. Honestly that hourly rate is just a joke - no wonder BT are such a monopoly. Nice business if you can get it. Gutting thing is when I told my husband about the damage (after it had been repaired) he said 'Oh I could have repaired that, I am authorised to work on BT lines', my brother said the same thing. the things you learn after the event!

Ho hum - another success for money grabbing monopolies!!:mad:

duncan320

Agree, speak to the person who damaged the cable in the first place as long as he knows he did it, if he disagrees take further action.

telephone_man

The person who damaged the cable (if they belong to a legit company) should be covered with their insurance.

I know it is not right that it should be all that much but you cant blame the phone company for doing this. If I damaged my electricity junction box or cut through an electric cable I wouldnt expect my electricity supplier to foot the bill for the repairs.

The bill is justified but not for your parents to pay IMO.

normanmark

KerryHawk wrote: »

no wonder BT are such a monopoly

Check your facts, BT are no longer a monopoly, if they were then i doubt they would be operating as a company now.

High engineer charges for something that isnt BT's fault, you can hardly blame them. People pay similar charges for plumbers yet people dont harp on about 'monopolies' :rolleyes:

A_Nice_Englishman

Apologies if I'm wrong, but as I understand it only BT staff or sub-contractors are allowed to work on BT lines.

It follows that the OP's husband and brother are either BT employees or do sub-contract work for BT. Presumably the 'extortionate prices'? are a reflection of their salaries or the rates they charge BT?

BTMole

BT are now like any other service provider and must use Openreach to do any repair work up to the point of the master socket after which the property owner is responsible for the line and extension sockets. This link http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Misc_boo/1393_d0e1.htm may help explain the charges