Telephone Engineer charges

Hannah_47

Im wondering if anyone can help me.
I have recently had a fault with my telephone line. A number of checks were done when I reported it and it was believed that it was a fault in my home. Because of this I had to agree to paying a £65 call out charge, if it was found to be a fault in my home when the engineer came. I asked what would happen if I didn't agree and they said an engineer wouldn't be sent out. So you are left with 2 options, no internet/phone line or pay a potential £65 which I reluctantly had to agree to.
The engineer arrived located the issue which was in the junction box fixed to the window sill where a component in the box had condensation damage. He stated it wasnt common practice anymore to put this equipment here due the very issue we had. He also told me something about how all the equipment like ours should be replaced but it would cost the telephone companies huge amounts of money to do this so they pass on some of the charges to the customer, I may not have this information quite correct and if there is anyone in the know about this infrastructure please get in touch so that I have my facts right before I make a fool of myself complaining. I have already started my complaint and the adviser at plusnet told me the engineer should be mute when he attends at the homes of customers!! which made me laugh as can only think its because they might let the cat out of the bag!!
Finally just to clarify, the junction box has never been touched by us since it was installed. The adviser told me we should have had the rewiring done, to which I replied where does it say that when you join up? He said when you report the fault we would tell you that. Horse and bolted springs to mind here!!!

Has anyone had any similar problems?

Mister_G

The first question to ask is where is the master socket? (It usually has BT or Openreach written on it)

If it is after the offending junction box, then the problem is firmly BT's so they should fix it free of charge. Any plant before the master socket belongs to BT.

If it after your master socket, then I'm afraid that it's down to you.

Hannah_47

thank you,
the junction box is fixed to the window frame, one wire goes straight through the external wall to the external phone wires and other then leads to the master socket so if I have got your before and after the right way round this is a BT issue.

Mister_G

Hannah_47 wrote: »

thank you,
the junction box is fixed to the window frame, one wire goes straight through the external wall to the external phone wires and other then leads to the master socket so if I have got your before and after the right way round this is a BT issue.

Yes, most definitely!

Hannah_47

thank you, that's great, I'm determined not to pay this charge!!

Mister_G

The practice of putting the junction box on the window frame or on the internal window cill was pretty common in the good old Post Office Telephones days.

The problem that you've encountered was also pretty common as well.

I live in an old house and they had to change mine out. In fact they ended up running a complete new drop wire from the pole into the house, directly to a nice new master socket. My broadband speed shot up to a giddy 2Mb from 1Mb!

Buzby

Hannah_47 wrote: »

thank you, that's great, I'm determined not to pay this charge!!

Nope - you need to get them to cancel it, if you just don't pay, service will be cut off and your credit file marked. You must advise that the work done was upstream of the master socket. However, your engineer may well have correctly flagged it as a FoC repair.

iniltous

You may think it a bit pedantic, but if Plusnet are your provider and Openreach maintain the 'network', you cannot possibly be a 'BT' issue, BT are a provider like Plusnet, but you are not a BT customer.
Hopefully the OR engineer will indicate the problem was line side of the master socket and so not your 'fault', but it can be the case, that although the 'damp' was on OR's line plant, they sometimes still raise a charge to your provider (Plusnet in your case) as OR argue that if the window sill wasn't damp, then the block terminal contacts wouldn't have corroded, n other words they argue the block was 'damaged' rather than just failed.
The warning your provider gives about potential charges is because things plugged into phone lines ( broadband routers, filters, Sky TV boxes, burglar alarms etc) can put faults on the 'line' and it isn't OR job to localise faults on other company's or individuals equipment, the 'charge' is only raised if the end user hasn't done basic checks and the fault is on their own equipment or wiring, but the exception is 'damage' to OR's stuff that isn't considered fair wear and tear