advice r.e. moving home and "needing a new line installed at your property".

chezybezy

a little bit of advice please,
my move should finally be going ahead, im working through the BT online transfer tool for moving your phone, landline and broadband to the new home. and i get this lovely little snippet:

"You need a new line installed at your property. An engineer will need to visit and a £130 connection charge will apply. But the good news is you can get this for free if you take one of the great value packages on this page."
which surprisingly all those listed are £20+ more per month than i am currently paying.

now i am certain that there is a line going to the property - it might not have been used for a while (deceased) but there will be a landline going to the property, so it does not require the installation of a new land line, it might require someone to flick a switch to reactive it.

so where do i stand? please tell me i don't have to pay to 'install a new line' when all the engineer will do is go the the local exchange and flick a switch?

i can get the vendors to confirm anything about the existing / previous line if that'll help?

chappers

Where you stand is that they can't establish that there is a currently connected line to the property and an engineer will have to attend to assess what is happening on the ground. It will cost you £130 even if he just scratches his chin and twists two wires together.
It could be disconnected in the property, at the box or pole or at the exchange(less likely), only the engineer can sort that, sorry those are your two options

Wassa123

Switching from one ISP to another ISP is easy if the line already exists, e.g. when your contract expires and you want to switch to another, you cancel the broadband but not the BT line.

However, when moving house, people generally cancel everything including the BT line.

Moss5

https://www.directsavetelecom.co.uk/

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband/providers/directsave-broadband/

If you are not locked in to a BT contract, you could consider these people.

Doozergirl

I think BT always know if there was a previous line at a property as they own Openreach. If there was, you're not charged for the connection fee. I'm speaking from experience of moving house an awful lot, but not within five years.

I did just commission a line last week, no charge but it might be that I purchased one of those packages that you don't want.

The other thing might be if your vendors have cable. They can have a phone line but not using BT infrastructure. You could check with Virgin.

Ectophile

What chappers says is true.

Openreach have a standard charge for connecting a line. It doesn't matter whether they have to run a new line along all the telephone poles to your house, or if they just have to re-connect a couple of wires at the exchange - it's a fixed fee. The only exception is that it can be more than £130 if they have to install new ducts or poles.

A telephone/internet provider can choose to pay that fee themselves. But they will only do so if you sign up for a nice expensive package with a minimum contract.

littleboo

A "new line" means commissioning a working line, it doesn't mean installing a new physical line from the exchange to your house. If there isn't a working line there now, then there is work to do, either at your property, the exchange, the street cabinet or some combination. That is what you pay for.

bm147

if you arent in a fixed term contract with BT, there are plenty that offer broadband without a phone line. We are currently with Virgin and have no landline whatsoever...

tykesi

Used to get this all the time when I worked in landline provisioning for a comms company. There may well be work required at the premises, you, as an end user are very unlikely to know the status of the line and be able to asses what is required.

Even so, if all the work is required is at the exchange, what's wrong with being charged? They still have an engineer to pay, a van to run for him to get to the exchange, the tools he needs to do the job etc so why shouldn't they re-coup some or all of that cost?

wantonnoodle

I would phone them up rather than do it on line. A colleague at work had a similar situation, moving house in the middle of his contract with BT. They said the same online, however when he phoned them, because the line already existed and it was a case of enabling the line at the cabinet, he was only charged £50 rather than £130.

I suspect this is BT trying to cream off a few extra quid for those who prefer the convenience of doing everything online. They didn't publicise that the cost may be lower over the phone - he just called them to question the high cost given he could see a BT socket in the property.

chappers

wantonnoodle wrote: »

I would phone them up rather than do it on line. A colleague at work had a similar situation, moving house in the middle of his contract with BT. They said the same online, however when he phoned them, because the line already existed and it was a case of enabling the line at the cabinet, he was only charged £50 rather than £130.

I suspect this is BT trying to cream off a few extra quid for those who prefer the convenience of doing everything online. They didn't publicise that the cost may be lower over the phone - he just called them to question the high cost given he could see a BT socket in the property.

Yep that may be an option for something really simple.
In the old days there was a minimum charge and the engineer would assess if any charge over that was needed. Depending on "how nicely you spoke to" the engineer would often determine "the amount of work " necessary.
My Dad was a GPO linesman years ago and got "spoken to nicely" , quite often by half the village .