Charge for cancellation of BT phoneline which never arrived

lucasite

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice.

I moved into a new property a month ago. Phoned up BT, asked for my phoneline to be switched on. I was told to expect a call 72 hours later but didnt receive one.

So about 2 weeks ago I call again. It appeared that the phoneline to my property belonged to another provider. The woman explained that basically they'd descovered this and then let it, ignored it.
So she said she'd have to apply to take posession of the phoneline, it would take 2 weeks and my phoneline would become active on the 29th, yesterday.

If I plug a phone into a phone socket and pick up the handset, I get a recorded message saying "welcome to telewest broadband, etc."

So come yesterday, the phone line is still saying Telewest.
Again this morning, I tested it again, still Telewest.

So I get to work, and think ok, I give up, I'll just order Telewest/Virgin. I order online, and its all gone through.

I then phone BT to cancel. I get to speak to a rather abrupt lady who insists the phoneline was activated at midnight last night. I insisted that there's only two phone sockets in my house, and they both say they belong to Telewest, as of this morning.

I was told if I cancel now, I will be charged £70.

So I dont know what to do. They insist the line is active. I insist it isnt. When I listen to the phone, it says it belongs to Telewest. There's no other sockets in the house. There's no BT junction box by the front door or cupboard that I can find.
I've got so annoyed with BT for taking this long just to set up a phone line.

I finished by speaking to BT's fault department, and reported a fault. And didnt cancel the line...yet.

I've asked for a service, and they havent provided it. Surely its in my right to cancel?

Do I not have this statutory right thing, the right to cancel within 14 days?

Can anyone advise what I should do? Personally I've had enough of BT, want to cancel, and continue my order with Telewest. But I dont think I should suffer the £70 charge.


Should I go ahead and cancel, then fight against the charge? The last thing I want to do is get dragged through the courts.


Any response gratefully appreciated.

darkcloudi

lucasite wrote: »

It appeared that the phoneline to my property belonged to another provider. The woman explained that basically they'd descovered this and then let it, ignored it.

If I plug a phone into a phone socket and pick up the handset, I get a recorded message saying "welcome to telewest broadband, etc."

So come yesterday, the phone line is still saying Telewest.
Again this morning, I tested it again, still Telewest.

Appears you were Telewest all along not BT from your above quote. Probably the previous resident took out the BT box going to your home. Telewest use a separate line to BT therefore the telephone socket you are pluggin your phone in will always say Telewest and you won't able to get BT line from it.

lucasite wrote: »

So she said she'd have to apply to take posession of the phoneline, it would take 2 weeks and my phoneline would become active on the 29th, yesterday.

The phone became active with BT so therefore you may be required to pay the charge. Unless someone else knows different. But it appears you might not have a BT telephone socket in your house and probably need one of the engineers to come out and install one.

lucasite

Thanks for the reply DarkCloudi.
I think your right. There may have been a BT line, but the socket has since be removed, and probably the line hidden in the wall somewhere.

I suppose its my fault. I just expected the current telephone line to switch from telewest to BT. I didnt realise they'd be on two separate wires.

I'm going to cancel BT, and have to swallow the charge. I may have been in the wrong here, but I still think I've been treated badly by BT. So I'm not prepared to use their service. They can have their charge. Thats all they'll get out of me.