John Lewis offer: £49.99 additional charge when openreach router already in property?

GervisLooper

I have not moved into new property yet and was aiming to order internet before I moved however on the sign up page for the new £15 per month John lewis offer from the cheap broadband MSE page it says there is an additional £49.99 setup fee.

But it is not that there is no line in, since I have seen the openreach router from the last tenant on my viewing of the flat, so what should I do? Ring support I guess?

matelodave

A new set-up requires a lot more than just a new router and different suppliers amortise the set-up and configuration charges differently. Even though there may a be a router already there, the existing tenant might take it with him and it might not be configured for the JL service.

The router isn't provided by OpenReach but by your supplier and is easier to just supply a new router that's already been configured for your service than it is to try and work out what is  already there and then get a subscriber to try and configure it and then have the hassle of sorting out problems on an obscure or obsolete one.

You don't have to go with JL you could try another ISP who charges a lower set-up fee but you'll still get another router and most of them wont support a router that they haven't supplied. You may be able to sort one out but most people can't

GervisLooper

Do you know if the offers on the cheap broadband deals link include the £49.99 setup fee in the deal or not? It isn't clear as they don't mention it on the offer for either plusnet or shell 10mb bb offers.

Ah I will try and tally it up myself and see.

GervisLooper

Looks like a no

GervisLooper

That comes to 20 quid per month then for 10mb speed only that sucks. Might even be better off getting fibre not that I care at all for the extra speed just that the price will end up better if they install for free, maybe that will cost even more.

JJ_Egan

Have a look yourself  some do not charge .First three i see for my postcode  say  no setup charge .

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/

Though OP puzzling with mention of Open Reach router   makes me wonder if its an Open Reach ONT box not a router .

GervisLooper

What a dire state of affairs when the 'best deal' comes at £20 per month! Long gone are the glory days of the £5 per month golden era.

GervisLooper

JJ_Egan said:

Have a look yourself  some do not charge .First three i see for my postcode  say  no setup charge .

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/

Though OP puzzling with mention of Open Reach router   makes me wonder if its an Open Reach ONT box not a router .

Maybe but they are not doing cashback offers are they so would probably end up the same as the offer + install fee. Seems everything has leveled off where there is no room for any MSE gains! Even the mobile offers seem bad since I looked last year. Up to £15-20 cheapest unlimited vs £11 or so a year ago.

I don't understand why I never had to pay the 50 quid fee for the swap, even with plusnet, in the past (moved from sky bb to plusnet then a couple years ago) but now it seems a mandatory thing?

Also, to test, I even tried going through the sign up process on one of my old addresses, the one I mentioned above that I never had to pay for any install fees, and indeed plusnet still asked for a £50 quid installation fee; it was a city centre apartment so I find it highly unlikely they did not continue with an active line there. Has something drastic happened in the last 12 months since the last time I came to do this stuff?

macman

If the outgoing tenant ceases the lline, which they should, then you pay a reconnection fee/line provision fee. The cost is exactly the same, regardless of whether a new line has to be physically installed.

GervisLooper

macman said:

If the outgoing tenant ceases the lline, which they should, then you pay a reconnection fee/line provision fee. The cost is exactly the same, regardless of whether a new line has to be physically installed.

Interesting didn't know that. I was looking back at my old emails and saw the sky one time fee back in 2016 (which I would presume is the same as this) was only £25 seems; £49 is the standard now or maybe that is just because both shell and plusnet are plusnet, since shell is also plusnet. Maybe there are lower connection fees but as I said above, without a cashback deal and a low/no connection fee the total ends up the same or near enough anyhow.

Someone else said that you can sometimes get them to waive the install fee; anyone had success with this?

[Deleted User]

Try other providers - BT, Sky and TalkTalk sometimes waive the reconnection fee.
Virgin Media doesn't use Openreach or a smaller fibre provider so might be another considerations.