question about BT phone line connection fees

dander

I don't know if anyone here has any experience of this - it seems to be mostly a Virgin/Sky forum, but I'll give it a go anyway...

Signed up today to transfer my Virgin broadband and phone to BT. I have never done this before because I've always been put off by the charges to connect my house to a BT line. Finally decided to suck it up and contacted BT expecting to have to pay the £140 connection fee. However, when I discussed this (over webchat) with them, the help guy repeatedly said that "installation" would be free. Even when he quoted the prices and I replied to him "plus £140 connection fee?" he said "no, installation is free". I just can't believe it, so was wondering if anyone knows - are BT currently waiving connection fees to try and get all the annoyed Virgin customers or something - nothing on the website suggests this charge is being waived. Or is he confusing installation and connection and I will still get charged?

The only other thing that crossed my mind is I do have a Business BT fibre connection to my house - which was installed and paid for centrally by my old job, so never registered as an account at my house, and that was disconnected in 2018. Could it be that because that's already there, they will re-use that and let me off that they have to wire up the landline? Or is the landline connectable to that? So many questions! I just can't believe BT would connect me for free for no good reason!

J_B

Do you have a copy of your live chat?

dander

Not yet, I ticked the box to have them email it to me but it hasn't arrived yet. The order confirmation they've sent says this though - which is hopeful. Maybe I just have trust issues after being with Virgin for too long!

Line connection and broadband one-off charges One-off charges including activation, installation and delivery.	£0.00
Total one-off charges	£0.00

Neil_Jones

It's more likely that the house has a BT connection already in connection, just not connected (software wise) at the exchange.  If that's the case then it takes like 20 seconds to tell a computer to flick a virtual switch and there we are you have a working phone lne, let's order some broadband.  In fact you've alluded to this in your post so they'll probably use that.

dander

Thanks Neil - I'll dare to dream. Can't believe I stayed with Virgin so long because I thought it would be an expensive nightmare to get a regular system installed.

iniltous

TBH, it’s not that unusual, especially if taking both line and broadband for the installation fee to be waived, and as already stated, if the property had a ‘BT’ type service in the past , even if it has been unused for years, it’s generally a case of reinstatement, rather than a brand new service, if you had a business line in the past, they may try to reactivate than remotely

macman

The BT rack rate is £140, but in recent years very few people actually pay that. It's always been negotiable with most suppliers, all the way down to zero, and the more value there is on your contract, the lower it will go. As mentioned above, the odds are that there is an old OR line into the property that will simply need reconnecting at the street cab.
I helped someone with a VM to Plusnet switch about 6 years ago, and I think the cost then with a line rental, calls and broadband package was no more than £40.
Even if you did pay £140, then at VM prices you'd get that back within the first year.

dander

Yes, I was ready to pay the fee because I came to the conclusion that I needed to get out from Virgin's clutches. In the long run, getting onto the regular phone network rather than being purely cable, puts me in a much better position for moving around suppliers and getting good deals in the future.