Talk Talk Openreach

Shawn_the_Cheap

I was getting very very low download speed (consistantly 0.07mps when it used to be 3-4mbs) for 12mths. I checked the wiring and changed the filter but nothing changed. I raised a case in Aug 22 Talk Talk asked me to send in some readings which I did. They asked if I wanted an engineer then but I didn't want to call an engineer out in case I got charged as it's only a back up line for the alarm and for when virgin goes down. 

Virgin was down a lot recently so I was forced to raise a case with Talk Talk and they called Openreach. Two engineers came out in August 23 and they found a high resistance fault on their meter and showed me the reading - I think it was 2dB. They got onto someone remotely who fixed the fault within 5mins.

I told them that it was great news that it was fixed and I wouldn't get charged.

2 months later, unbelievably £166+Vat was taken out of my account for the site visit! 

I raised a case with TalkTalk and they have come back:
" Having completed further investigation into the engineer fee that has been charged to your account I can see the engineer has reported no faults were found and has marked the job as "Right When Tested". This means the charge for the visit is valid."

Talk Talk now say that the investigation is closed and my only course of action is an ombudsman.

Is that all I can do?

Neil_Jones

If the fault was on "your" side of the master socket open-reach are not responsible for that, so if they did fix it they would be within their rights to charge you for that.

iniltous

You don’t have a contractual relationship with Openreach , they obviously cannot send a  ‘bill’ to you , they may or may not have billed TT if the fault was on something that Openreach are not responsible for.
Unfortunately for you , as OR didn’t bill you , you cannot ask them directly  was there a charge sent to TT , and if there was one , what was it for and how much was it  , and TT may not be particularly honest with you if you ask what they charged you for .

You could challenge TT , if the fault was external to your property, they shouldn’t charge you but something to note on the TT site , they state if the problem is anywhere on your property including the garden they will charge you , whereas OR only charge if the problem is your side of the master socket.

What you probably need to appreciate is that TT don’t charge you what OR charge them , they can and do raise their own charges , they  are not necessarily related to what OR actually do , you could ask if OR actually charged TT anything , but would they answer you honestly, you will never know .

FYI , the usual way to determine if the problem is within a property ( so nothing to do with Openreach ) is by using the test port inside the master socket , using that eliminates any internal wiring or sockets ,so basically if your service doesn’t work in the master socket , it must be outside , however , if for example you have a dropwire from a telegraph pole that was damaged by someone working in your roof , although that’s outside,  it is your responsibility , but it a little late for that now.

TBH , the engineer showing you a reading on a meter and then called someone who remotely fixed it within 5 minutes doesn’t seem plausible,