BT Charge of £622 to reconnect line!

rose_top

A well meaning neighbour took it upon himself recently to dig over my friends front garden. In the process he chopped through two cables, NTL and the BT phone line. NTL repaired the damage free of charge but a bill has arrived from BT for £622 for their repair! This seems excessive in the extreme. BT told us before they came out that the charge would be a £89 call out charge, a little different from £622. Can they do this? Shouldn't the lines have been buried deeper in the first place? Any help on how to approach this would be great.

Browntoa

I know BT have a policy of reclaiming ALL costs involved in repairing damaged cables, it mainly aimed at the utilities companies who chop them , but as your friend has discovered they now do it if you chop your own. Ask them to itemise the bill but it could be that they had to replace the whole cable back to the nearest cable box, maybe needing contractors ??

BritBrat

£89 call out and around £55 an hour work charge.

Think I would get the line covered now to make sure it does not happen again.



Price List:

Heinz

rose_top wrote: »

A well meaning neighbour took it upon himself recently to dig over my friends front garden. In the process he chopped through two cables, NTL and the BT phone line. NTL repaired the damage free of charge but a bill has arrived from BT for £622 for their repair!

Most household insurance policies cover such accidental damage. Make a claim.

diamonds

i argue BT showed a lack of care by not ensuring these cables were protected in the first place from general garden maintence, BT replaced dads cable in the garden years 20 ago as gone faulty and they shielded/covered it in plastic piping to the box at his doorstep

diamonds

Heinz wrote: »

Most household insurance policies cover such accidental damage. Make a claim.

and watch your insurance go up £15 a month

ORE

openreach charge the service providers to do the work. they then try and reclaim the costs.