Checking a disconnected BT line

jem16

My son is moving into his first home next month. The current occupiers have Virgin Media for TV and telephone. My son wants Sky and probably their broadband as it's cheaper and Sky have Sky One which he wants.

There has been a BT line into the property as you can still see the telephone wire from outside. I don't know how long it has been disconnected. Is there a way of finding out whether there will be a reconnection fee to go back with BT? Can we just ring BT and ask?

gt94sss2

jem16 wrote: »

There has been a BT line into the property as you can still see the telephone wire from outside. I don't know how long it has been disconnected. Is there a way of finding out whether there will be a reconnection fee to go back with BT? Can we just ring BT and ask?

You can call BT and ask - but sometimes they don't know or can't tell until an engineer visits.

If you have access to the property, you could just plug a phone into the BT socket and see if it has a dial tone - if so, calling 17070 on the line will reveal the old number BT allocated to it.. and will make it much easier for BT to confirm that its a free reconnection in those cases (subject to BT's minimum 12 month contract)

Otherwise BT charge £124.99 as an installation charge - however, if you ask the BT advisor they should offer you half price connection subject to an 18 month minimum contract.

If your son needs to pay an installation charge.. its worth him calling Sky first - sometimes they offer to pay the BT connection charge when asked 'I would like to join Sky but don't have a BT line.. is there anything you can do?' - especially if he is getting other services like Sky Broadband..

Regards
Sunil

jem16

gt94sss2 wrote: »

You can call BT and ask - but sometimes they don't know or can't tell until an engineer visits.

If you have access to the property, you could just plug a phone into the BT socket and see if it has a dial tone - if so, calling 17070 on the line will reveal the old number BT allocated to it.. and will make it much easier for BT to confirm that its a free reconnection in those cases (subject to BT's minimum 12 month contract)

He's hoping to visit next week to measure up so we'll try and do that.

Otherwise BT charge £124.99 as an installation charge - however, if you ask the BT advisor they should offer you half price connection subject to an 18 month minimum contract.

Thanks for the link.

If your son needs to pay an installation charge.. its worth him calling Sky first - sometimes they offer to pay the BT connection charge when asked 'I would like to join Sky but don't have a BT line.. is there anything you can do?' - especially if he is getting other services like Sky Broadband..

Regards
Sunil

Will keep that in mind when he phones Sky.

glowplug

BT shouldnt charge unless there is no wiring present in the house, or the wiring is faulty inside the house.

I had an issue with BT that they wanted to charge me £115 callout and £99 per hour to come out and fix a fault, but luckily found someone local (www.thebtman.com) who covers Herefordshire/Gloucestershire who was half the price of BT themselves.

Also I think if there isnt a dial tone it means that the line has been disconnected a while and it takes longer to get switched on, whereas if the line has a dial tone they can normally switch it on in a few days.

teaonshirt

bt are being akward with me the last person to live in my new house did not pay the bill when they left there is s a ring tone when i plug the phone in but i can only dial freephone numbers so i rang bt and asked them if they could give me the phone number so i could connect to talk talk but they wouldnt and said i woul have to sign up to a twelve month contract with them anybody any ideas what i can do to get the number

glowplug

teaonshirt wrote: »

bt are being akward with me the last person to live in my new house did not pay the bill when they left there is s a ring tone when i plug the phone in but i can only dial freephone numbers so i rang bt and asked them if they could give me the phone number so i could connect to talk talk but they wouldnt and said i woul have to sign up to a twelve month contract with them anybody any ideas what i can do to get the number

I would suggest an email to Ben Verwaayen, the BT CEO. He will forward your email on to his Chairmans Office Team who should be able to help you. ben.verwaayen[remove]@bt.com

If the outstanding bill is not in your name, and if technically the line is still connected, which it is considering that you can dial out, that means BT need to disconnect the line; its possible the person who didnt pay the bill didnt even have the line disconnected when they moved. Either way, the line needs to be ceased and the normal process of a credit check of yourself actioned.

Are you wishing to connect with BT or TalkTalk?

Drunkstar

glowplug wrote: »

BT shouldnt charge unless there is no wiring present in the house, or the wiring is faulty inside the house.

Not true at all. What baout the work needing done to connect the line OUTSIDE of the house, or do you think that should be done for free?

teaonshirt, if the line is in a 'stopped' status (dialtone but no calls) then its a free recon, however if BT do it it WILL be a new 12 month contract. If you want TalkTalk then ask them to switch it on instead, they have the facility to do it.

glowplug

Drunkstar wrote: »

Not true at all. What baout the work needing done to connect the line OUTSIDE of the house, or do you think that should be done for free?

teaonshirt, if the line is in a 'stopped' status (dialtone but no calls) then its a free recon, however if BT do it it WILL be a new 12 month contract. If you want TalkTalk then ask them to switch it on instead, they have the facility to do it.

Well according to the Charimans office if the wiring inside the property is intact/present then the charge shouldnt be applied. Of course what does/doesnt get applied is of course a different matter.

deklan99

glowplug wrote: »

Well according to the Charimans office if the wiring inside the property is intact/present then the charge shouldnt be applied. Of course what does/doesnt get applied is of course a different matter.

You're talking about fixing a reported fault, not a (re-)connection, two entirely different scenarios.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/pricing/cpp/downloads/ORPLCOM_TRC.htm

alan99_2

teaonshirt wrote: »

bt are being akward with me the last person to live in my new house did not pay the bill when they left there is s a ring tone when i plug the phone in but i can only dial freephone numbers so i rang bt and asked them if they could give me the phone number so i could connect to talk talk but they wouldnt and said i woul have to sign up to a twelve month contract with them anybody any ideas what i can do to get the number

How do you make calls at the moment?
In case you havent found a way round it yet, you can try signing up to 18185/1899 and then use their freephone number for calls ( signing up to them is a good idea anyway even with BT)
Also phone calling cards with freephone access will do. (but many are scams with extra charges, check carefully)
(I am guessing but if you make many freephone calls to same number BT may clamp down on you)
EDIT ok I see you havent got a phone number so signing up to 18185 etc will be impossible then. You can try dialling 17070 and see if it gives your number. Otherwise it is phonecards for you !

Alan

teaonshirt

thanks glowplug they have done e acredit check but will not connect me to talk talk they are saying that to connect me i have to sign up to there 12 month connection i asked them what the cooling of period was and they said 5 days thought i might cancel contract with bt when they reconnected me then go with talk talk but the crafty devils say the 5 days start from when i have rang them not to when my line is current and that takes 14 days what now