BT connection charge, migrating from TalkTalk

Namistai

Hi everyone, hoping for some advice here!

I'm moving house soon to a rented property, and the landlord (who was also the previous occupier) has an existing TalkTalk contract for phone/broadband. The exhange is LLU enabled.

I am quite a heavy internet user and therefore want a better level of service than TT can offer me. So I am wanting to change the telephone line back to a normal BT line (i.e. not LLU) and use my existing ISP, and a suitable phone line supplier.

As you may have guessed, I've been told from various sources that I may be liable to a connection charge. The purpose of this thread is to ascertain from those of you with prior knowledge if there is any way around this charge.

There is a phone line in the house already, but it's in the landlords name and is operated by TT. In my current house, I'm currently using Post Office Homephone as my phone supplier, and Zen Internet for my broadband - both of which are on one month contracts. Both are happy to migrate my connection to the new house, but Post Office want £110 connection charge (yep, I know it's cheaper than BT!). Their Customer Support team didn't seem to have access to any information on the existing line, only that there "isn't a line connected at present". So I tried calling BT next. After speaking to various people, I got a couple of different answers, and they clearly had access to a whole lot more technical information.

Firstly, BT said that the £124.99 charge would apply to change over the line at the exchange. The second time I called, switching the line back to BT was no problem and it could be done for free - the line already exists so it's just a case of "taking over" the line. However, once they realised that the current TT account holder and myself are different people, they were not willing to connect for free.

Now, I've done a lot of research on here and other places on the 'net, and I can't find anything relating to this issue of the account holder being different. Can anyone shed any light? Was this a spurious excuse, or a genuine answer?

My options are to swallow the cost, or go with BT on an 18 month contract to utilise their current £29.99 offer. I'd rather not be tied to an 18 months contract if possible, as we may not reside in the property for that long (6 month contract initially) and I might encounter the same issue at the next property! But, if it has to be done to save £95 then I'll do it

Any help will be greatly appreciated - and sorry for the long post! :rotfl:

Cheers,
Nami

normanmark

If your line is unbundled onto Talk Talk's part of the network then there will be a cost for reconnection back to a BT Retail Line as physical work will need to be undertaken at the exchange to get the line onto BT Retail's part of the network

Edit:

Your question of is there any way around this charge? No. You'll have to pay someone to get the line away from Talk Talk's LLU (if you want that). There are other telephony providers around which do this as well as BT & some vary in price. Phone Co-Op is one off the top of my head. Google & im sure you'll find plenty.

Namistai

Cheers for your reply.

The only reason I was asking was because of the mixed messages that I was getting from BT. They led me to doubt what was being said, but having done more and more research I can see the situation with greater clarity now.

In light of this. it seems as though my best option is the 18 month BT contract with a special offer connection fee of £29.99. I called them and played daft, asking them why there was a connection fee (which they explained very poorly), and asked if there was any way of waiving/discounting the cost. As expected, no such opportunities were presented to me. I stated that I had seen the £95 discount offer (http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Notice08_boo/SNL21-08.pdf) and as expected I was told that this was for customers returning from cable. I challenged this, and I'm now awaiting a response from BT.

The sales operator I spoke to said that the information that she had been given stated that this offer was only for people returning from cable. I insisted that this offer was tangible to any customer who meets the agreed conditions on the notice, and being a current cable customer was not one of those conditions. It seems as though the discrepancy lies between the info given to the sales operators and what has been made publically available.

I thought I'd post this here as I notice that others have had a similar problem. I'll let you know the outcome once they call me back

raviayer

On a similar theme. I have recently moved to a new house. The previous resident had disconnected the BT phone line. I would like to get my phone and broadband through Talktalk. I have been told that I require a BT line.

I have discussed with BT and they are willing to reconnect me, but only on a 12 month subscription contract at around 11pounds/ month. I would like to get onto Talktalk's 16pounds a month broadband/phone package. I have been told that the only way to do this is to sign up for BT 12 month's contract, then cancel at a cancellation fee of 70pounds, then rejoin with talktalk.

Is there any way of just getting BT to set up the line, without having to pay 70 quid cancellation and take out a 12 month contract. Apparently talktalk tell me that they do not have the power to connect me.

Any answers out there?

Cheers raviayer

Namistai

From my understanding, the best way to sort out your phone line in order to migrate to TalkTalk is to sign up with a provider that only requires a one month contract. Post Office Homephone can offer this. I think they will charge you £110 to setup the phone line though (as will any phone provider, from my understanding), so you'll have to pay that upfront (unless you can get that charge waived on the basis that the line is there, but it seems that people don't have much luck in these circumstances), but then you can get TalkTalk to take the line over in only one month and not face the cancellation penalty.

normanmark

raviayer wrote: »

On a similar theme. I have recently moved to a new house. The previous resident had disconnected the BT phone line. I would like to get my phone and broadband through Talktalk. I have been told that I require a BT line.

I have discussed with BT and they are willing to reconnect me, but only on a 12 month subscription contract at around 11pounds/ month. I would like to get onto Talktalk's 16pounds a month broadband/phone package. I have been told that the only way to do this is to sign up for BT 12 month's contract, then cancel at a cancellation fee of 70pounds, then rejoin with talktalk.

Is there any way of just getting BT to set up the line, without having to pay 70 quid cancellation and take out a 12 month contract. Apparently talktalk tell me that they do not have the power to connect me.

Any answers out there?
Cheers raviayer

Talk Talk have the ability to connect lines just like any other provider out there. However like most providers they do not feel its financially viable for them to install lines. So what they do is they get the customers to foot the bill for the connection & then piggy back off that connection.

About a year or so ago BT introduced standard 12 months contracts & cancellation fee's due to providers like Talk Talk asking customers to get BT to start the line then leave to go to them & ultimately it left BT (as well as other providers who start lines) out of pocket.

If you want BT to connect the line then you're bound to the contract and if you want to leave early pay the cancellation fee of £70.

Alternatively there are a number of phone providers who will connect the line for similar prices but don't tie down into contracts as long as 12 months (more around 3). Theres plenty of threads on this so use the search function here & you'll find loads

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums ravyaier.

No, BT's standard minimum contract is 12 months and breaching that attracts a penalty - £70 or the remainder of the contract, whichever is less.

The question you ought to be asking is why won't Talk Talk arrange for the line to be reconnected? They, like all the other line providers now in the market, are able to employ Openreach to do so (just like BT has to do). If they want your business, surely they will do that?

raviayer

Thanks guys for your advice. I couldn't agree more Heinz, why wont talktalk connect me if they want my custom? The whole thing is not straightforward and seems underhand. Surely trading standards should clamp down on this 'connection piggybacking'. I want to be able to ring up talktalk, get connected and have an internet connection, it really shouldnt be a problem. The question then becomes one of how to compel them to connect me. It is difficult to do this when speaking to someone in a call centre!

I am starting to ramble on....

Once again thanks for the advice and I have a few pointers on how best to proceed

raviayer

Namistai

Namistai wrote: »

I called BT asking them why there was a connection fee (which they explained very poorly), and asked if there was any way of waiving/discounting the cost. As expected, no such opportunities were presented to me. I stated that I had seen the £95 discount offer (http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Notice08_boo/SNL21-08.pdf) and as expected I was told that this was for customers returning from cable. I challenged this, and I'm now awaiting a response from BT.

The sales operator I spoke to said that the information that she had been given stated that this offer was only for people returning from cable. I insisted that this offer was tangible to any customer who meets the agreed conditions on the notice, and being a current cable customer was not one of those conditions. It seems as though the discrepancy lies between the info given to the sales operators and what has been made publically available.

I thought I'd post this here as I notice that others have had a similar problem. I'll let you know the outcome once they call me back

UPDATE: I got a call back from BT a couple of days later about this connection charge. The lady I spoke to (who had previously said that the £95 discount on connection fee was for people returning from cable only) informed me that she had taken my request to her manager, who in turn had escalated the case up the BT ladder. She agreed that there was a discrepancy in the information that had been supplied to the sales operators and that they would honour my request to utilise this discount, even though I was not returning to BT from cable. She also quoted a 12 month contract, not 18!

So, it looks as though if you quote the exact URL of that notice then BT should be able to offer this deal to anyone.

I hope this helps someone