Do sellers usually disconnect the BT line upon moving?

pamaris

My head is about to explode after reading about BT lines & broadband & DSL etc etc. Anyway, we're moving tomorrow. As of today, our seller's phone was still connected. How does this work? Will I have to pay £124.99 to get the BT line connected, even though there is an existing line?

Or is it like the other utilities, where they keep the service on but you transfer the account/ get a new number?

Basically, I need the BT line rental for broadband, but I want to pay as little as possible. I don't even want a land line but was told by Virgin that cable broadband was unavailable at my new address (in south Manchester!).

Thanks!

BenL

The £125 is for a physical line putting in.

You will not need to pay any connection charge for the phone line.

The BT standard is 3 months initial contract for a free re-enabling of the line.

Have you tried Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali and Sky as they run their own phone system and broadband in some areas.

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

you have to be careful... get on the blower to BT asap saying you want to take over the line straight from the seller. if the sellers request bt to disconnect (and they could wel do) you will almost certainly be charged a reconnection fee..

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain

from bt website:-

If there's a working BT line in the property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required, a connection charge of £124.99 will apply. Our advisors will confirm this when you call.
Call 0800 800 150 to get moving (Monday to Saturday, 8am - 8pm, and Sunday 9am - 6pm. Calls are free from a BT landline)

when i moved my sellers requested bt cease the line at 12pm. BT advised the it was only because i called the day before that i avoided the charge.

had they carried out the cease on the line there would have been a charge and a new contract applicable...

pamaris

TighterThanTwoCoatsOfPain wrote: »

from bt website:-

If there's a working BT line in the property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required, a connection charge of £124.99 will apply. Our advisors will confirm this when you call.
Call 0800 800 150 to get moving (Monday to Saturday, 8am - 8pm, and Sunday 9am - 6pm. Calls are free from a BT landline)

when i moved my sellers requested bt cease the line at 12pm. BT advised the it was only because i called the day before that i avoided the charge.

had they carried out the cease on the line there would have been a charge and a new contract applicable...

Well let's hope I'm not too late. Thanks.!

Jonbvn

From the BT website:
http://www2.bt.com/btPortal/application?origin=con_bill_section.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=total_movers_con&com.bea.event.type=linkclick&oLDesc=movinghome&oSiteArea=con.mya&oPJsp=con_bill_section.jsp&oPt=&oLName=movinghome&oOJsp=&oPg=my_account&siteArea=con.mya.tmo
Starting your move

If there's a working BT line in the property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required, a connection charge of £124.99 will apply. Our advisors will confirm this when you call.
Call 0800 800 150 to get moving (Monday to Saturday, 8am - 8pm, and Sunday 9am - 6pm. Calls are free from a BT landline)

HTH!

Kavanne

Right, that is a charge I'm not prepared to pay..... If I went with someone else would they still charge this extortionate connection fee? Or would I have to go cable to avoid it?

Doozergirl

The charge is if the line has to be reconnected to BT from another provider or there is no line at all.

I'm moving to my seventh house in three years tomorrow - I've got this down. The house can be empty with a BT box and the line disconnected for a while - it just needs to have been connected to BT and there isn't a charge.

My only foray with a cable provider was a nightmare. BT know how to get it right. If the area code is the same you get to keep your number as well Much less hassle.

Gingernutmeg

When I moved into the house I'm in now (rented) there was a working BT line with a dial tone. However, I still ended up paying the £124.99 reconnection charge, as BT refused to provide a service unless I paid it. Even the engineer laughed at that when he came round. Seems like it's totally arbitrary who they charge and who they don't, and if they decide to charge you there's no way to get around it if you need a BT line. What cheeses me off most is that it turns out the line is faulty so we had to pay to get cable installed so we could get internet Wouldn't have bothered paying for the reconnection if I'd known.

niccatw

It's as Doozergirl says...

I moved into my new flat recently, the previous owners had a Talk Talk connection, but I didn't have to pay to reconnect to BT as it had, at some point in the past, been a BT line. If the box is there, and it's got BT etched on it some-where, you shouldn't have to pay.

Be warned... getting through to them on the phone can be a long process on hold, but once the line is up and running, they're ok.

lil_me

Plug a phone in, if there is a dial tone they shouldn't charge you. The engineer who came to our house basically said 'tell them there was a dial tone, it'll state the same in my report and you should get it refunded' so we did and he got a bonus

More threads on it and other websites

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=211879

http://www.penaltychargesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=26571

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/telecoms-mobile-fixed/127263-bt-reconnection-fee-beware.html

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/money/guardian/features/2007/10/27/they-leave--you-pay-to-be-reconnected.html