Needing some help with home phone and the connection boxes fitted in my house?

Question

We have recently moved house. The phone sockets that are in the house are the old style oval ones with an existing box with the little slider over the plug hot wired into it. the wires are exposed and we don't know whether we can remove these at all as we are unaware if they are "LIVE" and in current use. BT want to charge us to come out just to have a look then further charge for any work that needs done.

Do i have any rights as a consumer against these charges as it seems to be their problem with the exposed wires etc and the fact that it is the old wiring and boxes etc???

Is there anyone on here with the knowledge to be able to advise me on getting rid of all this old c**p and being able to fit suitable adequate replacements???

Please help as BT are accepting no responsability whatsoever in our needs to have these boxes removed, also taking into account it may have been done by a previous tennant, our Housing Office passed us back to BT.

Answer 1

Phone them and demand to speak to them properly and give help as your are paying customers. You can take them to tribunal if they aren' t willing to help.

Answer 2

Just speak to them with Authority, Threaten to leave them for a better provider. They put the infrastructure in place many years ago, now it's up to them to clean it up.

Answer 3

It is very easy to install new phone jacks yourself and should only cost you a couple bucks for parts. Any home improvement store will have the parts you need.

see the video below on how to DIY

Hope this helps

Answer 4

As Sane- per says, Bt are only responsible upto the First/Master socket inside the property, See page 5 of your current BT phonebook. If you don't have a socket  as illustrated, request that you have one fitted. The link Sane-Per has given is for connecting wires to an extension socket only no mention of  a master socket. the info is also a bit dated, only 3 wires required, terms 2,3&5.The master socket is normally located where the external wire comes into the property. Any extension wires & sockets beyond this point is your responsibilty. The Idea behind the master socket illustrated in the phonebook is to seperate BT network wiring from your internal extension wiring, by means of a plug in front plate. If  you don't have one and you have recently taken over the line, contact your service provider and ask for one to be fitted to bring your instalation upto standard.

once this has been done any wiring beyond can be removed. BT are not responsible for for any "c**p" wiring you have inherited from a previous tenant.

Answer 5

BT is only responsible for the wires up to the first termination box (the oval box you have) in your house. You are responsible from that box for whatever you do subject to general rules. Telephone wiring is fairly simple and the voltages used are very low and not dangerous and you can do it yourself. There should be just two wires that you need to deal with. Look at this website for information on how to handle the sockets and wires. Look at this link for information on how to do it. http://www.britishtelephones.com/wiring/...