Should I pay for this call out charges by BT to replace a line outside my house that lead to the box.?

Question

About two monthes age, my boardband stop working off and on. The boardband provider said its nothing wrong with their services. It kept on like that for about 10 days and finaly the phone stop working.

It took BT about a week to send an engineer, in between, a miss apointment by BT, and we have to use mobile phone for that period. Finally th BT engineer replace the faulty line that leads to the box in the house and , also replace the box, because the box is about 30 years old.

Now I got a bill of £99 + VAT for call out charges as one off payment.

Is this fair? How do I complain if it's not?

Answer 1

All wiring up to the main socket is the responsibility of BT Openreach.

All wiring AFTER the main socket is YOUR responsibility.

That said, if you damage any wiring belonging to BT Openreach you will be charged for a visit and all the time time taken to repair it.

Also if you call out BT Openreach to a fault that is found to be  on wiring after the main socket ( ie YOUR responsibility) BT Openreach will charge for this visit but will not repair it unless you request them to.

BT Openreach engineers will NOT discuss charges with you as that will have been done before their visit either with you or your Service Provider.

30 years old box boxes, unless damaged by you OR through damp ingress into it caused by your damp house / window sill, will last a life time and as such if they have to be replaced by BT Openreach will attract a charge.

Answer 2

my friend was in a similar situation as this

she rang BT and complained.

they ended up knocking a third off her bill.

Even that i thought was still unfair.

i think it should be free

as it is not like the dog chewed a hole in it or something.

Answer 3

It is down to you, same as if a water pipe split underneath your garden, all down to you.

I don't think the charges are that high considering what a lot of other professions would charge to come out and spend a few hours sorting it.

I'd still complain on the grounds of having to pay that sum of money after having been kept waiting for so long to get someone out there and having had no telephone service.

You may get a discount or charges dropped if lucky.

All complaints addresses and numbers will be in yellow pages or phone book

Answer 4

NO!

BT are responsible for the line to your house and the Master socket (1st box in the house only) If you caused the fault, ie you high van pulled the drop wire down (cable to your house from the pole) then they may pass the cost to you. But if its wear and tear, then ist BT issue, not yours!.

As they state, the cabling in your house is yours, outisde is theres, if your cable puts a fault on the line, and they come out and prove its your cabling or phone casuing the fault, they charge, and not a small amount either!.

If they wont help, assuming you actually get to speak to a human, in the UK, then complain ot Ofcom.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/

Also, the local paper, Watchdog, etc...

Dont give in, hope this helps!...

Good luck

Answer 5

The main cable coming in to your property and the first connection box is owned and the responsibility of BT, unless you have caused damage to it in some way, in which case they are entitled to charge for repairs.

Faults arising from failure of their equipment and cabling are not chargeable to the customer.

Ask for reimbursement of  the cost of mobile telephone calls while you were without the service they should have been providing and strongly dispute the charges they are asking you to pay.

Answer 6

As many of the other answers point out that the line to your house to the first box is the property of BT and they are through BT Openreach responsible for it, unless you have been responsible for the damage. What is important here is, was the line and the box the BT one or was it an extension line to the computer, if it was an extension then you will have to pay.

I have just had a very similar problem, my broadband went down last Thursday, I called my phone service company and reported the fault on Friday morning. During Friday my customer services Dept called me back 5 times updating me with progress with the problem, then BT Openreach called on Saturday morning, and engineer fixed the problem Saturday afternoon and my company called me back this morning Monday to check if everything was now working properly.

That is what I call service plus the fact that my service provider saves me a considerable amount on my phone bills.

If you would like to know more about my service provider send me an email and I will tell you how to get onto their service.

Answer 7

No way, up to the main box is down to BT. Fight it & refuse to pay. try ringing freephone 0800 800150

Answer 8

Well I know that they charge for an installation, hen wiring is done. But I dont think you should pay because it wasnt a NEW instllation. The lines belng to bt and they are faulty, so you should not be paying for there wires. If they keep insisting you pay, jut tell them your cancelling the service with them, because you wernt told that it would cost you and that the engineer never specified that it would cost this much or anything. At worst leave Bt and use a different supplier like Tiscali or sky, I have sky and they have good deals for there services....

Answer 9

NO, you should not have to pay, like it has been said here already if the fault is outside your house then its down to BT to maintain the cable/line service, something similar happened to me, I live in a first floor flat and the broadband/telephone cable went from the their connection point up the garden then into my flat, well one day the person down stairs wanted a new garden fence, and the workmen not knowing that there was cable running underneath the fence accidentally chopped through the cable leaving me with no service, so I reported the fault and I had new cable installed at no extra charge, but then I am with Virgin Media,

the point is if the fault is outside your home and beyond your control then BT should maintain the service with no extra charge to you, you could say to them,

if they insist on the payment that you are not happy about the situation and that you are going to change providers to someone else, like for example Virgin Media

good luck