BT - is there a way round high reconnection charge?

[samishere 10]

help needed.. im moving house after christmas and noticed in the house that there is no BT box.. there is a line going to the house from which bt has said theres no fault but it seems the builders have ripped my box out and plastered over it.. i rang the builders and they said they had to do it for the re-wiring.. now i rang bt and asked them to put me a new box in.. and i nearly dropped through the floor when they said £124.99.. i need a landline for internet connection.. dont think cable is in the area.. so is there anything else i can do to try cut down the cost after all its only a box they fitting.. the call out charge alone is £116.. i feel im being ripped off somewhere

[mrmist 10]

Not many ways around the new connection charge. It's how they make their money.

 

At least you'll be getting a box for your money.

 

However I'm not seeing why you would pay a call out charge, there is a fixed cost for the new connection that should cover whatever.

[allibongo69 10]

is it a private house or rented from the council? if its the council i would ring them and tell them the cost of a new bt box being as its them thats removed it

[samishere 10]

Not many ways around the new connection charge. It's how they make their money.

 

At least you'll be getting a box for your money.

 

However I'm not seeing why you would pay a call out charge, there is a fixed cost for the new connection that should cover whatever.

 

well they say the call out charge is £116 and i would have that to pay for whatever reason i had to call them out for!! cos they say the fault is on my end not theirs..and then depending on what work has to be done and how much the part cost thats what they say £124.99 i reckon i could pick a box up for about a quid from wilko's

[mrmist 10]

Sounds like one of two things needs to happen -

 

1. You get the builders to put the box back in place, since they have wrongly plastered over it (and a box is normally specified as part of a new build.)

 

2. You speak to someone else at BT and say that you've moved into a new house please provide a new line, and just pay the new line fee for them to sort it.

 

I'm presuming that this is the actual main BT box you are talking about? Extension boxes are your / your builder's issue to fix and yes BT would charge for that.

[samishere 10]

Sounds like one of two things needs to happen -

 

1. You get the builders to put the box back in place, since they have wrongly plastered over it (and a box is normally specified as part of a new build.)

 

2. You speak to someone else at BT and say that you've moved into a new house please provide a new line, and just pay the new line fee for them to sort it.

 

I'm presuming that this is the actual main BT box you are talking about? Extension boxes are your / your builder's issue to fix and yes BT would charge for that.

 

ive asked syha to help me seeing as it isnt my fault..and they say its not them that covers the cost of a bt line or box..even though they removed the box in the first place..they told me it had to be removed for the re-wiring..and then went on to tell me a land line is not a necessity.. could BT provide a new line even though there is one already in and its working fine?(so they say) cos i could ring them and see which is cheaper..

[reditiger 10]

BT charged us £124.99 just to revert the line from Talk Talk to BT..we already had a BT box. Even the guy that came to do said we were being ripped off

[samishere 10]

BT charged us £124.99 just to revert the line from Talk Talk to BT..we already had a BT box. Even the guy that came to do said we were being ripped off

 

thats what i thought.. the robbing buggars.. the best bit was when i asked BT if i could spread the cost over my quarterly bill and they told me there was a £12 charge for this a said the taking the urine arnt you?..she just said sorry thats what the charge is.. well i told her no way

[Alex C. 10]

If you were thinking of getting Sky, you can sometimes sweet talk them into covering the cost of the connection if you take out broadband, but I'm not sure if they're still running the offer...

[Jason Bourne 11]

If you were thinking of getting Sky, you can sometimes sweet talk them into covering the cost of the connection if you take out broadband, but I'm not sure if they're still running the offer...

 

Yep, I was gonna say the same thing about Virgin media / Telewest

 

If you don't mind moving away from BT, there are some good deals to be had when purchasing bundled deals incorporating telephone, internet and tv from other suppliers

 

http://www.uswitch.com

[Twiglet 10]

At least you'll be getting a box for your money.

 

True. I think what they're charging is actually perfectly reasonable considering they actually have to come out and do some fairly significant work, it's their standard 'connection' fee. They wanted to charge me £124.99 just to 'reactivate' a second socket on the same phone line which had previously been used, and didn't require anyone to physically come out

[mrmist 10]

and didn't require anyone to physically come out

 

That's what I meant. We paid one hundred and whatever it is for our "new line" when the box was in place and connected, and noone had to come out at all. To actually get a box in the deal, well, postively bargainous.