Need help with BT Phone Line

[SueEllen]

BT have an unshakeable belief that the information on their systems accurately reflects what is out there in the physical world.

There's not a lot you can do about that unfortunately, especially if it gives them an excuse to charge you.

BT and BT Openreach pretend to be two separate companies with separate systems.

Consumers aren't allowed to contact BT Openreach who actually do know what phone lines are active, etc. This causes massive problems and loads of people have complained about it. (Google will find you the articles.)

So BT customer service will make up things to tell you to deal with your call in the quickest timespan. If you demand the person's name and ask for the spelling of their name they are less likely to make up things.

Virgin are as nearly as bad with their customer service staff making up things while their technicians come out and say what is actually happening/needed, and they are one company.......

[Sysman]

BT Insisted there was no line and a new one had to be installed.

BT have an unshakeable belief that the information on their systems accurately reflects what is out there in the physical world.

There's not a lot you can do about that unfortunately, especially if it gives them an excuse to charge you.

[blacjac]

We had this with a move a few years ago.

BT Insisted there was no line and a new one had to be installed.

Turned out the previous tenant had switched to Talk Talk without telling the landlord and the Talk Talk line was still active - but BT couldn't (wouldn't?) tell.

[Zippy]

Plug a phone in to the Openreach box and (assuming you get a dialling tone) dial 17070 to get the number. It may help track down the previous provider.

[SueEllen]

Regulations changed about 5 years ago to make it fairer to other telecoms companies.

If someone moves out and you take over the line whether they disconnected it a day or two months before you move in, then OpenReach will charge the company. This means all companies whether they are BT, Talktalk or Sky will pass on this charge to the customer to reconnect the line. The some telecoms operators discount the charge if you get a special deal.

[mhamzahkhan]

Claim it as a legitimate business expense - sounds like it is if you need it for a client?

Well I'm using it for personal use as well as business so I don't think I can claim it, besides it'd still be going out of my pocket really, only difference being that I'll get my VAT back, no?

I'd rather not pay it at all. I know that's pretty stingy, but I mean... if the line is connected, and all good... I don't see why I should pay an engineer to come and say "yup. looks good".

If I calculate it as a monthly cost, it works out to be an additional £21 on top of my internet bill for the 6 months I'm here. Kinda crap in my opinion, especially considering I'll only be getting ~12mbit/s.

Did you have a chat about that with the landlord? If you needed the broadband surely the presence of a land line was mentioned somewhere in the renting process.

Yup. It was mentioned, but she said that as far as she knows the line works etc. The previous tenant was using it for his connection with TalkTalk, but that's all she knows about it.

Ask the previous tenant or LL what the phone number was. Try phoning it?

Landlord no longer has the contact details for the previous tenant, and doesn't know the phone number for the line.

I'm going to grab a phone from home (in London) and bring it back with me to test if I get any dial tone or anything.

[Platypus]

Ask the previous tenant or LL what the phone number was. Try phoning it?

[sal]

Claim it as a legitimate business expense - sounds like it is if you need it for a client?

Will be hard to convince HMRC of the "solely and exclusively" part for a rented residential (i presume) property.

Did you have a chat about that with the landlord? If you needed the broadband surely the presence of a land line was mentioned somewhere in the renting process.

[Dark Black]

Claim it as a legitimate business expense - sounds like it is if you need it for a client?

[mhamzahkhan]

Move? Cry? Live without broadband?

Can't move, 6 month tenancy contract, already cried, I need broadband for my other clients.

Just because you have the socket doesn't mean there is anything connected to it!

But the previous tenant was using the line! Surely they couldn't have just cut the cable just two months after the previous person left the flat?

How long are you there for? Mobile broadband is just as good as fixed line theses days, I have a 4G device from Alcatel with a three sim card, £15 a month for 15gb of traffic.

I'm here for 6 months. I did look into just buying a 4G dongle, but the problem is I don't think the bandwidth is enough.

I won't only be using it for personal use, my secondary contract requires me to work from home, and I have to transfer files which are large enough to eat through the bandwidth that most 3G/4G providers are offering extremely quickly.

Oh well, I guess paying that £130 is my only option.

[SimonMac]

Relocated to Glasgow for my current client, and am trying to get an internet connection into my flat.

Virgin don't provide in the area my flat is in, so I'm looking at either Xilo or Andrews & Arnold.

I wanted to go for A&A because they can provide a "internet only" phone line, making the line rental a little cheaper.

I guess A&A and Xilo both are really only re-selling BT's phone services, so naturally I need a BT phone line coming into the flat, which I have (or at least I think I have... there is a socket that says "BT OpenReach").

Problem is, A&A, Xilo or even BT can't seem to find the line on their systems.

BT want to charge me £130 for an engineer to come and install a new line, which is a bit rediculous in my opinion. If the line is there, why should I pay £130?

So I was wondering if you guys could advise if there is something I can do? :/

Just because you have the socket doesn't mean there is anything connected to it!

How long are you there for? Mobile broadband is just as good as fixed line theses days, I have a 4G device from Alcatel with a three sim card, £15 a month for 15gb of traffic.

[VectraMan]

Move? Cry? Live without broadband?

To be fair, it's probably a flat fee whether you need the road digging up or just an existing wire reconnecting.

[mhamzahkhan]

Relocated to Glasgow for my current client, and am trying to get an internet connection into my flat.

Virgin don't provide in the area my flat is in, so I'm looking at either Xilo or Andrews & Arnold.

I wanted to go for A&A because they can provide a "internet only" phone line, making the line rental a little cheaper.

I guess A&A and Xilo both are really only re-selling BT's phone services, so naturally I need a BT phone line coming into the flat, which I have (or at least I think I have... there is a socket that says "BT OpenReach").

Problem is, A&A, Xilo or even BT can't seem to find the line on their systems.

BT want to charge me £130 for an engineer to come and install a new line, which is a bit rediculous in my opinion. If the line is there, why should I pay £130?

So I was wondering if you guys could advise if there is something I can do? :/