Going fibre broadband & moving master socket.

[CluelessDIYer1]

Well they activated it on the day they were to come out but they didn't come & fit a master socket.

I had to call & find out what was going on. I was told since there's a line to the house they weren't fitting a socket. So i tell them this is no good to me as i have no M.S.

After much faff i got an engineer booked in but they can't come until next week - when i'm back at work

Also £130 for the engineer to come out (he'll have to work for it since i want it placed elsewhere)
And then ... £75 for the master socket itself.

I questioned the woman on the phone - are you sure? £75 for a bit of plastic?

I understand it is a lot of money sir, what would you like to do.

Well since if i don't get then i don't have a phone line i have zero choice don't i.

£75 for something that probably costs about £5 to make!!

 

[SimonH2]

You're being ripped off !

On BT's website it says :

If you're just ordering a BT phone package, you may have to pay a connection charge but we'll let you know when you order. There's a £50 fee for activating an existing line that's provided by BT or another provider. And it's £65 for installing a new line. (This is an online special offer as it's normally £130.)

They do not charge £75 for the master socket, it's "only a bit of plastic" and is included in the engineer install charge.

Call back and query it. If you don't get a better answer then ask to be transferred to their manager and keep going up the chain.
As long as you told them when ordering that there was no master socket then you are in the right legally speaking - you don't have a service working because they didn't act on information you provided. If they try and charge anything other than a standard "I don't already have a bit of wire and master socket" install then they are committing fraud.

Unfortunately, in most big organisations, the people you speak to in the call centres don't really understand a lot of stuff - especially if it doesn't fit their "script". It's entirely possible you are being charged the "I want you to replace my master socket because I bu**ered it up" fee.

Or if they are still difficult, just say that if they won't activate the line, as agreed, for a reasonable charge then you'll just have to fit your own master socket - and see how they react

 

[cajar]

You've talked yourself into a charge by trying to be clever and talk about master sockets etc. They have recognised this as a master socket shift on an existing, working line, and the price sounds about right. (visit charge then £75 per hour after that)

Should've just called them up the day after 'activation' to tell them in layman's terms that it wasn't working, they would have built an installation visit FOC due to the recent order.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

No.

There was no "trying to be clever" as you put it.

I was under the impression rightly or (clearly) wrongly the whole thing would've been sorted last week. Since it wasn't sorted on the day I called to find out why & explained the situation.
I didn't say i'd chopped the wire or anything like that which I was advised to do here (the chopping wire bit not the telling them bit).

I just said the house never had a master socket when we got the house.

So no "trying to be clever" just explaining the situation.

Also just to say I didn't tell them anything when ordering. I ordered all this online. They assumed I had a working line. Yes I had a line that ran from the pole to the house but it never actually connected to a master socket proper as the wires were broken. And at the time of placing the order the socket had been removed (as advised).

 

[SimonH2]

Also just to say I didn't tell them anything when ordering. I ordered all this online. They assumed I had a working line.

Then you are also in the clear as :
a) They didn't ask an important question - one which they should know matters, but which they can't expect every member of the public to realise is important.
and
b) Their line tests should have shown an open-circuit line.

Call them back - you should not be paying more than the standard "I don't have a line already" installation charge.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I'll call them back tonight & see how I get on. If they don't accept then I'll ask for their complaints contact.

Work on the basis of don't get if don't ask

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

Just off the phone to them.

Got a foreign chap (surprise!). He argued that the £205 charge was correct.

I quoted the website to him & he said i was being charged an activation charge.

I tell him, look pal, i don't really care what you want to call it. Your website tells me that you wont charge for a line to be put in. I am having a line put in tomorrow and you are charging me. That's being charged for a line which is against what you state on your website.

Backwards & forwards he puts me on hold.

Comes back & refunds the £130.

He maintains the £75 for the master socket will continue to be charged.

Not really knowing where i now stand i take my improved situation & end the call. The site says they wont charge for a line install which i guess i'm now no longer being charged. Is the master socket all part of the line install? I don't know.

What do you reckon, are they correct in this? I suppose £130 refunded is better than nothing. Question is whether i should pay a penny at all.

 

[SimonH2]

Basically they have two standard charges depending on what needs doing :

1) You have an existing line still connected and serviceable, so all they have to do is "turn it on" at the exchange. Since this doesn't involve any engineer time, the charge is often nothing (subject to a minimum contract term) - but it seems from the website bit I quoted earlier, it seems that BT charge £50 for this.

2) You don't have a working line - whether that's because there has never been one, or because it's been "broken", or it's been out of service for so long that it's been disconnected and the exchange port and/or pair in the distribution cable has been reused for another line. From the same webpage, it's currently £65 with BT - a special offer down from £130.

Because they thought there was a working line, they've provisioned your service under 1) What they should have done is provision it under 2)
In terms of current charges, they should be charging you 2) and refunding 1). But it seems they can't understand that you aren't requesting work on an already installed service.

What should have happened when you told them "but there's no socket in the house" is that they switched from 1) to 2) and sent an engineer out to provision a line. So the end charge from BT should be £65.


Oh yes, and the master socket (which costs "b***er all") is part of the installation charge.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

Thanks a lot for your help. I can't be bothered going through all the wait & faff for the sake of £10 then. I'll just take it.

My mum who sat in on the install for me said everything is fine. He couldn't daisy chain on the extensions as he said he'd have to knacker the existing wallpaper which I said no to (previous put wires behind the wallpaper for some reason).

So all is well & to those who helped - thanks very much.
And to the Wally who said they'd probably drill through the window. (Might've been other thread) - they didn't

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I'll let the other thread drop since the socket has been fitted so this thread is more relevant.

It turns out all our concern over where the master socket would be going & whether the bloke would put it there with us not being there etc etc was for nothing.

All the INTERIOR work is perfectly fine.

Yes, the INTERIOR work is fine. In worrying about this side of things we totally didn't realise that we should've thought about the EXTERIOR & we rather naively assumed how it would be fitted.

The old setup had a wire from the tele-pole to the top of the house & then straight down in to the living room.
So we therefore (foolishly) assumed a new wire would go from the same pole to the top of the house & then straight down in to the hall.

I couldn't get to the house tonight but my wife took photos (why do they look clearer on a phone than a PC screen?!)




When she came home i knew something wasn't right but i thought she'd be overreacting. When i saw those photos i was in agreement - it looks awful.

I know i know - we should've been there. We took our chance & the outside hasn't worked out. We know this.

Trailing wire around the centre of the house like that. Do any of you think that looks fine? I don't know if it's because it's not what i was expecting but i think it just looks awful.

Sure he's done a tidy job & my mum said he was very pleasant & helpful on the job. I'm not doubting that. Just the routing of it, do any of you think that the placement isn't just horrible?

Routing out direct to the corner of the house & down straight would've been better.
A band around the top of the house would've been better.
A band around the bottom of the house & up (is that even ok) would've been better.

But around the middle of the house? It stands out a mile & looks horrible i think.

We will probably have to at some point in the future pay to have that re-routed unless we learn to live with it. At least the line is apparently working.

Hi,

Where is your mains outlet and/or how will you be getting power to the BT Hub?

If the BT installer is happy to replace your existing extension socket, then as you said you could use the wiring to run off to other extensions if necessary (you can do this yourself if BT don't/won't - they just connect to the rear of the faceplate).

1. Mains is right underneath where the socket is pretty much. No problem there. A half metre perhaps.
2. The guy said he couldn't connect on to the existing extensions without ruining the wallpaper since previous owners had the wiring put in behind the wallpaper (why????!!!).
3. He questioned why we even needed extensions wiring in for the upstairs. He said a dual handset would work fine. One downstairs, one upstairs. But i thought you needed another socket for the second handset? Or does it all just work wirelessley? I know mobiles, not landlines.

You will be lucky if you get a choice at all.

Well apparently he was quite helpful & willing to answer thank you.
I even spoke to him on the phone & he seemed nice enough. Not obviously bad tempered that he was working so close to Xmas in the wind & rain (unlike myself!).



Oh & for the one who mentioned silicone being a cowboy approach:



He used it But i don't think that side of it looks bad at all & at least he put a loop on the job

 

[cajar]

it's acceptable, if not how you imagined it. Looks like a lot of houses these days, as it takes much longer to wrap a cable round the eaves (climb 6 metres, knock in 3 pins, down 6 metres, move ladder 2m to the left, rinse and repeat) and it might not have been safe to do it all the way round at the time (windy, uneven/slippy ground part of the way). Can't wrap the wire under the doorstop for obvious reasons, has to go above any doorways. Silicone is what bt use, back in the day it used to be mastic/putty which wasn't as good. mortar has never been used by bt engineers. I would let it be now.

 

[CluelessDIYer1]

I'm not slating the chaps work. What he's done he's done tidily. I also expected the silicone. Sky used it at my mums & I don't actually mind.
I also accept ideally I should've been on site so anything that I end up not liking is ultimately my fault.

I was just updating the guys who've offered help & simply saying I don't really like the look of where it's been routed but I know - my fault.

May learn to live with it who knows. If we get it changed it'd be on a week when we're on holiday from work.