BT - Who To Call?

The house I currently live in has got no telephone or broadband sevices, and I'm at the point where I want to get connected up. I've currently got the choice of using the existing cable (Virgin Media) infrastructure, or the existing BT line. Both services are disused at the moment. I know that re-activating the Virgin Media service basically won't cost me anything, but I've not heard a good word said about the company so am reluctant to go down that route.

I've spoken to BT who will reconnect their line for free, but the problem I've got is that there is only one socket in the house (the master) and it's in a strange location where I can't really run extensions from it. When I asked BT for a cost to move the master socket they seemed totally stumped by the question. I've been passed through about four different call centres, ending up in India. I gave up when I was told to call the number which I'd dialled in the first place.

Does anyone know who I need to speak to at BT for a quote to move the master socket?

OOI, where are you hoping they will move it to, and how will they get a wire to it if you can't?

At the moment the overhead line comes into the top front corner of the house. It's then clipped horizontally at high level along the exterior of the wall to the back of the house, round the corner and then drops down and through the window frame of one of the bedrooms. The master socket is screwed to the windowsill.

All I want the line to do is drop down before it goes around the corner and go through the wall into the lounge on the ground floor where the broadband modem needs to be. It's probably a ten minute job for someone with a ladder and with no material needed...

SparkyMarky said:

It's probably a ten minute job for someone with a ladder and with no material needed...

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you have not seen a BT engineer then.

ladder safey harness, barriers, hard hat, flourescent jacket .........

breezer said:

you have not seen a BT engineer then.

ladder safey harness, barriers, hard hat, flourescent jacket .........

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Don't I know it All in the interests of safety of course It's always made me laugh that we've gotta wear our hard hats when up a pole - where's the risk of falling objects from ???? Aircraft ?

Anyway, I digress, sparkymarky, have you had a quote from BT yet as to the cost of moving the master socket ? Before you ring I would sit down, the cost will be astronomical, £80 at least, prolly more.

It's much easier & cheaper to buy your own nte5a off eBay, an adsl faceplate & wire extensions from it yourself.

simple job you can do yourself,open the nte,take off the orange/white wires from the screw terminal and then just pull the cable back to where you req it,drill a hole through the wall about 8mm should do it , and then fit the nte and the orange/white wires back on the screw terminals also re-use the black clips ................openreach charge about £110 to call out then £90 a hour or part of

Oooof! I can't say I'm surprised at the price though. I haven't got a proper quote yet, but the prices mentioned here are about what I thought they'd be. It'd be almost worth just paying them to install a complete new line..

It's seeming harder to justify not going down the Virgin Media route, which is something I really wanted to avoid! Virgin would cost me nothing to install, whereas BT would cost me over 100 quid to start with, then I'd still have to wire additional extensions in from the master socket myself. BT don't really seem to be geared towards enticing new customers onto their service!

I would just move the bloody thing yourself. As long as you do a neat job of it BT will never know or care.

I have virgin at the moment, the service is OK but when comparing basic deals sky seems to offer a better selection of TV and a better phone package for a lower price.