Help with Telephone socket.

[richy_the_novice]

I recently moved into a new house. Its reasonably small (nice though) and there only appears to be one phone socket. Presumably the master socket.
Its there but there's no white front to it just the metal box inside the wall and six wires.

I know I'm liable to pay a hefty connection fee. I had cable in my last house so Im not a current BT customer either.

Would BT charge alot to fix this? I know of someone locally who is an ex-BT engineer would they likely charge less? I don't suppose they'd waive the repair costs Bt don't seem customer service centric.

Any advice is welcome. I'll post a photo of what it current looks like later on tonight to give you a better idea too.

 

[davedasave]

if its a brand new house where no phone line as ever been used before they will charge you about £75 for the connection

if however there has been a phone line by previous owners, then they won't charge you anything

 

[richy_the_novice]

It's not brand new but its been unoccupied for at least 6 months. If that makes any difference

What about the repair cost?

 

[Chri5]

BT will price for a new provision with an engineering visit to redo the main socket.

It's quite unusual for BT's main socket to be flush and hae a back box, are you sure that it's the BT cable from the street?

No socket, means they can't provide the service without an engineer and they will charge the full new installation price, which from the post earlier in the thread is £75 (+ VAT).

 

[bigzed]

if its a brand new house where no phone line as ever been used before they will charge you about £75 for the connection
if however there has been a phone line by previous owners, then they won't charge you anything

Not exactly 100% there. It all depends on how pedantic the installer is ( if any ) on the visit. BT may say that they've re-activated the line but it's testing disconnected ( which it will if there's no socket ) & as far as I know, the FULL charge will be levied for reconnection It was when I was still installing anyway.

Much better that you either buy an NTE5A off ebay & insatll it yourself ( easy ) or ask the ex BT guy to fit it for you. Then even if BT say that there are no records of a line at your house, you can tell them that there is a socket there on the wall. They will then reduce the charge to a reconnection fee.

It's quite unusual for BT's main socket to be flush and hae a back box, are you sure that it's the BT cable from the street?.

All depends on how old the house actually is & whether it was part of a new housing estate. We have been fitting NTE's to back-boxes for the best part of 15 years or so on new estates Chris

 

[davedasave]

bt only charge for a brand new line in a brand new property, as it involves connecting it back at the exchange, when i moved into my brand new flat i had to pay £75 for them to connect and i work for bt, and knew the installer.

when i moved to an old house i asked them to re route the incoming line through the loft and they done it free of charge, because everything is there property up to and including the master socket, they only charge you for work done beyond that such as extensions etc.

so as long as one of the previous tennants had a bt phone line, they will do whatever you want for free up to the master socket

(hope that makes sense)

 

[davedasave]

sorry, i may be wrong on my previous post, just found this on the bt website

If there's a working BT line in the property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required, a connection charge of £124.99 will apply. Minimum term of 12 months applies.

so what a previous poster stated about buying a box off ebay might be your best option

 

[bigzed]

when i moved to an old house i asked them to re route the incoming line through the loft and they done it free of charge

You will prolly have got this done for nowt coz you knew the installer. You wouldn't believe what the actual charges are for moving the NTE/Lead-In

so as long as one of the previous tennants had a bt phone line, they will do whatever you want for free up to the master socket

As I said earlier Dave, if you get a pedantic installer come down to do the work that is required ( which bearing in mind BT will know about because of the line test showing a dis ) he will just report the work back to his Control on the paperwork and you will be charged for it. Much easier to spend a tenner or so on an NTE5A and fit it yourself

 

[c128]

If there's a working BT line in the property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required, a connection charge of £124.99 will apply. Minimum term of 12 months applies

One way to slightly reduce the cost, if you really are going to suffer a reconnection fee, and with the added bonus of not fixing yourself to BT for 12 months, is to get a different service provider to get OpenReach to do the work. I was quoted a maximum of £110 (possibly less) to get a complete new line at my property by the PostOffice, and after that there's no minimum contract (their phone, if not broadband, deals are actually better than BT too).

 

[richy_the_novice]

I Imagine if I went through say the Post Office to get the work done its still a "BT line" as far as order broadband goes? Could I still order DSL from another provider that requires a BT line. The Post office service is just repackaged BT afterall isn't it? They buy it wholesale from BT and then resell it?

I'm not sure who I want to have as my broadband at the moment. I am aware 90% of hem have that *requires BT phone line on the bottom of their sites so this is important. I'm not sure I'd use post office broadband as my provider.

But if its a BT line that would be ok. I'm sorry as you can tell this isn't a strong area of knowledge for me

 

[c128]

As far as I'm aware, the answer to all your questions is "yes".

I currently have a new line installed via the PostOffice, and this required a new drop-cable/master socket with the work undertaken by OpenReach, just as it would have been done via BT - so, in my case it was never going to be a simple reactivation. I did it via the PostOffice rather than BT to (a) avoid a 12 month contract with BT, and a £70 "get out" if I wanted to move, and (b) get it done a bit cheaper (assuming their verbal £110 max quote turns out to be correct - if not, I still haven't lost anything). At some point soon-ish I intend to switch to a combined phone/broadband package with someone else, and as there's no minimum contract for PostOffice phone, there should be no penalty in doing this. Might be worth giving them a ring and asking your questions directly.

 

[richy_the_novice]

Just to let everyone know he result. Fitted the NTE5A. Rang the Post Office. They did a line test and viola! It came up as a perfect useable line. No problems whatsoever. The cheaper line rental and everything tempted me away from BT. My genera dislike for them just made it complete.

I've settled on UK online for my Net as they are the only LLU provider on my exchange.

Thank ou for all your help to everyone. I got alot of good advice and have saved a fair bit of money into the bargin.

 

[bigzed]

Thank ou for all your help to everyone. I got alot of good advice and have saved a fair bit of money into the bargin.

That's good to hear.

 

[c128]

I currently have a new line installed via the PostOffice, and this required a new drop-cable/master socket with the work undertaken by OpenReach, just as it would have been done via BT - so, in my case it was never going to be a simple reactivation. I did it via the PostOffice rather than BT to (a) avoid a 12 month contract with BT, and a £70 "get out" if I wanted to move, and (b) get it done a bit cheaper (assuming their verbal £110 max quote turns out to be correct - if not, I still haven't lost anything).

Just to confirm, for anyone searching and finding this... I've just had my first bill from the Post Office for my new line install (which really was a new install - see above) + first 3 months of line rental (in advance, but refunded if you move). True to their (verbal) word, the new line part of my bill came to £93.62+VAT = £110. So...there really is no benefit of getting this sort of work done via BT - despite OpenReach doing the same work, it's cheaper through the Post Office and you won't be tied into any sort of contract if you want to move...