BT are rip off merchants.

Nick1881 · 12 Jan 2009 at 22:27

Last time I had ADSL it was at my parents on a long DSL cable and a long network run. I fancy having ADSL but using the phone point next to my pc so I phone BT and tell them I have a phone point and I'd like to use it again, they want £120 to connect it as it needs to be re-jumpered in the exchange. This is a 5 minute job and there is no way I'm paying it.

Why are BT charging this for new customers? Anyone else would have free install on a 12 month contract.

I'm a Telecomms Engineer and I know how easy the job is to re-connect it.

I have made a complaint with BT and will be pursuing it as much as I can. If it was £30 or something I wouldn't mind but £120 is just stupid, its not like they have to come to my house as the phone point is already installed.

/Rant

thepeganator · 12 Jan 2009 at 23:03

They connected my student house up fine, just took a few days.

Just sucks I have a 12 month contract on a 10 month rent term on the house.

They did send us a Home Hub and phone when we subscribed for broadband and then cancelled in the same phone when they told me about download limits.

£40 on the bay for a £3 phone call

Jamesdavid3 · 13 Jan 2009 at 10:10

BT are rubbish, at peak hours you cant really download anything on torrents or watch youtube videos. they throttle your connection big time.

I'm looking to change asap.

thepeganator · 13 Jan 2009 at 10:56

Glad I'm on Sky then

dave-lew99 · 13 Jan 2009 at 11:36

The OP doesn't actually say anything about using BT for an ISP.

The reason for the high cost of re-jumpering a line is as you must know, most BT exchanges are un-manned therefore it's the callout cost of an OpenReach engineer - which by the time you factor in their salary, travel time plus overheads is probably about right.

The plus side about the way this works is that even if your home is on one of the Shetland Islands, it still costs £120 - even if they end up installing a new exchange just for you.

If you complain about it to BT they'll (usually) write it off - i've done this and i know others have too. If you have any form of dial-tone on the line then this argument becomes even easier.

Nick1881 · 13 Jan 2009 at 13:08

Update to this with good news.

I read on a forum they were doing a special offer of £30 for new connections which ended on 31/12/08 but people said they would still do it. I call to BT confirmed they have extended the offer, sadly they cut me off during getting it set up so I will have to call them later.

I plan to go back to O2 broadband once I have the BT line in.

F2kSel · 13 Jan 2009 at 13:43

dave-lew99 said:
The OP doesn't actually say anything about using BT for an ISP.

The reason for the high cost of re-jumpering a line is as you must know, most BT exchanges are un-manned therefore it's the callout cost of an OpenReach engineer - which by the time you factor in their salary, travel time plus overheads is probably about right.

The plus side about the way this works is that even if your home is on one of the Shetland Islands, it still costs £120 - even if they end up installing a new exchange just for you.

If you complain about it to BT they'll (usually) write it off - i've done this and i know others have too. If you have any form of dial-tone on the line then this argument becomes even easier.

Yet it cost nothing when I switched from BT to O2 LLU, that also required a visit to the exchange.

dave-lew99 · 13 Jan 2009 at 14:08

F2kSel said:
Yet it cost nothing when I switched from BT to O2 LLU, that also required a visit to the exchange.

It's LLU, O2 will have opted to pay the bill for you and not pass it on to you.

Nick1881 · 13 Jan 2009 at 15:17

dave-lew99 said:
It's LLU, O2 will have opted to pay the bill for you and not pass it on to you.

You would think BT would be happy to get customers back and do this at a better price.

An engineer is coming out next Wednesday, I guess they will re-jumper it then come to my flat and test it.

Just ordered a 30cm dsl cable as the modem and phone socket are behind my pc desk.

Deaco · 13 Jan 2009 at 20:07

mr_x_plosion said:
You would think BT would be happy to get customers back and do this at a better price.

Yeah, but unfortunately Openreach would get nothing out of it, seeing as they are really a whole different company flying under the BT Flag.

Jamesdavid3 · 14 Jan 2009 at 09:08

Since there limit is 8Mb at the moment, are BT planning on donig another upgrade???

Deaco · 14 Jan 2009 at 11:56

With 21CN you will see more people offering 24mb connection instead of the standard 8mb, as BT are replacing their dslams to ADSL2+.

But that might not be happing for sometime (depends on area).

thevet · 14 Jan 2009 at 12:21

re

Bt are overpriced and overated

Nick1881 · 14 Jan 2009 at 19:20

Deaco said:
With 21CN you will see more people offering 24mb connection instead of the standard 8mb, as BT are replacing their dslams to ADSL2+.

But that might not be happing for sometime (depends on area).

Even with 21CN you are restricted by the copper.

21CN is more about increased bandwidth in the BT network behind the DSLAMS. BT already have ADSL2+ same as AOL using Fujitsu equipment.

Sadly it will be a long time before the copper is replaced even part of the way and thats the only thing that will help to increase the speed.

Tuvoc · 14 Jan 2009 at 21:14

mr_x_plosion said:
Last time I had ADSL it was at my parents on a long DSL cable and a long network run. I fancy having ADSL but using the phone point next to my pc so I phone BT and tell them I have a phone point and I'd like to use it again, they want £120 to connect it as it needs to be re-jumpered in the exchange. This is a 5 minute job and there is no way I'm paying it.

Why are BT charging this for new customers? Anyone else would have free install on a 12 month contract.

Yes, I had this £120 quote when I moved house last year. Ludicrous cost. I simply went for a complete Virgin media package instead, since the house was already on cable with the previous owner. BT certainly lost out because of that high fee.

tolien · 14 Jan 2009 at 23:04

The fee's what Openreach charge them, it's unregulated because there's plenty competition - if you don't want to pay it, don't. In a lot of cases, you can talk BT Retail into reducing the charge or some other line rental providers are happy to build it into a longer contract term.

mr_x_plosion said:
21CN is more about increased bandwidth in the BT network behind the DSLAMS. BT already have ADSL2+ same as AOL using Fujitsu equipment.

Except you won't get ADSL2+ from BT Wholesale unless you're on 21CN...

Nick1881 · 14 Jan 2009 at 23:07

tolien said:
The fee's what Openreach charge them, it's unregulated because there's plenty competition - if you don't want to pay it, don't. In a lot of cases, you can talk BT Retail into reducing the charge or some other line rental providers are happy to build it into a longer contract term.

Except you won't get ADSL2+ from BT Wholesale unless you're on 21CN...

Yea its set by the profile in fens, the equipment can still do it.

tolien · 14 Jan 2009 at 23:12

Not exclusively - some DSLAMs won't do ADSL2+ without replacing some bits (or the whole thing).

Unbeliever · 15 Jan 2009 at 13:00

I'm in the process of changing from cable to adsl and when i phoned bt they tried to hit me with the 120 quid charge, however on their website it states that if your changing from cable to bt then they'll do it for 30 quid. I mentioned this to the girl and got it for that price. Maybe worth a look.

naefeart · 15 Jan 2009 at 22:52

thevet said:
Bt are overpriced and overated

I feel a bit sorry for BT tbh. The exchanges are theirs, the infrastructure is all theirs, the upkeep/costs and investment is all theirs - and they are forced to sell services to other companies/ISPs at a loss, so those companies can sell it to us and make a profit. Then we complain about BT...

n