"Fault on line" £90 Charge

On Holiday · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:48

Asked BT to check my line on Wednesday as internet has been disconnecting an average 4 times a day, every day for the past couple of weeks.

Today, we get a phone call along the lines of "There's a fault on your line, engineer will be there Monday, there is a £90 charge"

Anybody had the same experience? What's the £90 charge all about? If the fault turns out to be between my house and the exchange then surely it wasn't caused by us and it's their problem?

atpbx · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:49

If its not on your property I would be of the opinion to tell them to **** off and shove their charge up their arse.

DJMK4 · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:50

True, I would chase that up and find out and get clarity on that, anything leading up to your master socket is their responsibility, anything beyond that is chargeable if it turns out to be problems with internal wiring.

Bennie-Mac · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:51

I always thought if it was a fault with BT's line the repair was free, if it was any problem with the wiring in your property there was a charge?

cHk4 · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:55

Bennie-Mac said:
I always thought if it was a fault with BT's line the repair was free, if it was any problem with the wiring in your property there was a charge?

Yea when I worked in tech the repair was free if there was a fault, if not you were like £200 out of pocket.

asim18 · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:57

Bennie-Mac said:
I always thought if it was a fault with BT's line the repair was free, if it was any problem with the wiring in your property there was a charge?

Exactly. And who the **** in their right mind would pay £90 to have an "engineer" come round and test something as simple as internal phone wires???

Just plug whatever it is into the master socket and if its still broken tell them to shove the engineer and you don't want anyone touching your wiring.

"Fault on your line" my arse. :rolleyes:

Curio · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:58

Years ago I had a fault on the line and they didn't charge me a penny - it took them ages to fix it....chased it all the way from my house, to the junction box and on to the exchange. I'd tell them to do one

Darg · 1 Mar 2013 at 16:59

Tell them where to shove it. When I was with NTL in Ireland everything on the lines up to the socket where it entered the house was their responsibility. Even the splitter on the outside of the house which shared the line between the downstairs and upstairs sockets.

asim18 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:04

Darg said:
Tell them where to shove it. When I was with NTL in Ireland everything on the lines up to the socket where it entered the house was their responsibility. Even the splitter on the outside of the house which shared the line between the downstairs and upstairs sockets.

I'm with Virgin Media and any call-outs, repairs and broken hardware is completely free. Unless you go round smashing your modem with hammers and hacking your wires with machetes, they'll come and replace and/or fix it for free.

One of the better things about VM.

Nevakonaza · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:05

Yup,tell them you are not paying...its their service which they are supplying to you as a monthly subscription to them...you as the customer should not have to pay for problems with their equipment which isnt your fault.

This is what i like about Virgin media,at least if there's problems they don't charge you for it.

Megahurtz400 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:05

Correct so far, go to the master socket (First one in the house) and take the bottom part of the socket off, plug your phone and router in there, if all is working, then the fault is on your internal wiring and there is more than likely going to be a charge.

Third Opinion · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:07

Are you sure it is not £90 if the fault is in your home or they cannot gain access?

DampDog · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:07

Had them in about 4-5 months back, similar problem to you, losing connection maybe 8-10 times a day. They did a line check and said fault was at their end; said they would send an engineer. And quickly mentioned that if they detected a fault on the property there would be a charge!

Engineer, looked looked at my master socket and said yikes I don't think I've seen one that old before. Swapped for a new BT filtered socket, checked socket to the PC (which did have a slightly noisey connection, which he fixed) So I thought that's it they will stiff me for the fee. Engineer said don't worry about it, we did had a fault at our end anyway.

asim18 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:07

Megahurtz400 said:
Correct so far, go to the master socket (First one in the house) and take the bottom part of the socket off, plug your phone and router in there, if all is working, then the fault is on your internal wiring and there is more than likely going to be a charge.

Yep exactly. And even then screw BT. Find someone with a little know-how or an independent and you could get the dodgy wire pinpointed for no more than a couple tenners.

£15 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:10

I agree with everyone else: BT shouldn't be charging you for any fault from, and including, the Master Socket 'outwards' (to the exchange). Anything inside is your responsibility.

You need to call them and clarify what they're trying to charge you for.

I wouldn't let them in my house unless I was 100% sure my internal wiring was fault free.

Megahurtz400 said:
Correct so far, go to the master socket (First one in the house) and take the bottom part of the socket off, plug your phone and router in there, if all is working, then the fault is on your internal wiring and there is more than likely going to be a charge.

Do this. ^

Megahurtz400 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:11

DampDog said:
Had them in about 4-5 months back, similar problem to you, losing connection maybe 8-10 times a day. They did a line check and said fault was at their end; said they would send an engineer. And quickly mentioned that if they detected a fault on the property there would be a charge!

Engineer, looked looked at my master socket and said yikes I don't think I've seen one that old before. Swapped for a new BT filtered socket, checked socket to the PC (which did have a slightly noisey connection, which he fixed) So I thought that's it they will stiff me for the fee. Engineer said don't worry about it, we did had a fault at our end anyway.

Vast majority of engineers wont bother recording the charge if it's only a little fault and you're not a bar steward

doofer · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:12

I had a recurring fault on a BT Line that they just couldn't seem to fix for Months, they tried to charge me over £400, they lied several times about fixing the fault, they refused to pay out any compensation even though I had no working phone line for over a Month at one point, it turned out to be a dry joint which was eventually fixed, I then left BT and went to Sky for Phone/Fibre as even though I know it's the same hardware I just did not want to deal with BT ever again.

peterattheboro · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:15

If it's an internal fault then you'll be charged. If it's external then there'll be no charge.

I do this for my job so I can offically say it's FACT!

Ring them up and ask them to perform a TAM test and see what comes back.

FoxEye · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:21

BT engineer came to my house recently, said that they had "new regulations" which wouldn't allow him time to find an intermittent fault. He changed the NTE faceplate and advised me to "keep calling us out" when the fault didn't go away.

Although the fault remained unfixed, over the next month (!!) the problem lessened to the point where I'm getting 1 disconnect per xx days, instead of xx discons per day.

But the point is, if you have an intermittent fault, you may as well not bother to call BT out, as they can't fix it (because of new company policy).

Dis86 · 1 Mar 2013 at 17:26

It's normally a £90 charge if they get called out and can't find a fault or if the fault is as your end.