BT/phoneline problem - how to find out what company my line is with

Abraham

Abraham

Abraham

Soldato
Joined
13 Dec 2002
Posts
7,646
Location
Manchester City Centre
I'm moving flat and having a bit of a palava with BT.
Stage 1: As soon as I'd confirmed my new address I phone BT to place an order to move home from my old flat to the new, was told there hadn't been a line in the flat before so would get charged £124.99, was disgruntled, and surprised the previous tenant hadnt had a bt line, but said ok and put the order through, might be able to get it back from sky with any luck. Not best pleased but no problems so far.

Stage 2: Move into flat, plug a phone into the line and there's a dialing tone, rang BT up and after a bit of messing was informed that there was a mix up with my address owing to the previous entry being a bit wrong and there had been a line on my address but it wasnt currently with BT, this would mean a move request which would take a bit longer but I would not be charged for it.

Stage 3: Phone call today and voicemail message left to phone BT back on generic CS number. After a big struggle to find my account (eventually managed by finding my old address account and following the link through) she tells me that she cant see why they'd left a message, but after a bit more looking she finds that the order is going to have to be cancelled and reissued, because the line has never been with BT and is with someone else (is this possible? there is no cable service to my building) and as such, I'm once again getting charged £124.99, and with a somehow earlier engineer date.

So I'm back to the same situation as the end of stage 1, but with much greater doubts that i'm getting charged the fee for the right reason. Is there any way I can find out who my line is currently with? I might consider them if I can get a better deal, further to that can anyone hazard a guess as to what's actually going on? I would prefer to go with BT as I want to get back with Be for my adsl. I had more of my confidence in them removed when they said that their computer systems had been down for the last week, seems a little odd that I get this phone call just after they've come back online.

Help me please :(
 
It sounds like it was in fact a bt once but has been migrated away to another company. Check your postcode to see what LLU options there are and phone each company and you might get lucky and find which one owns it.

Its its still connected ( can you dial out ) then sooner or later you are going to get a bill hitting the doormat i would imagine.
 
AtreuS said:
It sounds like it was in fact a bt once but has been migrated away to another company. Check your postcode to see what LLU options there are and phone each company and you might get lucky and find which one owns it.

Its its still connected ( can you dial out ) then sooner or later you are going to get a bill hitting the doormat i would imagine.
Click to expand...

It's got a dial tone but cant dial out, everything comes back as "The number you have dialled has not been recognised"

I would have presumed what you said above, but I'm pretty sure the previous tenant was also the first tenant
 
BT are complete ****s for this. I recently moved my phone+broadband from BT to Sky - had to phone up BT to get a MAC code, the guy on the end was saying Sky would charge me £125 if I ever left them. I'm like WTF :confused: how can that be legal after the first 12 months of the contract, it turns out it's BT who will charge me £125 if I ever want to go back to them. So I said to the guy that basically they're offering a massive incentive not to go back to BT - he sort of agreed :D
 
I've had to pay it twice before, once in a new build (i dont agree with the level of the charge, or that my landlord shouldnt have paid it, but that there is one is fair enough), the other time may unwittingly have been the same situation as this, I thought it was because the line had been disconnected, but I think it's more likely they'd migrated the line to someone else
 
Ok this got more interesting when i got home, i opened a letter for the previous tenant by mistake because it was a bt envelope and next to the one for myself. Turns out he had a bt line, which was cancelled after i'd placed the order for the new one. Just had it out with BT, ended up with a girl who was very insistant that it was common practice for new movers to face the charge now because openreach charge bt for all connections, even if they were previously bt. I ended up saying that i'd ring tomorrow because she couldnt do anything, should possibly have asked for a supervisor but i was pretty wound up as it was.

Any ideas chaps? anyone else who's faced this charge for reconnecting a bt line that hasnt had anything else on it or are they just talking bs? the website says you shouldnt be charged, but it doesnt say you wont be
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom