BT phone install charge - but line already active

I am soon to be a new broadband customer (having used a mobile dongle till now).

The P.Office will now install the line for you, with no minimum phone contract, so i picked them. Still costs over a £100 but you save about £13 on BT's price.

Since placing the order, i've plugged a phone into the wall socket, got a dialling tone there, dialled 17070, got the tel no of the line, and even dialled my mobile from it.

So why then are the Post Office telling me that the (BT) engineer must come and install this line on 31st March, for the princely sum of £107 or something. Seems to be working find already !! I'm outraged. But i wanted to check here before speaking with them !

Your help and advice would be so greatly appreciated. Thankyou, in advance.

bt shouldn't have to connect the line if you know the number. they should be able to connect you for free using their computer system. that's what they told me when I connected last year.
unfortunately I did not know the no so had to pay for 5mins of an engineer's time!

Thanks.

I only know the number since placing the order with the Post Office - i asked them to confirm what it was. So they've gone ahead with things at their end and line now is now active.

(Rather annoyingly, i didn't test my line before placing my order)

My question though is, why do i need an engineer then?

Ignore Anonymous' information, its out of date.

How long since placing the order before you noticed dial tone? Openreach charge service providers like BT or the Post Office a connection charge which accounts for most of that £100 bill, this is regardless of where in the network work needs doing - your house, the exchange or in software (computer). Only time this is avoided is if the line has been inactive for a short period of time (I think its a month or so).

Edited by deleted (Mon 23-Mar-09 18:21:40)

I tested the line yetserday - five days after placing my order.

Thanks for your info. Someone has surely just switched a switch at the exchange here yes? And they charge £100 for the privilege?

I wish to god i had tested my line before placing the order !!

But what if it had required a full day of work? Would you have been prepared to pay £500 to get the line active? Openreach charge a fixed fee that averages it all out, so some win and some loose.

Or how about an honest report from an engineer of what is needed to get the line going, and a charging structure that properly reflects that.

But then again, BT and honesty go together like fish and bicycles.

Edited by spacecadet (Mon 23-Mar-09 19:32:51)

To provide you the report would probably entail half the work involved in getting most likes working so £60 for the report, followed by £120 for the USO limited charge.

add £30 indemnity insurance against being sued if the report proves to be wrong!

Fair points re the report.

But who is to say they've installed anything, and not just reconnected the line here .. ? ... which is considerably cheaper. What proof do i have? Where's the transparency?

I have a working line that is supposedly uninstalled. So if i ring all my friends tonight then, that'll be free will it?