In reply to a post by Anonymous:

sorry but i dont seem to understand what you've said. the BT guy came and said 'normally we charge anything upto £200 for this sort of job' but because your ISP requested it, they will take the penalty upon them"

i havent signed any contract or anything - i think im pretty safe in saying I wont get charged.

Good luck with that. I'd be amazed if your ISP paid it. They aren't responsible for your master socket.

You might also want to consider how long it would take them to claw that back from your monthly subscription (IOW:how long do you have to remain a customer before it's worth their while). I would estimate over a decade.

Edited by Andrue (Thu 27-Aug-09 19:30:37)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

sorry but i dont seem to understand what you've said. the BT guy came and said 'normally we charge anything upto £200 for this sort of job' but because your ISP requested it, they will take the penalty upon them"

i havent signed any contract or anything - i think im pretty safe in saying I wont get charged.

Good luck with that. I'd be amazed if your ISP paid it. They aren't responsible for your master socket.

You might also want to consider how long it would take them to claw that back from your monthly subscription (IOW:how long do you have to remain a customer before it's worth their while). I would estimate over a decade.

I can cancel anytime, just need to give 30 days notice

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

I can cancel anytime, just need to give 30 days notice

Yes, they know that - you haven't grasped what I'm saying.

For them to be willing to swallow £200 on your behalf they have to be pretty sure that you will stay with them long enough for them to recoup the cost. Profit margins on broadband are crappy (the main reason it's taking so long to get high speed broadband in the UK - it's a lousy business to be in). Most ISPs are probably lucky if they make a couple of quid a month per subscriber. That would mean your ISP would need you to say with them for 100 months (over eight years) before they have covered the cost of the call-out.

Given that the socket has nothing to do with them, replacing it doesn't benefit them in any way and that you could leave at the drop of a hat...it's just a none-starter. Your ISP would have to be incredibly stupid not to pass the bill on to you.

try to get the info by using the 'freedom of information act'...

doesn't apply to businesses or individuals - only bits of Government.

the SFI visit charge is set at £144+VAT and would cover fitting an NTE5 as well as things like pair swapping. The charge is waived if Openreach plant is at fault, as opposed to customer wiring or equipment.

Most ISPs are probably lucky if they make a couple of quid a month per subscriber.

There are many making closer to 50p per user per month...

I didn't realise that.
But it looks like BT have put similar 'privacy' rules in place. BT Privacy Terms

Pay £10 for the info - but "not all calls are recorded"!?


EDIT: As you seem to know how 'things' work what would you do if BT have billed you £250 after you have been told verbally(phone) and from the engineer on site that the work will be free?

Edited by b4dger (Fri 28-Aug-09 20:13:49)

I believe you can challenge / dispute the charge and from what I've read they basically look at all details of the fault call.

my first question would be to ask for a breakdown of the £250. BT operate to a published price list and I don't see how one could get to £250 for changing a master socket.

I'm also not clear if it's BT the ISP or BT the provider of line rental that was involved here, an SFI visit is a fixed charge to the ISP.

The data protection act might be a way to get hold of call records.

Thanks for that.

It wasn't an SFI via the ISP (which looking at your reply to Andrue would appear to have been a cheaper way to have proceeded!)

This was a phone call direct to BT.
With no modern Master Socket it was asked if one could be fitted to allow normal extensions etc. to be used (normalisation or regularisation of the wiring if you like).

BT confirmed this could be done without any charge.
A written reply/confirmation was requested but BT declined saying this wouldn't be necessary!