In reply to a post by Andrue:

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.

Andrue, as the folks in the Dragon's Den would say "your numbers just don't add up".

If ISP's were only making £2 a month per customer, the customers would have to stay 2 years and 6 months just to repay BT's connection charge. Who in their right mind would set up a business where you're only into profit on year 3 ?

Have those making claims of 50p to £2 a month profit got any proof of their claims ?

In reply to a post by zebedeee:

In reply to a post by Andrue:

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.

Andrue, as the folks in the Dragon's Den would say "your numbers just don't add up".

If ISP's were only making £2 a month per customer, the customers would have to stay 2 years and 6 months just to repay BT's connection charge. Who in their right mind would set up a business where you're only into profit on year 3 ?

Here's some advice - don't go into Business. Those costs are part of the 'overheads' of the service and are factored into their pricing and amortised over a few months. If an ISP charges £10pcm and makes £1pcm profit then the connection charge is part of the £9 costs.

Replacing master sockets are an extra expense that they won't have allowed for so it comes out of their profit. The cost of that comes out of the £1 profit.

Well actually it's not that simple. For the first couple of months there is no profit since it all gets used to offset costs but the basic principal is there. ISPs have budgeted for connection charges - they don't budget for replacing equipment that is nothing to do with them. What next - getting your ISP to fix your telly for free?

ISPs have historically covered off the connetion charge by tying the customer into a minimum contract period. These days some ISPs are happy to assume that customers always stay long enough to cover off that cost so don't bother with a tie-in.

Edited by Andrue (Sat 29-Aug-09 12:45:25)

In the past we'd often referred to an online BT pricing page that said that the cost of replacing the socket was circa £25 and it was free if someone resident in the house was registered disabled. BUT I noticed - and mentioned on here a few months ago - a hint elsewhere in that documentation that that might only be the price for the replacement AND there might be the normal BT callout fee on top of it. That may have turned out to be the truth! On the other hand they may have charged a lot for the call and replaced the faceplate for free.

It was a fact that many years ago BT used to modify you an NTE5 for free. The situation in the past couple of years has been much much vaguer.

Good luck with this.

I'm aware of this http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Ex... which is probably the info you're referring to.

£25+VAT (bottom of the page)

Jusy all seems a bit 'iffy' if BT inform you things will be free - then bill you further down the line!

"Change of Network Terminating Equipment, Conversion of hard-wired/master socket to Linebox and regularisation of illicit master socket and for Each additional line on same installation converted at same time as first - 01/04/2000 25.00 + VAT "

from Openreach price list.

BT is many parts, and comms can break down.

Yep - that's the same as I quoted ???

I guess...

In reply to a post by yarwell:

"Change of Network Terminating Equipment, Conversion of hard-wired/master socket to Linebox and regularisation of illicit master socket and for Each additional line on same installation converted at same time as first - 01/04/2000 25.00 + VAT "

from Openreach price list.

I was recently charged £218 odd for the replacement of just the faceplate of the NTE5. The fault was reported several times directly to BTr via 151 so there was no other party involved (except of course, BTo). According to the office of the CEO, this charge was correct and normal.

The charge was waived by the CEO's office due to the fact that the damage was caused by a BTo engineer on a previous visit. I was refused a cost breakdown because of the waiver.

Edited by Deadbeat (Sat 29-Aug-09 21:39:23)

Hmmm. I still wonder how that maps to the few bits of price lists we've found before but think of it like this...

BT-Openreach have been passing on charges for "customer" broadband faults since last year and these usually get quoted at £188. So if we take your £218 and subtract that we get £30. Now the previous £25+vat would equal £28.75 so if some bit of BT (BT-O, BTW, BTR in this case) have raised it or rounded it up we get the other £30.

So basically they charge a full engineer call out fee PLUS the (inflated) cost of the faceplate when the change is to the BT boundary on the connection because it is out of date.
Nice.

The price is crazy as adslnation has the faceplate/middle/surface mount backbox set for £5.86 and that's the NTE5a with the extra filtering built in just like the latest BT ones. And that's not the cheapest even with a quick google! Even the most expensive don't seem to charge more than £10. So they are even profiteering on the faceplate!

This suggests the first extension adaption like at the bottom of this Kitz pageis the most sensible for most people.