Home Telecom Troubles

Background - me and girlfriend are both full time uni students and we are expecting a child soon.
We moved in on the 1st of October to our new rental property in which before moving in we were contacted by Home Telecom saying that they worked with Bairstowe Eves and could do a 6 month rolling contract just like our contract with bairstowe eves is.

We thought that it sounded good as we even got the price of internet removed so it was only line rental of £14.50 a month and an upfront charge of £69 for installation fees, router delivery and etc.

So we agreed and after that it was fine dandy then we got a text from bt open zone saying that we would no longer require an engineer to the house and our router was on its way. My girlfriend also rang home telecom to check if it was actually bt and it was as on their systems it stated that our home has a bt open zone box which it does.

So a week or so later our router turns up and we plug it (turned off) and leave it as our activation date wasn't till the 13th of October. So on the 13th we turn it on and left it on all day, at 2pm my girlfriend rang to see what time it would go live at. They said to leave it on all day and it should be activated by midnight. So we wake up in the morning and still no internet connection.

So we contact home telecom and they go through they're tests which conclude it should be working but it's not on our end so they tell us to try it in the test socket and still nothing. Then they say to try any other sockets in the house and that still doesn't work. Then they say plug in a land line phone to see if you get a dial tone we try this in everything with and without the micro filter and still no dial tone...Then on Friday they rang again asking if we did the tests again which we had and they say they had reported it to bt. This happened on Saturday again but this time they said if we wanted an engineer to come to our property to sort the problem but she took us through Bt's terms and conditions in which they said we would be charged up to £250 if they came out and if there's no problem with the landline, the router or the socket. They also told us that they had sent us any email which included the terms and conditions of bt and that there was a link we needed to click on and fill in our details about the problem and only then would they contact a bt engineer to come out to access the problem.

As you can tell we're no experts and we don't know whether to cancel the service and go with someone else or wait and see what happens?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions given in advance.

If you have tested an old fashioned corded telephone i.e. works from just the power over the telephone line and there is no dial tone at the test socket then you have shown the issue is not within the property (exception would be if a previous tenant had some how broken the wiring, e.g. smashed furniture into wire breaking it)

£250 sounds expensive particularly if as the listed charge is half of this
https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/prici...

Personally based on what I've heard from other Home Telecom users I'd use this as an opportunity to walk and go elsewhere. The fact they are quoting inaccurate pricing is enough to make me say - run away while you can.

Your £69 installation fee should have included activating the telephone line and every indication is that this has not happened.

If not sure, a visit to the citizens advice bureau to find out where you stand legally may be worthwhile.

I've just moved from home telecom because of the service I got when an upgrade to fibre went pear shaped, They took my order without checking the system was available in my area, BT changed the phone line and I had no internet landline for 8 weeks only phone worked and a battle royal to get it restored, I moved to plusnet and was running within 10 days.

Your details were possibly passed onto Home Telecom by Bairstowe Eves since you state that HT contacted you.
As suggested I would move to another ISP as HT haven't provided a working service, of course they will want to charge you for the router and for leaving early within the six month contract.

Again as suggested have a word with your local Citizens Advice re. any issues/charges from HT that could arise if you leave early.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-we-pr...