BT line fault - £125 charge

[lottiebunny]

Just wanted to see what other people thought of this situation.

We took out a BT phoneline for our rented property. A few months ago it developed a fault where we were picking up other peoples phone calls (and no it wasn't the cordless phone acting up) and had to get an engineer out. The engineer left without saying what was wrong with the line but fiddled a bit with the BT box on the wall.

Now we have received this quarters bill it has a £125 charge on for calling out the engineer. Being as the engineer didn't even tell us what was wrong with the line or that we would be getting charged I think this is a bit out of order. Does anyone have any ideas how I could persuade them not to charge us?

If BT decide that the charge stands (which would be if there was a problem with the internal wiring of the house) would it be worth seeing if the landlords pay up as it would be a problem with their wiring not something we have done?

[whomovedmychocolate]

They charged us a call out fee but it was only about £60 when there was something wrong with ours. I would ask for a written explanation of the fault and why the charge has been applied and ask for the payment be 'held' till this is done. Then complain to Ofcom if they didn't explain in advance there would be a charge for sending someone else.

[somanyboyssolittletime]

I had a very similar situation a couple of years ago. I wrote to BT, explained that I had asked them out to look at the fault, had received no quote, but that they had gone ahead and spent my money without my authorisation. I also told them that the engineer had been there for 15 minutes and was not prepared to pay whatever the amount was for that tiny amount of time. Threatened Ofcom etc of course!

The amount was swiftly removed from my bill. I would have happily paid an engineer to rectify the fault, but was furious the way that it had been handled.

Good luck!

[lottiebunny]

I just wish the account was in my name. Can't even speak to them even though they were quite happy to take the fault request from me.

Here's hoping housemate can do an authorative pissed off voice.

[Mummy369]

If your housemate telephones BT with you there, she can give verbal consent for you to discuss the account with them. She can also set a password on the account so if you or another housemate need to speak with BT at any time you just use the pre-arranged security password.

[Aussieng]

So you spoke to BT regarding the fault (not being the account holder) and they sent someone out and they are now trying to charge somone else (the account holder) for the call out?

I would question whether they can charge the account holder if he/she did not authorise the call out. Think they F*cked up TBH unless I am misunderstanding.