On the day before I ordered Sky, I phoned BT and asked how much it would cost to get me reconnected, I was told £0.

I ordered Sky the next day and phoned BT that day to order a line as I was reconnecting. I was then told line rental would be £15 and reconnecting would cost £125!!!!!


I have BT phone boxes in my house and a BT wire coming into my home. I havent been with BT for 6 years now!!

Was the line used by another provider?

If so, then the second time you called the operative may have been confused and believed that you wanted a new line.

If not, then the line may not be intact all the way to the exchange and BT will condier it a new line.

Either way, you should try and get some clarification from BT. Find out exactly why they don't think you have a line at the moment, and go from there.

yes exactly. BT have very different price bands for reconnections (like yours) known as re-jumpering and new line provides known as provides .

It may be the first time you called you were quoted as being re-jumpered and the second as a seace and provide.

Get confirmation and the exact situation and make sure they know that you have the BT wiring to you house.

If there is a bt line within the property then the reconnection would be free of charge. Subject to survey.

Meaning that if the line has been cut, or the box has been ripped away for example there maybe a reconnection charge as above depending on why the box or wiring has been taken away. e.g if previous tenant then charge would not apply.

If there is a bt line there but it has never been used by anyone in the past and someone calls to connect it up, a charge of £124.99 applies. This is called a pre fitted line meaning the line was pre fitted when the house were built and the charge applies for the work that was done at the time.

If there is no line at all a charge of £124.99 is applied, subject to survey.

If the line has been taken to another provider. e.g talk talk then reconnection is free as the line still belongs to bt.

Not necessarily.

As it has been 6 years since the line was in use, it may no longer be intact all the way back to the exchange (i.e. a section of the wiring may have been used for another circuit) and so that section has to be replaced (that's why they say, "subject to survey").

I have just connected to BT as this line has been turned off for 15 years give or take a year. The line was damaged and faulty and work had to be carried out. As this was no fault of my own then there was no charge.

BT wont charge a customer for work that needs to be carried out if its something down the line even more so at the exchange, which a customer never enters anyway. A charge is applied if a customer damages or cuts the wiring etc, but even that is not usualy charged if a customer has just moved in to find the box ripped off the wall by a previous tenant or the wiring has been cut from the pole to the house.

BT is quite fair in its charging and applies charges that are actually applicable.

Working at BT i have never come across a reconnection for a customer where BT has charged the customer for doing work that has nothing to do with the customer and I've worked in sales for 3 years so to date.

We got ours reconnected after a few years, the line between the house and box in the street was damaged, BT spent 2 days fixing it and connected us for free.

well steven3001, can you explain why then onw day I was told reconnection was free then the next, after ordering sky, it would cost £125?

See thats my point. Thankyou

If BT were requesting £124.99 that is nothing to do with you going to sky. The 3 main reasons are. Either

A - There were no line from bt in the house e.g not even a phone point or

B - There was a line from BT but no one had EVER connected it to BT at all in the past. or

C - The house had been converted into flats, and your room happens to not have the line so this is classed as a line from BT, which it is cause the room has no line.

If you just made an initial call to BT to check a price. Usually we ask if there is a line in the house and most will say yes. So we would quote connection will usually be free. However some customers mistake a Cable box for been a bt box.

If you then called and tried to place an order for example. As we take the address details this would bring up the exact situation with the property and if or not there is a line.
Last edited by steven3001 : 18-02-2007 at 15:25

we used to have BT and there is 2 white BT boxes in the house

If you had been quoted a reconnection charge of that amount when you have had BT before, meaning the lines still there as well as the box then I would have called to clarify that.

Sometimes when a line has been closed for a while when we issue an order to reconnect it, it sometimes raises a charge for that amount. However. When the engineer comes to the house if he discovers it is a bt line then the charge is removed.

I was then told line rental would be £15, but according to sky, its only £11??

Basic line rental is £11 including VAT paying by DD or £10.75 with ebilling. This is option 1

You may have been quoted a price of £14.95 but that is option 2 with free uk calls evening/weekend

Or, more accurately, with 'free' evening/weekend calls for an advance payment of £3.95/month.

yep thats true

I work in service and have had a few calls from Openreach engineers saying that there is no socket in the property and that the order needs to be reissued as a full provide with fees applying as the socket has been removed despite there being a previous socket in the property.

It depends on the engineer who is doing the job. Some will do it, some refer it back.

Yeah, if we get calls and there is no socket we ask em why its not there. Some silly customers openly admit to ripping it off lol so charges apply

as long as there is evidence that the line is on the property , as cable companies are well known to use the orginal bt socket and disconnect the line or cut it off, push it back into the entry hole etc ,there should not be a charge as on closing the job down the engineer should input this into his closing down info on the job procedure on his laptop,but if the cable has been cut externaly which means the engineer has to physicaly re-run the cable etc then installation charges apply. hope thios helps