About a month ago I moved into a brand new house as I was starting a new job.

About a week after moving in I rang BT up to get my line connected (there is a phone socket on the wall) but was told this was classed as a new line and would therefore have to pay the £120 odd connection charge... I said OK but then I was told that the new lines department would have to call me back in a few days as they were too busy to take my call (charming!).

So, I left all my details and awaited the call (they said within 5 days) but no one has rung.

As I said I was also starting a new job and what with this and settling in to the house it pretty much went out of my mind. I am going to give BT a ring when I get home (or I may leave it till tomorrow as I should be able to do it from my office (not there at the moment) but seen as its a freephone number thats better than sitting on my mobile on hold for ages.

But I was just wondering if there is anyway round doing this, without BT perhaps? I don't actually want a phone line, just want to be able to get on the internet. I am also not in a cabled area (The next estate along is, why they didn't just lay the cable when the houses were being built is beyond me) so Virgin etc is out of the question.

Are there any other options that are likely to be quicker/more relaible/cheaper than BT?

...sorry about the long post... I always ramble on.

Well Tiscali are doing a good deal atm £19.99 a month line rental, 8Mbps internet and free calls to landlines and to top 10 countries in the world ie US, Australia etc.

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/ta...L-11GK&srccode

saves going through BT then, but you may have a snag as you need to know the telephone number and as you don't have a line, BT may still be needed.

Hope Iv'e been of some use

You will need to have an active BT line to use the above, as Tiscali don't/won't do new line provision you'll have to get BT to do it, and the contract length with BT is 12 months

Hi FeNerd. Ive been through the same as you - see my thread just below this one (at time of writing).

Ive just got my line after three weeks of calls and emails. If you can access email you should email the CEO (link is in my thread), or phone BT and demand to speak to a manager - as a forum member suggested in the thread.

Good luck.

I had my phone disconnected from bt, due to not paying on time,I spoke to one person, advising me that i will need a new line and to be re connected it will cost me over £100, which i feel is daylight robbery, i have been trying to contact bt for over 2 weeks, the people i speak to there, have no clue what they are doing, even the managers supervisors or whoever.ifeel bt are the worst service ever.always their lines are busy and i have spent almost the whole day in a phonebox,im thinking of setting up residence in there ,i would appreciate the best way to get a phone line back, i did apply to talktalk and they say they can take over my line, because i still have a dial tone, i would really like to complain about bt but when i go online or phone them,no one ever calls back,apparently now bt do credit checks, and you have to pay a depsoit if you want a phone line, and you get that back in 6 months, what is up with bt now,why have they taken this approached and such a bad service, i am appalled how they treat potential customers, i wonder if anyone else has hAd the samw trouble

I forgot to add "help" aS im desperate to get back onto the internet!!

I think you'll find you have a problem with all the companies now offering line rental (not that many of those alleging they are 'providers' are willing to offer connections anyway) because of the fact that you've been disconnected for non-payment (BT just charges £7.50 for late payment, so you must have exceeded that threshold).

I think it's bite the bullet time and pay whatever any provider who is willing to reconnect asks.

Depending on length of time since the line was stopped the connection may have been 'ceased' and and engineers intervention is required. Openreach charge the CPs for this and BT have chosen to pass it on to the EU.

You state you have a dial tone through which would indicate the line is just 'stopped' so the connection fee of £124.99 shouldn't apply.


Paying your bills on time is the best way to avoid it being disconnected.


If you haven't had service in the last 12 months a credit check is carried out.


That depends on the credit check result.

well from my experience oveer the last three weeks, you cant get another landline company if your not with bt, you have to have a bt line working ..what a snag that one is, but there is a new item out, i think it might be £15 per month you plug it into your pc or laptop and it gives you broadband,its issused by carephone warehouse,
i would never use my mobile to phone up bt as it will cost you a fortune, ive been using the local phonebox

I was a few days late in paying, but this has taught me a very expensive lesson
Today i should have been re connected, but alas not Wednesday now
So I found out bt do credit checks on everyone,

thank you, well i exceeded by a few days,but no other provider can provide unless i have a bt landline, i feel more needs to be done regarding bt with their lack of customer service and people wasting time hanging on to speak with an operator or sales advisor, as for other landline providers, i feel they are a waste of time, in getting value for money, as i cannot see that happening

That's weird... I used to wait for the RED reminder before paying my bill. Once I never paid and it just got added onto next quarters bill.

First they send out a bill, then a RED reminder, then they will call you in person, then they will send you a Formal warning.... unless it's the formal warning you are talking about paying late.

I did and used to wait for red reminder, and they used to add what i owed onto my next bill, but not this time,now i have finally got my new line back, but apparently i have to inform my internet provdier and to get back onto the internet it will take 20 days, i think i will give up on phone lines and the net, and stick to the library much easier and cheaper

I'm sorry, but it has to be a lot longer than "a fews days late" for it to get to the stage where your contract is cancelled and you have to reapply for service.

Hello again all!

I thought I would resurrect this thread and let you all know that today, after nearly 3 months Open reach have been out and I have finally got my phone line working.

I took TheCableGuy's advice and sent a nice little email to a CEO. It took about a week for them to get back to me but they did eventually. They have still been a bit slow since I got a call back from him but there is a positive side... they have waived the connection fee and are going to credit my account with an amount - I don't know how much this will be but to be honest I am happy enough getting the connection fee waived that they could put 5p in it and I will be happy

So... 3 months it took to get BT moving. I remember last time I got a line activated (about 2001'ish) I rang them and they activated the line within 24 hours but we weren't getting a dial tone. They came out the next morning and fixed it.

48 hours to almost 3 months... standards have definitely slipped.

Sounds a bit like what happened to me - I recently moved to a brand new house and it took BT over 3 months to bother connecting the phone line.

Excuse after excuse - promises of connection by numerous dates that came and went, promises of "someone will call you with more info" and no-one ever did.

"We've run out of cable" was the best reason they came up with!