I have just spoken to 1 of the friendly staff at BT to arrange to have my phone & broadband moved to my new address. Now even thou there has been a line installed by BT at the address the installation hasn't been completed as the place I am moving into is brand spanking new & for me to have my services moved to my new place is gonna cost me a whopping £125 which I am disgusted at .

And to add insult to injury I cannot switch to another provider as that would make me in breach of my original contract with BT, as I haven't completed the 12 month contract !!!.

So as a warning to those moving into new properties, if you are under contract with BT for telephone and/or Broadband please don't be too shocked if you get asked to cough up £125 for your services.

And on a final note even thou I am only moving 25 minutes down the road, I was informed that I will be unable to carry my current number to my new address

25 minutes seems like quite a distance, so of course you would be connected to a different telephone exchange and therefore have to be given a new number. Now if it were 5 minutes down the road.....

Ummm... but that's the standard charge for BT to hook up a new line to the system. Normal for a new build property.

There are some licence issues with first connections, BT has to charge a standard price regardless of the true cost incurred, unless it exceeds a threshold ( around £3 or £4K I think) in which case the customer has to pay the costs over the threshold.

The £125 has been quoted here and elsewhere for reconnections, I think that may be at BT's choosing rather than an obligation.

Even if you could switch to another provider, I dont think you'll find many that are willing to arrange new lines.

too be honest i don't think £125 is too much too ask for, considering all the man hours and engineering work gone in to providing the cable to your new build. i'm guessing it's underground fed in which case duct has to be laid, then we have to "pay" contractors to cable to the house. planning has to be done to allocate a section of the network for the house. considering 1 van and man costs in at about £50 per hour to the business, thats quite cheap.

If you really don't want to lose your number - you can port it to a VoIP company.

PM me for more info if you wish.

It's a scandal that BT get £125 for new lines that the house builder effectively installed.

I think you may have overlooked the need for BT to install cabling and connect each property to the street network (either underground or overground), the need for them to then install cabling and connect that street network cabling to the nearest exchange, the need to have equipment at the exchange ................

Many estates cost hundreds of thousands to cable and £125 for each connection doesn't even scratch the surface of such an up-front expenditure.

Makes me laugh that people complain about a £125 charge, would they prefer to pay the true cost which could be thousands!!

Another insult from BT to their customers (victims?), I was told by one of their "Customer Options" team last night that I would be charged £125 to return to BT if I transferred my number to cable.

All this started when an elderly (85) relative, with poor hearing, received a bill from BT which included the additional charge for not paying by direct debit. He tried to query it but got nowhere speeaking to clueless Indians with their hopeless broken english. I rang up for him, half an hour and several clueless Indians later I was finally put through to someone in Scotland who could explain it to me. Some of the Indians were very unpleasant when I asked to be put through to England, I'm not very happy about the total lack of data protection over there, either.

I discussed this with my relative and we agreed that he would transfer his line to cable. I know Virgin aren't great but at least they answer the phone fairly quickly and don't transfer you to India (or have I just been lucky?). I rang BT to query the number transfer arrangements and was told about the £125 charge if I wanted to return. Apparently this even applies if all the cabling and sockets are intact at your property.

Come back GPO all is forgiven, to those who wanted privatisation and the illusion of "competition" - you wanted this mess I hope you're happy. It's all about profits now, customers? Who cares about them?

The Virgin Media support, feedback and discussion newsgroups is full of people complaining about the clueless Indian Support, often calling back 4 or 5 times before you even get one that can string more than 3 words together, also been stuck on waiting for ages and then for the call to drop.

What a rip off! Technically you are paying wages!

Use Virgin Media or Sky. It does not cost 125 pounds.

Virgin put my line in for free. Well NTL did. They are the same though.

Sky won't install lines - they (wait for it) insist on you having a BT landline before they'll allow you to sign up for their Sky Talk CPS packages.

What I was referring to was BT charging £125 to re-connect a line if I was a returning customer. They told me this applies to everyone even your old BT line and sockets are intact and no engineer's visit is needed. I have Virgin at my own house, so far I've not had to deal with any call centres in India, I didn't know they had any.

Sorry if this wasn't clear. I still think the customer service from telephone comapnies, ISPs and utilities in general is poor though.

Why dont you calculate how much you owe on the remainder of your contract.. and if its less than £125, then cancel your contract and pay the remainder.. then go with Virgin (if your in a cable area).. they only charge £25 installation fee and offer the same services (along with more reliable and faster broadband of what i have experienced)

I am a BT customer




My relative is still a BT customer, just totally fed up with
the way he has been treated. When I rang up BT to query the number transfer to cable arrangements, it was their "customer options" people who threatened to levy a £125 charge for re-connection. He has been a BT customer for many years and there is no "lock in" clause in his contract as far as I know.

Order online and you get a £10 discount for each service you take. So if you take the phone line and the free TV service, you get a £20 discount, so only £5 install.

Problem is cable have the dearest phone service around, and you are limited on the savings you can make with low cost call providers, as VM block / don't allow the ones that can save you the most money, so you are forced to pay their rip-off call charges.

Thanks to those who replied, my relative really doesn't want anything more to do with BT after the way he has been treated. Come on! he's 85 and scared off by reports of direct debit frauds, yes I know about the direct debit guarantee but explaining this to the elderly isn't easy. I believe "Age Concern" (he would feel comfortable with them) offer a telephone service but I don't know how good it is.

Post Office Home Phones.

New Line Install

£110.

Though note, for those who want to make the most savings on their phone call costs then the only way is having BT line rental.

But for those who just want simplicity and not really bothered that they will only save pennies instead of many pounds, then going to a non-cable-non-BT line rental may suit.

If you want to pay the most for your phone service then cable is the way to go. Though they do give some people offers if they threaten to leave due to them being the dearest provider.

i had enough of virgin media and bt so i went to the phone co-op ive only been with them a month but they are great. the support is just 5 star support there is always someont to speak to.


thanks to digital spy if i had not been looking on the forums i would never have found out about them

10p/month cheaper than BT for line rental too.

It depends on your individual requirements though. For example, with a BT line and using any a CPS provider, Caller Display costs 9p/month (2 x evening or weekend UK 01/02 calls of less than an hour @ 4½p each via BT). The Phone Co-op charges £1.75/month for that.

Similarly, the Phone Co-op's Evenings & Weekends Call Package (inclusive evening and weekend UK 01/02 calls of up to an hour) costs £3.99/month whereas that would cost nothing (and each call could be up to 90 minutes) with a BT line and Primus Saver Option 2 CPS.

Unfortunately there are loads of people out there who thinking saving pennies is a better idea than saving several pounds, and still think they are saving pennies when it's costing them more.

Many a person cut off their nose to spite their face.

VM charge £5 a month for not paying by DD BTW.

The ceased line connection process procedures recently changed, the only exclusions from the £125 fee is for home movers where the line is only ceased and can be switched on at the exchange and in cases of bereavement.