BT £124.98 Connection charge + £50 to wire extensions

[Bobbya82]

Hi Guys,

I am due to move into a new build house and was shocked that they (BT) are going to charge me £124.98 to make the line live and to boot they are going to tie me into another 12 months contract even though I have been with them 4 years perviosly.

What I dont understand, they also want to charge me £50 per extension, fine I could understand if it was a new extension but this is existing ones. Apparently the extensions are not actually live until BT re-wire them. Can someone may please explain this as it seems crazy to me! Could I get away with paying the 124.98 Connection charge and wire the existing extensions my self. ( it cant be that hard surely??...)

Thanks in advance.

 

[breezer]

you will have to ask bt how they figure the charge, but yes you can wire the extensions yourself, see the wiki

 

[plugwash]

the £124 sounds like standard BT installation charge, it's not really that bad considering it can sometimes be quite a bit of work to drop a new feed to a property. If you think that is bad you should see what the leccy and gas companies charge to connect up.

I wouldn't pay them to connect up the extentions though, you can easilly do that yourself.

 

[saxondale]

BT charge is a standard fee - remember the cable didnt get to your new build house all by itself LOL and I would want £50 to connect your extensions so the pricing is right.

there seems to be lots of topics about extensions and broadband at least if you get BT to do all the work you can blame them if something doesnt

otherwise make sure you buy the proper connection tool not the cheap plastic jobbies ( they just dont push hard enough)

 

[JohnD]

I heard that the phone wires are installed during the building of the house, but BT doesn't get any money for them until you take out your contract.

If you are in a cabled-up area you could see if your cable company will give you a better offer - they use a different model, working on the principle that as they have gone to all the trouble and expense of digging up the road and laying the cable, every pound they can pull in by winning a customer is a pound they wouldn't otherwise have had. They will probably give you a good broadband and/or cable TV bundle if you happen to want it.

I get phone, 2Mb broadband and TV for £17pcm; I might take up their offer of transferring my moby to them for an extra £10

 

[Bobbya82]

Thanks for the replys,

I went to have a look at the place today and it looks like there is already a master socket there, so hopefully (surley) when they make this live, the extension will become live too?

Also I notice next door has run a cable from the main BT connection on the wall by the front door up to a bedroom upstairs. Is this something that maybe I can do also as per wiki or it best to leave BT to do any work on the external box.

Thanks again.

 

[JOHNBOY42]

That is the standard connection fee,when you look at the work involved ie.all new underground ducting and cabling its quite reasonable, the newbuild should already have been pre-wired by the builders for your extensions, the £50 quoted is to test the cabling then connect them for you but this is optional,when I say testing the cable that is beacause its put in before the plumbers/joiners and plasteres get to work and they may have got damaged in the process

 

[Bobbya82]

Ok,

Can I just confirm one thing then, once I have payed the £124 connection charge, I take it the master socket will then be live.

To then make the extension live what would I need to do? Do I unscrew the master socket rewire this in some way, then unscrew the extension and change some wiring in this.

Could comeone please explain?

Thanks,

 

[breezer]

wiki

 

[JOHNBOY42]

look at the wiki diagram,but as it states it may not be the same colour code........the master socket will be live and the extesions may be.see the site manager.........but if no joy take the front plate off your master socket and using a krona tool ( from screwfix) wire 2,5 and 3 on the master socket front plate and when you look at your extension sockets just wire the same colours to 2.5 and 3 .......but if the line is dsl enabled just wire 5 and 2 up but make sure you have filters in each socket. www.adslnation.com/ is full of info

 

[Bobbya82]

Thanks Johnboy and everyone else!