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Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 1:56 pm Post subject: BT are an amazing company...

OK it's only taken me 12 months, four attempts and a complaint to actually get BT to come out and talk about putting a new phone line in to us and now they want £3575 + VAT just to extend the line (properties on either side have service but both lines end at our immediate neighbours). BT have completely hacked me off now after some shockingly bad customer service- would any other phone companies be able to do it cheaper?

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 1:58 pm Post subject:
Satellite phone? Thought BT were the only company that could do the line bit

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 1:59 pm Post subject:
I think that they are. Don't imagine there's a cable network anywhere near.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 2:00 pm Post subject:

Penny wrote:

Thought BT were the only company that could do the line bit

So did I, until their engineer told me otherwise. It turns out that several companies do it...

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:14 pm Post subject:

OK, so I have now complained to BT who have basically said that because BT Openreach have raised these charges there is nothing they can do about it (and it'll be the same with any other provider) and gave me BT Openreach's details to raise it with them directly. Suprise, suprise BT Openreach have say they can only liase with us through our service provider (BT).

Feels like we're just going round in circles...

It's not remote (with existing lines coming to within 100 yards either side) and it's not expensive- if we were having the same work done on our own land (non-contenstable) we'd do it for about a tenth of the cost. Is a phone really worth £3.5k?

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:18 pm Post subject:
I'm not up to date re mobile costs in England, but I bet you could get a fair few years on a decent contract before your 3.5k ran out.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:23 pm Post subject:
We're on mobile at the moment for phone and internet, but it is incredibly slow and intermittent.

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:27 pm Post subject:
oh dear, we have a 3G dongle for the internet, from three. we couldn't me more remote but it works really well,, mostly.

Brownbear

Joined: 28 May 2007
Posts: 14929
Location: South West

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:33 pm Post subject:
Can't you get your neighbours to have an extra line put in, and run a cable across yourself? Give them a bit of lamb by way of a fee.

Rob R

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 31902
Location: York

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:41 pm Post subject:
Yep, I think you're right. Also considered doing the contestable ducting/junction box ourselves (it's a deadend country lane, rather than the A1) and then telling them to come and poke their wire down it.

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:48 pm Post subject:
they could use trained ferrets to drag the cable through. Or did I dream about reading that?

Mrs R

Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 7202

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:54 pm Post subject:
I thought it'd be better to tap into the neighbour's all along...but I'm fully up for buying the best dongle on the market (can't be more than 3.5k!) - they've probably come a long way since this one was invented?

Duckhead

Joined: 24 Oct 2009
Posts: 2069
Location: Up the hill, Italy

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 4:59 pm Post subject:

Nat S wrote:

I thought it'd be better to tap into the neighbour's all along...but I'm fully up for buying the best dongle on the market (can't be more than 3.5k!) - they've probably come a long way since this one was invented?

Ours came free with a contract. 6 months ago. It is really good, good enough to watch the football on streams that we shouldn't go into, with barely a buffer.
We got the option to try one out, they lent us a dongle and bought a pay as you go chip with 5 euros of credit on it. Try doing that?

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 5:44 pm Post subject:

Rob/Nat do you get the faster mobile service where you are? I know many places don't have coverage in the uk still.

Another option would be installing a suitable wireless broadband router in your neighbours house if their landline supports a decent speed. I've heard of a few people doing that.

IIRC there's a web site that lists people with powerful wireless routers that have been set-up for people to use, might be worth having a look for that?

nats

Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 2374
Location: Swindon but not a Swindonian

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 10 5:47 pm Post subject:
The trouble will be the BT can't just "join up" with the neighbours - cabling for data just doesn't work that way I'm afraid. I think the wireless router idea sounds good - with a Skype phone??

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