BT line slammed by SKY

Like other customers I have been advised numerous times my problem would be resolved each time I have been promised call backs guess what no call backs.
My problem is my telephone line has been slammed by SKY, BT have acknowledged this, they have also advised me that my e mail is on file telling them not to allow sky to take the line. On the 2nd January 2010 SKY slammed the line and took it over I only found out later when I received a detailed statement form SKy with telephone calls on it as from the 2nd January 2010. When I contacted BT first they were not aware my line had been taken over, and were adamant it was still with BT I faxed my copy of my SKY bill to them they soon changed their mind and admitted SKY had slammed my line this is the terminology they use for this.
They advised me to contact SKY this I did the guy at SKY admitted what had happened despite having a e mail from me advising I was not taking up the deal/offer they had offered me I was to stay with BT has they had now matched the SKY offer. The guy at Sky said he could close the account forthwith but said I would then be left with no telephone line or Broadband. The broadband is still with BT as I did not supply the MAC code to SKY, he advised me to contact BT who would then get the line back.
This I have been trying to do I have an incident number, I have spoken with a JO ANNE BISHOP a REF TERESA a Tim a Daniel and a Matthew all of which promised it would be sorted out. I have out of pocket expenses with SKY of £30 plus £11 line rental. I have also just had a direct debit taken from my account by BT in the sum of £213.32 which includes a £30 cancellation charge and a £165.20 broadband cancellation charge, I have cancelled nothing I still have my Broadband with BT my line is with SKY.
Can you please advise how do I sort this out I am talking to a brick wall at BT. I have advised them I am registered disabled with a serious heart condition, I simply cannot take the stress of trying to sort this out are you able to offer any advice please.

Hi delboy0127,
Sounds like you have had a hard time of it. I'll be happy to lend a hand and get this sorted out for you.
Could you drop me in an email please with your BT account and telephone number along with a link back to this thread.
Just send to the email address in my profile and mark FAO Craig please.
I have removed a few personal details from your message for your safety. It can be dangerous publicly posting private information.
Thx
Craig
BTCare Community Mod
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Broadband Line Slammed by Sky - but BT still not r...

deleted - post moved by Keith as I was typing reply
way to slow gg30340
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As Above!!
Ha Ha imj

Bt line slamming

I woke up today to find I have no internet or broadband. Called Sky (the company I work for and have no intentions of leaving) only to be told BT took the line over on 7th of march! I have receive no communication from either company, have no broadband and a whole lot of uni work to do before tomorrow. What the hell do I do?? I'm still waiting on sky calling me back. I need BB now. I gave no consent to my services being switched.
Nightmare!

This sounds odd. When I transferred my service from Skt to BT, I got several "you're leaving us but it's not too late to change your mind" emails / letters from Sky.
What happens if you dial 150? Is it BT? If so, you need to make a formal complaint.
See the pic for all the stuff I got during the changeover. When you speak to Sky, you might ask them if they're sure about what they told you, who requested the MAC code, why they didn't communicate with you in this way, etc.
PS: The 7th one up said in it: "Just to let you know that your home phone should now be set up with your new supplier. As you're staying with us for Home Broadband we've moved you onto The All Rounder broadband only at £12.50" So even if phone was somehow slammed, Sky don't automatically cancel your broadband package.

CS5 Photomerge - how to avoid those strange jig-saw lines in the sky

Here is one image out of 4
that I am merging [just an example of one of many I do]
you will note that the sky area to the left of the rainbow is clear and normal.
When using Photomerge direct from bridge and on RAW files regardless of resolution I am getting nasty and annoying lines and areas of uneven-ness that are too hard to fix by retouching as they are widespread and large. They usually appear in smooth detail-less areas like skies and really stand out if you want to darken them. They are NOT anything to do with the joins of the images and they appear regardless of how many images you are merging. They appear regardles of which style - ie 'auto', 'reposition', 'cylinder' etc one chooses in the merge panel. As I am trying to sell large-scale and perfect panoramic prints for the wall, the only way I can avoid them is to keep these areas light so they don't show up - that's not what I want! The next pic shows an example - I have saturated to make it clear to see.
Regards Mal

Are you stitching 16 bits/channel files? I would guess you're using 8 bit. Posterization can be a problem with 8 bit.
Try 16 bit. I've done a lot of Photomerges of 16 bit files and I don't see what you're showing.
-Noel

Dancing lines and jittery sky-..?

Hello All
I’m still kind of new to shooting video with the 5DMK2, as I’m an Architectural Photographer and I’m having more and more clients asking about video.
I’ve posted a sample video there is no audio, and please excuse the sloppy pan, I’m still trying to work out the bugs and kinks.
My problem is:
The sky seems to have a lot of jitter in it (Not sure if jitter is the word or not)
Dancing lines on the eves/edges of the house.
Is there a way to get rid of those artifacts?
I used Premiere Pro CS5, with the Vimeo HD export settings .
My workstation is as follows:
MacPro 12 Core
14 GB ram
OS 10.6.5
CS5 Master Collection
26 inch Lacie Monitor
Any Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Video Link
http://www.borosch.com/test-pan.mp4
Mark

Is there a way to get rid of those artifacts?
"...there are no DSLRs currently on the market that can produce the quality of video that could be considered for any serious applications. Due to the 'line-skipping' down-converting methods of cameras like Canon's EOS 5D MK2 where the method of downscaling to get a HD video picture size of 1920x1080 is achieved by simply deleting (skipping) lines on the large sensor. This, and other limitations such as a lack of decent low-pass video filtering, means that DSLRs like the 5D MK2 suffer from chronic aliasing, compression artifacts, bayer-type patterning, stepping and other retarded picture degrading phenomena."
The solution?
"Unlike Digital SLRs, Panasonic have put all the right technology into the AG-AF100 camcorder to utilize this large sensor and the amazing shallow depth-of-field that can be achieved from it by using correct optical low-pass video filtering and proper downscaling technology, eliminating any aliasing and other nasty gremlins that DSLRs are riddled with."
http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=246

Phone line taken over by SKY without my consent ! ...

Yesterday I woke up to find my phone and broadband was not working.
I called BT customer service, to my surprise they told me that my account has been ceased because SKY has taken it over. I never asked SKY to take my services or BT to terminate my account.
How BT can act irresponsibly?
How BT can be such a irresponsible to terminate the services without getting confirmation from me? Is this not a kind of joke? Did they check any security questions, even the phone number to terminate the service? Can any other company call BT and take over my services? This is the most absurd service I have ever came across.
Big question mark for Sky:
How SKY can ask BT to stop services when he is not authorized to do so? Did they get owner (in this case my) permission to do so? Did they check any ID of the person who asked to do so? Can I call them to get anybody's service terminated ?
Now I do not want to change my phone number at any cost, so first thing was re-order from BT. New installation date is set to be 21st Oct.
I just got call from BT that my ORDER HAS BEEN CANCELLED because line belong to SKY now.
WHERE TO GO NOW???????????????????????????????????
CALLING FROM MOBILE ................................... BECAUSE NO OTHER PHONE
Spending hours to wait on the phone before I could reach to CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISOR !
WHAT A RUBBISH SERVICE !!!!!

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BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

New line with BT

Hi all,
I've recently had my phone line and broadband with Sky cancelled, which are now inactive.
My phone line was on Sky's own network.
I have ordered a new line with BT today and have been given an activation date of 07 May. There will be no engineer attending and there was no connection fee.
My broadband was apparently due to be removed from my old Sky line on 13 May.
My questions are:
Is this simply a physical changeover from Sky to BT at the exchange?
Will I be able to order broadband on the new line even though the broadband has not yet been removed from my old line?
Might seem like silly questions, but I'm definitely not a techie!
Apologies if this is in the wrong section.
Thanks,
David

Hi Djwaugh
It sounds as if it is still on BT's network... as the date is very quick and there is no engineer required.
It's a simple changeover.
Regarding broadband, you won't be able to reorder that until your line is back up and running and there are no 'tags' left on the line... best wait till 8th May to check to see if you can get broadband.

Slamming - why do BT think they can get away with ...

On 4th June my phone line (rental through Sky) went dead. I called them and was advised BT had told them they were taking over my line and they had to terminate my account. I had broadband with BT at the time - which they kindly terminated two days later without advising me. This left me with no phone line or broadband and no explanation or apology. To cut a very long story short....it WAS a BT error - one in a long line. Having spent in excess of 6 hours on a mobile phone trying to sort out the mess, I wrote to Durham to try and get reimbursement and compensation. I eventually received a response quoting a phone number and pin code. It didnt work - surprise surprise! It seems BT's answer to dealing with complaints is keep fobbing people off and passing them from pillar to post until they give in. I won't be giving in - I have already registered a complaint with Otelo and am trying to no avail to obtain a letter of deadlock. Despite being promised callbacks from mysterious 'managers' these have not materialised. All I want is a letter of deadlock - or perhaps I should just bypass otelo also and go directly to county court to have my complaint dealt with?

Hi
I am afraid that this appears to be a deliberate policy of misleading by BT...it occurs too often for it to be accidental. Its a shame but they just ignore their basic legal duty of care
Write to Warren Buckley MD customer services giving them 14 days to put right. Explain that has caused distress and real financial loss. Send by registered post.
If you have not heard from Bt within 14 days then ask for resolution by another 14 days and copy the customer services team attached to the directors office. If no response by then commence complaint to the watchdog as per my earlier note. It is an illegal action that BT have done and they have very little defence. They also have a duty of care that extends to rectifying the situation...and mitigate your losses.
If you decide to go to court for compensation Bt defence that Open reach or wholesale is a separate company will not work as it ultimately an associate company by management and ownership. The legal position re their liability to put things right is clear. Bt cannot hide behind blaming the Broadband provider as the service level agreement between them and the provider will clearly set out responsibility and the Judge etc will ask for clarification from BT legal representative............at that stage the liability for BT will become totally transparent and if they have mislead the customer ...in writing or on the phone (document your conversations) then they will have a huge hole in their case and also the damages awarded will be higher.
Finally if you go down the small claims court route (as per my earlier route) do not put a total amount on your claim and leave it open.............thsi will prevent BT form applying to the court to be held at their local county court.........you therefore have the hearing at your court and Bt will have to travel to it or not turn up...if they don't turn up then you can apply to the court for the finding against them in their absence..which will often be accepted........
BT is a symbolic company that ha as very arrogant attitude to its customers and quite frankly their customer service sucks....every time you complain to the ombudsman it costs BT money and so they will quickly focus on getting their customer service if their costs start rocketing

From SKY BB to BT Infinity

Hi guys,
Just cancelled my SKY package there - phone line, broadband, and sky tv. So I have until the end of next month before I move to a new provider.
Was wondering if I get the BT £40 package, with TV and unlimited broadband, how long will it take BT to come over and install since time of ordering. SKY say it will take 14 days for them to be 'removed' from my line, something like that anyway.
So, does anyone have any experience with this, why should I order BT and will I receive any downtime on my phoneline/internet.
Cheers,
Cab

thecab wrote:
Thanks for the replys,
I have read up on the forums here so I have seen both sides. But I going to go for it and order tonight, as I want my apparent 32mb download speed, not my pathetic current max 2mb ADSL connection.
As for SKY, I have their service until the end of next month, but can do what I want to the phone line in about 10 days so I hopefully dont go without service (would be a bit of a nightmare!) and hopefully BT sort there stuff out with no problems!
Cheers guys,
Ill try and post what happens, just incase there is someone in the future looking to know.
Hope everything goes alright for you.
As has been said in a previous post, telephone wise you should not be down for any length of time, you possibly will not even know it has changed. BB wise, there will be a few days delay
toekneem
http://www.no2nuisancecalls.net
(EASBF)

BT says no, Sky says yes!

Following a previous post about BT saying that I can't get Infinity (when my attached neighbours can), I have been told by BT that it may be showing as unavailable because my existing line is with Sky. The BT Infinity sales guy said my line is an MPS, what the hell is that?
Anyway, according to Sky fibre is available for me. So I've placed the order and will see what happens. I was more than happy to move to BT, but I won't hold my breath anyway as I haven't seen any of the new cabinets get installed near me, but then again I couldn't find my cabinet number so perhaps it's hidden somewhere else.
Would what the BT sales guy be true? That it's showing as unavailable for me as I'm with Sky currently?

The BT Wholesale checker doesn't work for non-BT phones, such as Sky. Sky should know if it's available or not.
If you found this post helpful, please click on the star on the left
If not, I'll try again

Just ordered new calls package / line rental. Do I...

Hi All,
I've just ordered a new phone package from BT which includes line rental.
The activation date isn't until 28th March which is fine but do i need to cancel my old phone package and line rental with sky?
Regards

Hi d80adc,
I would at least notify your current supplier that your leaving and tell them what date your new service is estimated to be activated.
Cheers
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My BT nightmare - And I was only with them for aro...

Hi,
This post is a rant at how appalling I have found BT customer services, and I have only been a customer for 2 ½ days!
I placed my order around the end of January for BT Infinity & BT telephone line, I was to be transferring over from Sky. Anyway, I received an activation date of the 16 Feb 2015 and a few days before this I received the HH5.
So late on Sunday 15 Feb I realised that I did not know what time the BT engineer would be arriving so I got onto BT live support and discovered that there would be no engineer visit, I would just connect up the HH5 and the Infinity would be ready a few hours after BT take over my line from Sky. Great, as I had already booked a day off work I figured I would make the most of it so I spent the day playing on my Playstation waiting for the infinity to start working.
Well my Sky internet went off at about 9am, this was the time my wife tried to dial up her works remote connection. No worries, I connected the HH5 and told her that it would be active in about 2 hours (It states this on the HH5 box). Well it didn’t activate and my wife had to tether her mobile to her laptop so she could work. Kinda sucked but there we go these things happen, after all BT said on the order tracking that it could be up to midnight before it activated. Well midnight came & went and it was still not activated.
I should also mention that I run several online shop’s all of which have had to be closed since Monday 16 Feb as a cost of several hundreds of pounds lost each day my internet was off.
So Tuesday 17 Feb I contact BT via live chat and get passed from pillar to post and eventually an Indian lady calls me and says Infinity will be active by 16 Feb at midnight, Ummm yeah that was like 10 hours ago as it is now 10am on Tuesday morning. She then started saying something an all I could understand was the word ‘engineer’ and that she promised the Infinity would be active by midnight on the 17 Feb.
Well you guessed it, midnight on the 17 Feb came & went and Infinity was still not active.
So today Wednesday 18 Feb, day three of my online shops being turned off at about a loss of £900 in turnover and my wife racking up a huge bill tethering her mobile to her laptop so she could be able to work. I again contact BT via live chat and again get passed around several departments until a lovely lady (cough cough) who appeared to take great delight in disconnecting our chat before I had finished asking questions.
Anyway, this lovely lady eventually told there was a routing problem and that BT would have an update – An update, not a resolution but an update on the 24 Feb, 6 days time - During this time I would stand to lose about £2000.00 in online shop sales not to mention the huge bill my wife is running up on her mobile by tethering it to her laptop.
Surely, this two week wait between ordering Infinity and it going live BT Openreach should be making sure everything is actually working at the exchange/cabinet so on the go live date it actually goes live. And the go live date does not mean we will see if it works date.
I told the BT support girl that this time scale was completely unacceptable and I must cancel my order immediately as I need to get internet access. No problem she said I can cancel it now, should she proceed? Yes I said please do. There was a long pause and she came back on to the chat to say it had been cancelled. Great I thought…..
I then said that I presume I will not be charged for the cancellation and she replied that I had two weeks to cancel after I had placed the order. What the heck, how is that fair? I placed the order about 18 days ago and BT have failed to provide the service. How the hell am I supposed to know that that BT could not provide infinity to me until these two weeks after my initial order has passed?
Surely this has to be some breach of the distance selling regulations? When I sell something online the customer has 30 days AFTER receipt of the goods to decide if they want to keep them. If I was to follow BT’s cancellation policy then I would only allow my customers to change their minds after I posted and before they received the goods…. This type of cancellation policy to totally unacceptable if you ask me.
Anyway, the BT chat girl then say that my line will be gone by tomorrow (19 Feb) and everything will be cancelled. Again great I thought, I can get back on to Sky and get them to supply ADSL again. Then it occurred to me, if BT are ceasing my order my line will go dead. I pressed the BT chat girl about this and she then admitted that yes, the line will be ceased and I would probably have to pay to get it reconnected! WTF – BT have caused all these issues and are quite happy to totally drop me in the dodo and they really don’t give a toss about their customers.
I then asked the BT girl about the potential to recover loss of earnings from BT at this point she disconnected me and that was the end of that.
So it remains to see if I will be charged for a service I have not received but I for one will never ever use BT for any of my services in the future.
Now, later that day I contacted Sky via live chat whilst I was out on a job and they were extremely helpful. At one point my laptop did a restart and lost the chat with Sky just as I was making progress with my internet issue, I couldn’t believe it but before my laptop had restarted the Sky rep I was chatting to called me up on my mobile! Awesome.
She then proceeded to see what she could do to get my phone number & line back from BT and she said the system was letting her pull it back across, this is great as I won’t have to pay a reconnection fee and my landline number stays the same.
But that is not all, she went on to say that I also qualified for 12 months free Sky unlimited internet (ADSL – the same package that I was on before) she did not know how but something to do with BT taking the line away from Sky and then her puling it back across. Result!
She then said that it could take up to two weeks to get the ADSL back on my phone line, bit of a bummer I thought but it was my fault really for trusting BT to get me up & running when they said they would. But she then proceeded to tell me that she would be crediting my Sky account with £25 so I could go out and buy an internet dongle so I could get back online and open up my online shops (I was going to do this anyway but Sky have said they will pay for it!)
So there we go, just look at the difference in customer support between BT and Sky.
I wish I had never tried to move to BT and I cannot believe what an incompetent company they are and the contempt they treat their customers with.
BT sucks if you ask me!

damage2008 wrote:
Hi,
I should also mention that I run several online shop’s all of which have had to be closed since Monday 16 Feb as a cost of several hundreds of pounds lost each day my internet was off.
So today Wednesday 18 Feb, day three of my online shops being turned off at about a loss of £900 in turnover and my wife racking up a huge bill
Anyway, this lovely lady eventually told there was a routing problem and that BT would have an update – An update, not a resolution but an update on the 24 Feb, 6 days time - During this time I would stand to lose about £2000.00 in online shop sales not to mention the huge bill my wife is running up on her mobile by tethering it to her laptop.
Welcome to the BT Residential Customers forum
As you are a business user, perhaps you should post your comments on the BT Business forum at http://business.forums.bt.com/
BT do not permit you to use a residential account to run a business anyway, as its against their T&Cs.
BT Business broadband has a proper SLA, and compensation arrangements on certain packages.
It may be wise to see what Sky say about business usage, and their compensation arrangements.
As both BT and Sky use the Openreach network, that is where any future failures ar most likely to be.
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

Re: BT is the worst company I have ever dealt with...

Guys if you listen to my story you would feel your problems do not exist.
I got an offer from sky to come back to sky and I took it at the start of this month.
I had a BT line and wanted to use it for calls on ongoing basis . I wanted to keep my BT service . I also liked the smart talk app.
I had virgin TV and Fibre broadband and the phone that come with it which I never used.
Now Sky promised me I can keep my virgin number and gave an installation date of 20 sep.
11 sep recieved a call from Virgin checking if I m switching to another supplier. I said yes. I was out of contract for virgin and had
given 30 days notice also. They said my account would close at end of month.
I recieved a call from BT checking if I am switching my phone to another provider. I said no. They said no worries you will stay with BT.
Come 19 th my BT line stopped.! When I dialled 150 ( yes that worked) it went to sky. I asked the advisor have they taken over my BT line. They said no and my sky talk service can only be active next day and that too they are taking over my virgin number.
I recieved a mail from BT at 9.15 PM on 19 sep saying if I did not contact them by mid afternoon of 19 sep my service will stop and would move to another company ! I called BT and I had already lost my BT number. They apologised but promised they can rectify this next day as another dept that can do it closed.
Next day I called BT and said I want my number back and BT service back, they said all done and will be back by evening.
The same day a open reach engineer came and checked the line and said sky made wrong order. They should have provided a new line and ported virgin number on it. Instead they had taken BT line and ordered renumber to put virgin number on top.
So open reach engineer did not install BB since the order was on a different number! I called sky while open reach engineer was on and they agreed the engineer has to go back and they would sort it out. My case was assigned to erroneous take over team and a special agent was assigned. The lady called me next day promised everything would be set right all I had to do was call BT and ask them to do a Working line take over and sky would cooperate and work with BT to get my BT number back. Then sky would do a new line provide and give me broadband . Till the nothing can be done ! I called BT again and said I want my number back and sky has said they will cooperate. BT guy took 12 month line rental saver payment and said all done and service will be back in 3 days!
I called sky to inform, they said BT may not be able to do it so quick call them and check.
I called BT again and they said order had failed and it has to be transfer in order. They placed another order.
Next day I called BT and checked how is the progress they said they hd refunded my money and a specialist team is now on the case and nothing can be done !
Frustrated I called sky about 10 times in last 4 days to get BB installed now on the line they have taken over from BT.
I gave up trying to get BT service back. Now 3 orders of sky BB. Have failed and latest today they gave me a engineer appointment of 7 October. When I checked order progress online it showed it is delayed and was in red !
Called the specialist team at sky, no one wanted to take my call and the front desk operator said they will let me know when there is some update. The case manger assigned to me is due back in office only on Friday !
My virgin broadband service is to stop month end and sky may not get their act together at least till 10 Oct by looks of it!
So much for customer service,ofcom regulations and two big companies investing millions on their IT.
BT were the most callous ones. Could not be bothered to talk or understand the problem,. Sky folks are at least promising to sort out ! Fingers crossed.

Latest updates-
BT tried few times to place order for getting phone service back.all failed.
I even got a new welcome letter, new account number etc only to find they all failed.
They refunded money twice and finally told me a specialist team will come back in 10 days.
I had no option to accept my fate and get my broad band installed on this erroneously taken over line by sky which BT allowed against my instructions confirmed on a call with BT on 11th sep.
I wrote to BT asking for compensation. Here is the update email to BT I wrote again today.
Customer By Email (Ravi Bikkannavar) 07/10/2013 12:40 PM
Some one called me today at about 11.35 am and started the argument that I need to talk to open reach and sky because they made a mistake in taking over my BT line.
I never wanted my BT line and account to go! I had confirmed this on phone with BT on 11 sep again when I was promised that my account would not go anywhere .
This agent who called me today kept telling me that on 19 sep Sky requested again to take over the BT line and this was a second request . And BT agreed to it on same day ! Why did you do that?
She would not accept this as BT mistake .
I have lost my BT service and BT number because of mistake by BT
After 19 sep I had contacted BT so many times and couple of orders were placed to reinstate my account and amount of advance line rental charged on my account and refunded because the orders failed . Finally they told me a specialist team would look into this and come back to me. I was left by BT without a service .
Now I asking for compensation for removing my account without my consent , making me loose my phone number and failing to reinstate my account in timely manner .
Your agent today simply disconnected the call.

BT can't find the phoneline - again!

Hi
I'm trying to move house. As usual I have a massive list of address changes to make and utility accounts to close/transfer. As usual, I got to the item "BT" and my heart sank. But I pressed on. Maybe for once it would go smoothly?
This time - I told myself - it'll work. Because this time, the current tenant of the new property kindly took the time to meet me there (he doesn't live there any more, though he has the keys) and let me in so that I could do a 17070 on the line. I got the number read out to me by the automated service, thanked the guy for letting me in and left happily.
No. Surprise, surprise. BT can't find any trace of the number their own automated service has read out to me. As usual, the actual service guy on 0800 800 150 was trying his best to help me, but his system had no trace of this line. There is no line listed at that address (apart from two other lines which are in current use); and the number I was given on 17070 is listed at another address in the area.
The only option I'm being offered is to "book a line installation"; when there is, perfectly clearly, a BT line, with a BT Openreach labelled socket, and a dial tone, already there in the property. I am not prepared to do this. I just have no faith that the engineer will turn up and confirm that there is a line, and that I shouldn't be charged. If the line happens to be currently/last operated by TalkTalk, or DeutscheTelekom, TwoBeanTinsTelecom, or whoever, that's not my problem. Should I call every telecoms provider operating in the UK just to find out who can provide me service without charging a ridiculous "installation fee"?
£130 for installation, or signing up to BT Broadband (which I don't want), or signing up to an 18-moth contract, are simply not options. I'm already having a to break an 18-month BT contract and pay the cancellation fees to move away from this property, because there was no BT line here (I got fooled by the similar-looking Virgin socket).
I've had to move house quite frequently in the last few years: simply because sometimes a landlord or property turns out to be no good to live in. I take this into account when I move house. I look for a BT socket precisely so that I won't have to pay this kind of amount, or sign up to 18-month contracts that I'm never going to reach the end of.
What are my options?
Apart from concluding that BT simply don't want my business unless I
- Pay a massive upfront charge; or
- Buy into services I don't want or need; or
- Buy into a longer contract than I'll honour, and end up paying cancellation charges

Thank you for your further explanation, plainview.
Unfortunately it doesn't change my situation, which is that I'm stuck in a bureaucratic hole. No-one is taking responsibility for telling me who this - evidently operational, if not activated - phone-line belongs to, so that I can make a choice about how to start up service on it. If it's a LLU line, it must "belong" to some company, and I should be able to make a choice whether to take up service with them (with minimal startup costs), or take up service with some other company (and pay some conversion/connection/installation charges). But who does it belong to?
If I don't get some answers, from somewhere, soon, I'm going to take this up with Ofcom.
Here are the further checks I've done:
1. Got access to the property again, and did a 17070. Result: a phone number is read out to me, which shares the same 3-digit code as my current BT line down the road (the code is 0141-XXX). The voice then says "BT line test facilities", and gives me 4 options, probably used by engineers.
2. The phone socket clearly has BT Openreach written on it.
3. This phone line does not exist on BT's database. Or it does exist but is not at that address. Or it used to exist but has "been re-assigned". I get a different answer every time I call. One woman at BT tried to help me by looking it up on an older system, but before she got far the system crashed/shut her out.
4. It doesn't exist on Zen Internet's (probably same) database. (These are the providers I would like to go with, but they require a non-LLU line).
5. In case it might be a Sky line, I ran it through the Sky Line Check at Sky line check. Entering the number and postcode, I get some results, but "Phone number lookup failed". This is similar to what I get on other line-check websites I've found.
6. Calling the number, I get "This line does not accept incoming calls".
7. Tried calling BT Openreach on 0800 023 2023. I had to fight a little to explain that I can't go through my provider, because I can't get a provider, because I can't get any provider to acknowledge that this line exists! They couldn't help me, and referred me to BT Faults on 0800 800 151 option 1. I called that, and tried to get some sense. They couldn't help me either, and referred me to... guess... Openreach on 0800 023 2023!
8. Other numbers tried from the line in question:
        150 "Number not recognised"
        100 "Number not recognised"
        1571 "Number not recognised"
        1471 "No received calls"
        0800 800 150 "Number not recognised".
Here's my position:
- I agree that this problem is not BT Retail's responsibility
- There is no malice or bad service involved: the people I talk to try to help me, but run up against what seems to be the immovable object which is BT Openreach's refusal to admit the possibility that their database of lines is incomplete or inaccurate, especially when flats are involved. Service people cannot deal with this by escalating it to Openreach; the only procedure in place seems to be to suggest that I fling £130 at the problem and see what happens - which means I'm committing to a provider already!
My experience is that BT being wrong about the presence of a line is not a possibility, but a constant reality. Every single time I've moved house in the last 10 years, there's been a BT socket there, with a dial tone (except for this last place I'm now in); every time BT have claimed that there's no record of a line. Every time they've wanted to charge me for line installation. Every time I've had to fight like hell to convince them that there is a line and not pay for installation. Every time they've found out that, surprise surprise, there was a line there all along I'm sick of it. It's simply an attempt to gouge £130 out of me, when the problem is that the database is inaccurate.
Now I want to choose my provider; it may be that the line currently in the property allows some choices and makes others more expensive. For example, if it's a LLU line, Zen Internet or BT would have to charge me an installation fee. But I can't get this information!! BT's attitude is "the database is right; if it's not on the database, it doesn't exist; it belongs to some other company, but we're not going to tell you/can't tell you who". So who does have responsibility for telling me who this line belongs to?
I've spent hours on this.

My BT account

I had a phone line with BT, then after getting my phone line slammed by talktalk a couple of months ago I had to get a new account with BT...Eventually everything is up and running except when I log in to see my account, it's the old account... After explaining this to several successive people at BT, I got someone in billing to reset my account. That worked except, well it didn't. I still see my old account (incidentally claiming I have unpaid bills, which I don't) and I don't see my new account. I'm also on paper free billing so the first time I hear about a phone bill, it's via a letter demaning payment, with a late payment charge and £2 charge for sending me the bill... One of the many people I spoke to at BT suggested I report a fault. He said he would put me through to faults, but there must have been yet another fault because the line went dead. I literally can't face spending an half an hour on the phone only to be cut off again. That is why I am here. Any ideas?

Hi patstini
Welcome to the forums!
I shall be happy to get this sorted out for you.
Could you drop me in an email please? Use the 'contact us' form in my forum profile under the 'about me' section. You can find it by clicking on my username.
Thx
Craig
BTCare Community Mod
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BT line slammed by SKY

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