Charged despite problem not resolved!

Question

i really dont know where to start....
a few months back, our phone line died...no dial tone..silence. the kids had dropped our phone a few times over the few years we'd had it so we bought a new phone...same problem. broadband connection was still fine though (and still is). so I ran through all the checks...disconnecting everything, unscrewing bottom half of main box to access test socket etc. plugged phone in......nothing. after all this i rang bt via my mobile (at cost!) to be told that they could send an engineer out but that we could potentially incur a callout charge of £130.00 if the fault originates after the main box (ie that we would not incur a charge if the fault occurs with anything upto and including the main box). I'll be honest and say at this time, I could not afford such a potential fee, so decided to make do with mobile use until I could afford the potential fee.
meanwhile, I recieve a letter from sky threatening to charge me more on my subscription with them, as I didnt have them connected to my phoneline.....I did but the boxes were unable to make their test calls due to the line problem.
faced with further cost, i had no chance but to gamble....and arranged an engineer visit.
the engineer called, glanced at the antique wiring coming into the property, took a cursory look at the main box, fiddled with the wiring (between outside and the main box) and changed the face on the main box. then confidently told me I needed a new filter....10mins and he was out the door! he then sat in his vehicle outside the house for 20-30mins.
line was working, hurrah! not...... bought a new filter....called sky out, resolved that issue.....then.....same fault...internet fine, no phone line, no dial tone, nada. whilst calling our number goes straight to 1571 as if line is busy.
I then notice that bt intend taking a £130.00 charge via direct debit....to say my jaw dropped.....
in this past week, i've noticed openreach engineers working in our area... in fact 1 van at either end of our street. I took the opportunity of approaching one of the engineers to ask if it was our problem he was working on. he stated no, it was the local golf club they were working on but had come across a fault that will have been affecting the area potentially for the last few months as a result of their work there. he stated that the fault i was experiencing had been reported to him by about 5 other local people, and whilst I was speaking to him another local resident gave a similar account.
encouraged by this conversation, i risked calling bt using my mobile......lines busy - leave number for callback in 1 hour.......no callback, tried this 2 more times.....same scenario. barring cancelling dd, I had very few options left, so i gave them 1 more try on thursday, got through to india.....they spent 27 minutes telling me that the engineer fixed the fault, before suggesting that they transfer me blind to the faults line, refusing to have to explain myself all over again, i insisted that they explain situation before transferring me through. the guy I was speaking to begrudgingly agreed to this only to come back to me after about 5minutes of hold music and state that the faults department would call me within 10 minutes.....
......they called me an hour and 10mins later, introducing themselves as being from the BROADBAND faults department, that they were very busy right now and would give me a call in 10mins.......suffice to say that is the last i've heard from them....
given the fact that the fault is not beyond the main box, by bt's own statement, I do not owe a callout fee, given that the DD is due to be claimed and the complete lack of customer service I have no choice but to suspend my DD (only allowing what should be claimed) as given the level of competence displayed already, I have no confidence in recovering funds claimed incorrectly if i was to allow bt to claim what they want to.
ultimately
*I want the fault fixed
*I do not want to pay for something that hasnt been done
*I am willing to pay if it can be proved that it is something in my house beyond the main box that is causing the fault
*I do not want to jump through hoops to get the matter resolved
*I am more that willing to play fair on this, but all I seem to be encountering is lies, failed service and stealth charging
please help, someone!

Answer 1

Hi Shalhassan,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.  I would like to look into this for you.
Please drop me an email via the 'Contact Us' link in my profile. (click on my name and you will find the link under the "about me" section). Include your BT account details and the link to this thread.
Cheers
Sean
BTCare Community Manager
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry that we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)