Unfair engineer charge - charged for engineer atte...
Hello,
Wondering if anyone knows how I can get an unfair engineer charge properly looked into - I've had a call back from BT about it but the person I spoke to really didn't seem to have a good understanding of the issue.
For many months, I experienced frequent (but unpredictable) loss of broadband sync, and reported it to my provider, Plusnet, who could see the connection dropouts from their end, and sent an Openreach engineer (Engineer #1). He couldn't find the cause of the problem.
Plusnet then told me to report the problem directly to BT, which I did, and made it clear that it was a broadband fault.
BT sent an engineer (Engineer #2) who told me he couldn't properly diagnose the problem. Although he was a broadband engineer, he didn't have the necessary information to diagnose the problem because it hadn't been entered as an SFI job. He ran some tests, which completed successfully (above the threshold for a pass), but he said there was room for improvement and replaced an old junction box between the door and the master socket, which improved the test scores (92% to 99% - something like that). Since the problem was an intermittent broadband problem, we couldn't confirm whether the problem was resolved. It is this visit that I am being charged for.
I monitored the connection over the next week, and it continued to drop. I reported the fault again to BT and added that I was suspicious that the problem might be weather-relatedr, and they sent another engineer (Engineer #3). This engineer could not find any problem that could be causing the drop outs. However, they had once again failed to set this up as an SFI visit, despite me specifically asking them to, so the engineer didn't have the information necessary to diagnose the fault.
I reported the problem to Plusnet again and asked them to set up the SFI visit via BT Openreach since my efforts were getting nowhere. They could see the connection dropouts continuing, and set up an SFI visit. The OR engineer missed the appointment but eventually I got a visit from Engineer #4 who fixed the fault. He found a problem at the telegraph pole (none of the previous engineers had bothered to look there) where the junction box had been left open and there was water ingress - he also changed the 'blue beans' connections there. He also redid my internal wiring, as he wanted to take the internal wiring out of the equation in case the problem continued.
BT have charged me for Engineer #2, even though it didn't fix the problem. They are saying there is 'no proof' that the problem wasn't fixed, since Engineer #3 couldn't find a problem. I think this is totally ridiculous - Engineer #3 couldn't find what was causing the problem, which is quite different from there not being a problem. Further, Engineer #3 was not even on an SFI visit, due to BT logging the job incorrectly, so he didn't have much chance of finding the problem anyway. The fact that Engineer #4 fixed the problem would surely prove that there WAS a problem, but BT will not acknowledge this visit, since it was an OR engineer sent by Plusnet. I've got the engineer's report on my Plusnet ticket, and graphs of the connection dropouts, but would BT accept this as 'evidence'?
I am at my wits' end with this - this problem went on for months, and required time off work for FOUR engineer visits plus a missed appointment. I can't believe they are trying to charge me 130 pounds for spurious reasons. In a fair world they would be compensating ME for months of inconvenience.
Do I need to take this to the Ombudsman to get a fair hearing?
Thanks for reading.
this may help explain especially as you had an old jubction box replaced http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12439/c/
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Similar Messages
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Charged for engineer callout - Master socket
About a month or so ago I was having a problem with the phone line where the broadband was working fine but the phone line kept making a crackly noise...which got louder and more frequent until eventually after a few days you just couldn't hear anything on the phone so it became impossible to take a phone call.
We tried disconnecting everything else from the master socket and couldn't figure out what the problem was so gave customer support a call who ran through every check they could and couldn't find anything wrong. Customer service suggested there may be something wrong with the equipment within the premises and that if there was an engineer sent out and they found the problem to be with our equipment then we would be liable for it and be charged for the callout. I was happy to have an engineer visit because i was sure that it wasn't anything that we had plugged in.
So the engineer turns up and straight away determines that the master socket is at fault so I asked him if we would be charged for it and he assured me we wouldn't...after all its not our equipment.
I've just now gone to check my account and I'm absolutely shocked to stumble upon a £129.99 charge for an engineer and i simply dont understand why I can be charged for equipment that BT/Openreach has installed..its not my equipment...how can it be may fault...we havent damaged it and we have no damp etc!!!!
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this....has this happened to anyone else?
Thanks!
AthiqueHi Athiqueahmed,
Thanks for the post and welcome to the forum. I appreciate this charge was certainly a nasty shock. I would be happy to look into why you have been charged for this visit. I will be able to view the engineers report and we can take it from there.
Can you please drop me an email? Click on my username (SeanD) and you will find my contact link under the 'About me' section of my profile. Once I have your details I can find out what is going on.
Cheers
Sean
BTCare Community Manager
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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 :-) -
My phone and internet were off altogether in February. I have been charged for the engineer visit. I live in a flat and the problem was caused by builders working one of the other flats in my building. Why is this my repsonsibility?
Here is the explanation.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12439/c/
Normally Openreach would raise a charge against the builders, as it was 3rd party damage.
I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
They are the only BT employees on this forum, and are a UK based team of people, who take personal ownership of your problem.
Once you get a reply, make sure that you are logged into the forum, then click on their name, you will see a screen like this. Click on the link as shown below.
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For your own security, do not post any personal details, on this forum. That includes any tracking number you are give.
They will respond either by phone or e-mail within 5-6 working days.
Please use the tracked e-mail, to reply, not via the forum. Thanks
This is the form you should see when you click on the link. If you do not see this form, then you have selected the wrong link.
When you submit the form, you will receive an enquiry number, so please keep a note of it
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. -
Engineer call out charges for disabled customers
Hi there,
I read somewhere online that if a bt customer who is registered disabled had any problems with there line & an engineer had to be called out to investigate, the customer wouldn't be charged for the call out or for any work that needed doing, is that true or is the information I read all wrong?
I'm enquiring on behalf of my father who is blind & registered disabled.Hi Craig,
well yes there was a problem with my fathers line, I look after him so live in the house & the broadband has been having lots of problems, also crackling on the line etc.
Anyway to cut a long story short, the isp sent out an engineer today to try and find the problem, it turned out the bt cabling on the outside of the house was 20+ years old and was in such a state it needed replacing, also the master socket was also very old & that was replaced as well.
Now I know my father wont be billed for the callout charge for the engineer as the isp is covering that & they told me there would be no callout charge when they called me to arrange the engineer visit but the cost of changing the cabling & fitting a new master socket will cost us, according to the engineer as he asked me whether to go ahead with replacing it all. Although I am not sure why it would cost anyway as that was all installed by bt so was there responsibility, also all the cabling was before the master socket so again that also tells me that it shouldn't cost anything.
But being as my father is registered disabled & blind I am curious to know whether he is liable for any fees or not for the work that was done, & if he is whether him being disabled would get the bill reduced. -
Why was I charged for Engineer Home Improvement Se...
My latest phone bill includes £129.99 for "Engineer Home Improvement Service charge".
This is puzzling. At the end of last year my broadband service was a disaster. Constantly dropping and all over the place.
Thanks to the excellent support I received elsewhere in this forum, an "engineer" called and fixed it.
The problem was not on my premises, but in an external cable that BT had installed many years ago. The engineer disconnected that connection at the BT junction box entering my house and the line suddenly improved.
I was told that external lines issues were down to BT.
The engineer replaced the somewhat corroded junction box and the first phone socket into the house. I asked for neither of these changes. It was the engineer's idea. At no time did he suggest that there would be a charge for this work. Had he done so, I might well have declined the offer, certainly at that price.
Is there an explanation for this charge? How do I query it?Hi michaelkenward,
We can investigate the charge for you and review the engineers report to find out why they have raised this as a chargeable visit. Please use the 'contact the mods' link in my forum profile under the 'about me' section to send in your details. You can find the link by clicking on my username.
Thanks
Neil
BTCare Community Mod
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 but 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 :-)
If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’. -
iPhoto v9.3.2 => v9.4.2
I feel it unfair and unjustifiable to charge for an upgrade of a pre-installed iphoto programme. Please refer to the above version.
This will result in payment on your very bad App Store of £10+
Extremely unhappy loyal Mac user!!!!!!iPhoto v9.3.2 => v9.4.2
Thank you for your response but in App Store it shows a price of £10+ for this down load.
(This is a free update. Contact with Mac App Store support > http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact)
Perhaps you are correct but this is not made clear in the update window of this App Store. -
HELP. My brother is being charged for broadband. h...
Can someone please help my brother is being charged for bt broadband that he doesn't have after being charged £125 installation fee for a bt man to sit in his van for an hour and not do a thing. After numerous phone calls to resolve this he asked me to come on here has the mods really helped me out.
Hi Dolphin,
what i would recommend is for you to help your brother by contacting BT directly and find out who and when the order was processed for BT Broadband.
Secondly, has your brother received a BT Home Hub? If not then i would ask BT why?
You state that a BT engineer sat out in a van for some time, what was this for? was this for a booked instalation for BT Broadband? if so, raise a complaint with BT, hopefully this link http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/2702,2705,2719 will allow you to e-mail BT or you can always dial 150 from a bt line to complain.
Here is more info if you wish to complain with BT, follow the procedures to BT's book, if they fail, you can complain to Otelo
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10789/c/345
http://www.otelo.org.uk/
Hope this helps
cg
CG Over An Out -
Told I would not be charged for Installation, char...
Hi,
A month or so ago I moved house and decided to taker my BT account with me.
When I organised the move with BT I was informed the installation charge would be around £130 because the house did not contain a line, at first I reluctantly agreed to this. I then spoke to my landlord who informed me the previous tenant had broadband so there was a line already installed.
I phoned BT customer care again and the lady on the phone refunded my account. She then told me I needed to organise an engineer visit. At this point I repeatedly asked her if I would be charged for this visit. She responded "No" several times.
The engineers visited me on the appointed day. They plugged a device into the line and popped to the exchange. Within 5 minutes they were back and told me the process was complete and my broadband was turned on. The whole visit lasted about 15 minutes including the time to go to the exchange and back.
On my next BT Bill I was upset to see that I had been charged for the installation despite the customer care lady telling me there would be no charge what so ever. At this point I phoned BT again and recieved the worst customer care I have ever recieved from any comapny.
I explained all of the above information to the employee. He listened to my previous call to the call centre and told me "The mistake was the previous employees human error and I would still be charged". After around 40 minutes on the phone trying to explain that it is not MY fault that BT made a mistake and essentially lied to me I made no progress. Just to top it off the call centre employee hung up on me!
I have been a customer for over 2 years and have actively reccomended BT to people I know but I have to say I am thoroughly disappointed by this incident.
At the point where I was told there would be no charge I could have easily cancelled my order and got a similar price from a competing company or even got my partner to set up a new account for our new house and take advantage of one of the deals BT posted through my door.
I would really like this issue resolved otherwise I will be cancelling my BT contract as soon as I am able to.
I look forward to hearing from a member of the customer care team.
Thanks,
GrantIf you would like to contact one of the UK based BT Care Team who moderate this forum, they should be able to help you.
They can be contacted using this link BT Care Team
They normally respond by phone or e-mail, within three working days, however you should get an immediate confirmation, with a tracking number.
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. -
In November the line was virtually unusable and the bb kept dropping. Went through the usual procedures,and an engineers visit was arranged. On the day of the visit,the engineer climbed up a pole at the bottom of the garden and an hour later we had a decent phone line again. The engineer never came on or in my property. We have now been charged £129.99 for this despite being told by BT that if the engineer doesn't come inside the house 'you can't be charged'. Clearly the problem was with BT's equipment and not our socket/phone etc. The wife has just phoned BT to complain and is being fobbed off with a load of old waffle. To make matters worse,the phone is now all crackly again and the bb keeps dropping,and we have an engineer booked for Monday. I shall have to cancel this and put up with all these problems as I am not prepared to be ripped off again. Can someone verify that if an engineer doesn't come into/onto your property,that you cannot be charged for it. Thanks.
Although this is quite an old thread, I feel I have to post regarding this. I have had a new install recently, and the infinty 76Mb is giving me 20Mb or there abouts anytime I test it. After a flurry of retests by CS these said they will send out an engineer. In the confirmation text its states:
"Remember it's £129.99 if the problem's with your set up or equipment or if we improve your home wiring or setup to resolve the problem"...
What a complete cheek!! If thats the case, how about: If the engineer finds the fault is down to BT, then the customer charges BT £150.00 for having to taking a day off of work in order that BT fix thier OWN issue. AND they get full reimbursement for the service they are paying for but are not GETTING.
Fair enough if theyre wasting thier time on someone who hasnt updated drivers, sure take a fee - as business is business. But dont come out with that **bleep** unless it works both ways. If the customers takes up your time, charge a fee, but why are you not compensating the customer for a loss of wage when the fault is with BT? Double standard aka GREED.
Sick of rip of companies. -
BT bill charges for non service during moving hous...
BT dreadful customer service & incompetence
Hi all,
After deciding to move home I made the necessary arrangements with BT prior to our moving date. Our switch over date was 14th November 2014.
After numerous calls with BT and mostly dealing with multiple BT operators with little knowledge, poor communication skills, lack of interest and on a few occasions extreme rudeness, I was still no further forward with a line connection date.
It became apparent that there was no line services to my new home, which I could understand although I was disappointed not to have been informed of the situation prior to my moving home (a fact BT should be easily aware of)
I spent weeks going round and round with no clear outcomes or specific information returning to me, I actually knew more information from the site builders than BT knew, BT even had the arrogance to tell me that my information from the builders was incorrect (which it wasn't)
Numerous misinformation, conflicting information, non returning of calls, engineer dates that were not upheld, non required engineer dates are amongst a series of frustrating dealings with the vast majority of the BT operators, there were only a few operators that seemed to care and assist and they were at the end of my ordeal of 3 months!!!!!
It was very clear that the information from each phone call between myself and BT was not correctly recorded. On two separate occasions during a singular phone call I actually had to repeat my situation to three separate operators to which I had become accustomed to being transferred amongst.
So to be clear from 14th November 2014 until late February 2015 we were without services.
During one of my many and expensive mobile phone calls to BT I was advised to set up my own mobile broadband and they would foot the bill and repay the expense until they provided a service.
(Which I did as I had no confidence in a connection date within months)
Throughout this ordeal BT had the arrogance to attempt to bill me, even though we had no service!!!!
Here is the kicker.
BT have now disconnected us from their service (31st March2015) for an unpaid bill, a bill we can't get amended and corrected to reflect the 3 months without their incompetent service.
They have even added charges for BT sports which I can't even watch as I have no viewing box, I believe this came free for 6 months) with my original package.
Even this is an issue. I was informed upon moving house that a new contract would commence when I moved home thus starting the 6 months free BT sports package once more (yet another mistake by BT)
We will not pay any form of bill until they amend and correct the bill to reflect we had no service for 3 months.
I have now tried to call to speak to an operator regarding the issue, after entering my home phone number the BT automated service redirects me to the only option which is to pay the outstanding bill!!!
No bill will be paid until it is corrected, I will be sending a bill for the mobile broadband I required to set up and maintain. I am also considering looking into the loss of earnings I suffered due to the length of time I was offline, as well as the amount of time required to deal with the sorry mess. A stressful time enough moving home without this added fiasco.
I am also aware of the Ofcom regulatory body as well as the multiple rules BT will have breached in our contract.
All in all we have endured a long and needlessly complicated mess, which thinking was behind us, is in fact still present. We are seriously considering removing our service completely with BT which I am sure in the eyes of the law will be justified and legally binding due to the numbers of contract breaches sustained by BT.I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
They are the only BT employees on this forum, and are a UK based team of people, who take personal ownership of your problem.
Once you get a reply, make sure that you are logged into the forum, then click on their name, you will see a screen like this. Click on the link as shown below.
Please do not send them a personal message, as they cannot deal with service issues that way.
For your own security, do not post any personal details, on this forum. That includes any tracking number you are give.
They will respond either by phone or e-mail, when its your turn in the queue.
Please use the tracked e-mail, to reply, not via the forum. Thanks
This is the form you should see when you click on the link. If you do not see this form, then you have selected the wrong link.
When you submit the form, you will receive an enquiry number, so please keep a note of it
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. -
I purchased the next level of icloud storage but it wasn't enough so I purchased the next level. It looks like I'm going to be charged for both? what do I do?
Hi there,
Have you considered using the TDM file format instead of the LVM format? With TDM you specify parameters for your file and your channels. When you want to read data from the file you can extrac data based on those parameters. So you could construct a search that extracts the data from a particular time, or all the data that was acquired in a 10 minute period for example.
There are a few VIs you would have to become familiar with to do this (the datalog VIs are located in a palette on the File IO palette), but it would probably be easier for you to use these then to construct the file yourself and then program in all the search parameters.
Here are some resources with more information on the TDM format:
TDM Data Format
Introduction to LabVIEW Data Storage VIs
They should help you decide if you would like to use this format or stick with the LVM format.
Sarah
Applications Engineer | National Instruments | UK & Ireland -
Are you serious???Really??? $9 charge for $1 surprise increase in bill that was paid days later???
ATT has had for a long time ongoing "bill creep". Now I get a $9 charge for a $1 surprise increase on monthly fee that I paid as soon as I discovered it!!!! I had automatic payments set up on my bank account for the originally agreed upon monthly charges. This is just so wrong. I will not waste an hour of my life (normal phone time whenever I have had to call ATT about anything in the past--also true of all my friends). I will try my best to find another provider that will honor its original agreement about monthly charges and not charge outrageous fees for setting up its customers. I left the home phone service a while back for "bill creep" (and am saving almost 90% on my bill) after being a customer for decades, so now I will leave Uverse for the same rotten reason as soon as I can find another provider. I truly HATE this company. Pat
So, you don't bother to check the monthly bill before the automatic payment is deducted? I seem to get an email each month listing the $ amt and when it is going to be charged to my CC.
Have to say it is on you for not doing that, not ATT for increasing your bill $1. Generally bills increase in the Feb billing, not any other month.
Chris
Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
ATT Customer Care(all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more -
Can I use the car charger for my 3gs on my iphone 4?
Can I use the car charger for my 3gs that i bough in the att store on my iphone 4?
With the 3GS Apple dropped support for charging over the firwire pin on the dock connector. Some older chargers will only supply power over the firewire pin, and thus will not work. There are adapters that will fix this, here's one example:
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Charge for texts when using iMessage
Why am I charged for texts that include photos or video when using iMessage to send or receive with other Apple products? Should the senders use an email address instead of my iPhone number? I have ATT with pay as you go texting. I'm only charged when there's a photo or video attached.
Hi Garypsu,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. This article has some steps you can try if iMessages aren't sending correctly:
iOS: Troubleshooting Messages
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2755
If you still can't send or receive iMessages
Ensure that iMessage is turned on in Settings > Messages.
To send and receive iMessages, your device must have a valid cellular or Wi-Fi data connection.
iPhone: Troubleshooting Cellular data
iOS: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
iMessage registration validates your Apple ID for use with iMessage. If you are unable to activate iMessage, follow this article.
If an iMessage cannot be sent, it will be resent using SMS or MMS, depending on the content. You can turn this behavior on or off in Settings > Messages > Send As SMS. Carrier messaging rates may apply.
Verify that the Apple ID or phone number is listed in Settings > Messages > Send & Receive.
Step 4 above describes how to turn off having failed iMessages send as texts to prevent this from happening.
Cheers,
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Charging for unanswered mobile phonecalls
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There is a standard setup fee whether answered or not. Thought it was 15p ( and maybe 6p for first minute)
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