Why do I need to wait for an engineering for an al...

Question

I'm moving home at very short notice due to a death in the family. I'm an existing BT customer moving to a rented home which 6 weeks ago had a working phone line. I work from home via IP and webex etc so having a working phone line and broad band are incredibly important.
I've been given a date of the 7th of November for an engineer visit and have been told that a new phone line must be installed, with advice that they may not even need to access my property. This visit is costing me £130 or an extnesion to my contract.
I don't understand why a new phone line must be installed, there is already a working phone line, I don't understand how a new phone line can be installed with no access to the property either?
I am basically going to have to go and pay the local hotel for office space until this line is installed, so I am looking for an explanation of why it's going to cost me hundreds of pounds to have a line that was working very recently reactivated. It seems utter nonsense. If BT can cut someone off at the flick of a switch, why can't they turn it back on.
I'm also concerned by the fact that they are not turning off my old line until the 7th, meaning that someone else could use the line in that time, they haven't even given me the option of plugging a phone in and giving it a go as they won't commence until the 7th, it all seems quite strange to me. Any explanations from BT would be welcome.
The last time I moved home it took several months to get a working phone line, many threats of charges and eventually admitting it was their fault. I can't afford more time off work to get this sorted, and I'm very angry at having to sign a new contract after being a customer for years just to get an already working phone line reactivated!

Answer 1

Welcome to this forum.
This is a customer to customer forum only, where forum members, who are only BT customers, can help each other with BT Retail products and services.
Anything you post here does not go to BT. Although the forum is moderated by BT, not all posts are read.
The lines are provided by Openreach, for all service providers, so the existing line may have been used by a different service provider, and would need re-connecting within the exchange, to BT equipment.
You could try plugging a phone in, and see if there is dialling tone. You can dial 1470 17070 to get the number, and dialling 150 should tell you who the service provider was.
When you mention that you need this as you work from home, and its critical that it works, and repaired quickly if it goes wrong, then a BT Business line would would be the best option, as it will give you a much faster repair time, should anything go wrong.
See http://business.bt.com/phone-services/bt-totalcare/
The fact that you are having to rent office space, would tend to indicate that it is important to you.
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.