Moving house charge for "closed" line

[#1]

I've just called up to sort a house move and have been told that the previous tenants at new property have "closed the line" meaning it'll cost me a whopping £114.99 for them to move mine over? I asked what was meant by them closing the line and she said that they've moved their contract to their new house. Well I thought this was standard? I've been with Plusnet for years and not been charged this before? I'd understand if there was no line at all and someone had to come in to install one? When I moved in to my current place a couple of years ago I was not charged to switch to it, and the chap was there for hours trying to sort it out as the line wasn't working or where it needed to be (old property). On the phone today, I said I was really miffed and quite upset as I have zero money and she said they could waiver this cost if I signed a new contract today which I was happy to do.....until she said it was at a highly monthly cost! I simply cannot afford any more cost at all.  I asked what it'd cost to end my contract today with them and that would be £158.48!!! I'm really stuck.

Is this all normal? I'm really upset as I had not factored such a bit cost for moving my internet  

[#2]

That sounds odd, there must be some complications.  When did the previous tenants leave the property?  When a line is ceased, BT Openreach might reassign the assets used to service that line and to reactivate it, they might need to set up a new circuit.

See Moving home or office | Help | Plusnet

"We won't charge you for moving home if you take out a new contract. You can do this when you call our home moving team on 0800 587 1952, helping you save every extra penny for the important things like decorating and that first night takeaway.

Your Plusnet service should go live in your new home within a few days of moving in, and we won't charge you anything until it does.

Very rarely you might need a phone line installing in your new home, but we'll talk you through all of that when you give us a call.

Staying on your existing contract may incur a home move charge. You can see how much that would cost by checking out our Price Guide."

The price guide advises call support for price of a House Move.

[#3]

Hi,

Thanks so much for responding. They left just before Christmas, the place is empty at present. Just seems very steep seeing as there is a line already there? I really don't know what to do. I resent signing a new contract (when I already did this last year) at a higher cost as we think we already pay too much as it is. And quite frankly, with the iminant energy price hike I am really panicking as I just cannot afford anything more.

[#4]

I've just signed up for a new contract for 24mths at a higher rate, and it'll go up again every March I did all that with them on the phone to then be asked if they could help with anything else and which point I asked when the engineer would be coming out and he said they don't need access to the actual property as it's all done remotely!? So why is £60 for calling out an engineer and the £55odd pounds for making the line live? To me it sounds like some dude pressing a few buttons to make it happen? Feel really conned here to be honest  

[#5]

Hopefully one of the social team will be able to clarify matters for you.  Some of them have a long history in provisioning so they are bound to have clear explanations.

@Gandalf  / @LaurenB  / @adam945  / @TheMightyAJ 

[#6]

Thank you. I feel sick about it to be honest, as I feel like I was talked in to signing up for another 24mths at a really quite expensive monthly rate because if we didn't, we had to fork out a whopping £115 right now which we can't afford to do.  I had to read all the T&C's whilst on the phone to someone at Plusnet the whole time he was asking my questions. Really unhappy and worried about this now.

We're now paying £36 a month and it'll go up in March. This is just getting ridiculous now. I feel totally stuck.

[#7]

I wonder if the previous occupants were on an LLU (TalkTalk/Sky) line ?

A stopped BT line is normally free to restart since it doesnt need an engineer, however if it was an LLU line, then it will need an engineer to attend the exchange and re-jumper the line which will be chargeable.

[#8]

Thank you! Maybe that’s why then, but neither of the people who I spoke to said that.

I was thinking, do we need to be paying as much if we don’t need a house phone? Would it be the same price regardless as we’re just paying for the line? Just as he kept asking about the home phone as I said we don’t use it, ever. We didn’t even own a home phone so not had anything plugged in. I’ve had several emails today about the new contract and one is about our new home telephone number which we don’t need. I hate feeling like we’re paying for something that we won’t even use.

[#9]

Thanks for your post @Button and welcome to our Community Forums.

It's normal for a provider to stop their service at an address when the previous tenant/owner, their customer, moves out. For us to provide a service, the costs vary depending on how much work that'll need to be carried out.

When moving home, we charge a moving fee of £65 and a line installation fee of £49.99, the latter's only applicable if we need an engineer to connect your phone line onto equipment we use, whether that's external work, or internal work, or both. 

We'd though offer to cover these costs if you sign up to a new contract which may be at a higher monthly cost, but it's generally still cheaper than paying either one or both of the upfront costs. 

I've checked with our suppliers helpdesk and I can confirm MisterW's correct in that the previous line is stopped onto a provider's own equipment at the exchange, so we'd need an engineer to install the line onto ours/BT's we use, which would make both of the upfront costs applicable though we'd waive through a new contract. 

I can't say why if we didn't charge you anything extra when you moved home a couple of years ago as the notes surrounding that are archived in our systems, but I hope the above helps explain. 

[#10]

@Button wrote:
I was thinking, do we need to be paying as much if we don’t need a house phone? Would it be the same price regardless as we’re just paying for the line? Just as he kept asking about the home phone as I said we don’t use it, ever. We didn’t even own a home phone so not had anything plugged in. I’ve had several emails today about the new contract and one is about our new home telephone number which we don’t need. I hate feeling like we’re paying for something that we won’t even use.

Ah sorry it looks like I missed this post when I was writing up my previous response.

The price would be the same even if you don't use your home phone as you'd need to have line rental to have broadband with us (or most providers) because the broadband service runs down the copper phone line, unless you're in an area which can get full fibre (FTTP, fibre to the premises) but your new address isn't sadly.

The adviser may have been wanting to know if you use your home phone as we do have a selection of call plans available (https://www.plus.net/help/legal/residential-phone-tariffs/) which often make calls cheaper.

[#11]

Thank you! Really appreciate all that info  

[#12]

Personally I feel there’s a real injustice here. The LLU companies attract customers and get BT’s circuits switched away from the BT network for free. However someone later needs to pick up the cost of having the circuit switched back to BT. IMHO the LLU companies should be obliged to cover the cost of switching the circuit both away from and back to BT.

Seems like an issue needing attention from the industry regulator - OFCOM.

[#13]

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@Button wrote:

Thank you! Really appreciate all that info  

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No problem, let me know if you’ve got further queries.

@Townman wrote:
The LLU companies attract customers and get BT’s circuits switched away from the BT network for free.

Not sure that’s the case as I’m fairly confident there are still costs involved when going from BT > MPF(LLU).

[#14]

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from ADSL Broadband to My Order