kk wrote on Aug 3
rd, 2007 at 9:27am:
Talk Talk could not provide this service unless I had an active line, this could only be done by BT. Only when active, could Talk Talk take over the line.
One word wrong there - replace
could with
would in each case highlighted. It'd be slightly more accurate too if you replaced
BT at the end of the first sentence with
Openreach (but that's by the by).
Talk Talk's 'procedure' is to pretend they
cannot activate a line. They can (see
HERE) - any LLU or WLR provider can - but , like BT and all the others, they'd have to pay Openreach to do so. It's easier
and far cheaper for Talk Talk to insist on the potential subscriber having an active BT line. That way, BT becomes the bad guy if the subscriber has to breach their contract and/or incurs costs in order to switch to Talk Talk (your example is not untypical) and Talk Talk remain the good guys. It's quite clever really.
Personally, I think you got off lightly. BT say they charge £124.99 for activating a line plus the remaining months rental or £70 (whichever is least) in addition.
In reality, of course, Ofcom is to blame. In the interests of the free market (so that the 'engineering' side of BT did not continue to provide a better service to BT that it did to other 'providers'), BT had to set up Openreach and, now, all line provides/reconnects have to go through Openreach. Even BT Retail has to pay Openreach the Ofcom-specified fees.
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BT charges £143.26 to reactivate a line (Read 7,393 times)
