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Dropping a BT line - who to speak to?


Big J
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Some years ago we had to dismantle a Hornbeam with a single BT line through that would be difficult to avoid breaking. Rang BT and was told £199 + VAT to come and quote for dropping the line. The BT guyI was speaking to was really helpful and said he was not on a recorded line and could give me honest advice. His advice was explain to the customer, let the cable get broken, then customer report it. Said that would be cheaper. We did the job, just managed to avoid breaking the cable, customer gave us a £100 thank you bonus.

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20 odd years ago we were called to go and help a crew that was struggling on a takedown in South London,no one likes having to help out a crew that was known to slack off and then cry for help at 2,30 in the Afternoon.

 

Anyhow we arrive to see the climber with the tree stripped out and just the top remaining on a dead Sycamore in the front garden.We send a rope up and as two groundies stop what little traffic there is,he proceeds to fell out the tiny top.

 

Instead he cuts through the hinge,losing the top sideways across the road and into one of those third world BT poles with 50 lines strung off them like a defunkt christmas tree simulation.

 

Harsh words were exchanged.

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If it’s fibre you can’t join it yourself.
BT will charge their customer to have it lowered, and it’s the customer that has to talk to them, they won’t nowadays liaise with the tree contractor .
They will also charge to put it back up again.
Only recently I wanted uk power to drop their wires , and bt to drop theirs, all was organised for the day, uk power there as usual no fuss, no show from bt unsurprisingly.
As someone said above, if the bt wire is accidentally brought down by a freak gust of wind on the same day as you are there, and your cust calls em, they’ll come out pronto at no charge.

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21 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

Disconnect it yourself, where it goes into the property, not at the pole. Take a picture of where the wires go.

We have removed a big sycamore today. that’s what we did took the line down at the house 🏠  climbed the tree felled it and then put the line back up afterwards. And there was no issues all worked as it should. If we hadn’t of removed the lines it would have  taken days home owner spoke to the phone people before we removed it took months to organise tho was a real pain in the ass. 👍

Edited by Patrick goulding
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It's not always easy to get a broken line repaired. An old lady up the road had her line severed and, because you have to report it through your phone company rather than direct to BT Open Reach, it took literally months to get fixed. Her company 'tested' the line and said it was working. I've no idea how as the cut ends of the cable were about 5m apart.

 

I reported the line as dangerous and a BTOR person came out and just rolled up the ends and tied them to the post. I eventually managed to get hold of BTORs complains dept and got it fixed.

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I've accidentally severed a couple of copper lines and they were repaired foc. Had one which we had to repair while the neighbours were out. Customer never heard anything from them. 

 

Did a fibre line which was also repaired foc. 

 

Just tell the customer not to mention tree work, and the bt guys who come out don't give a stuff how it happened. 

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FIL Works for BT 

 

He always tells me to do it myself from the homeowners house or as others have said, cut through it and get the customer to call, as long as its not fibre. 

 

The guys who turn up to repair will not care one bit. 

 

The issue we have had recently is that a lot of clients are working from home so it's quite risky in the event it is down for days. T

 

FIL also mentioned that we should NEVER rely on an organised and paid for drop by BT as so many just sack it off if they don't fancy another job that day... 

 

Last time I checked with BT they said it would be around £250 + VAT to repair a copper line. It would be £200 + VAT x 2 for a disconnect and reconnect, even if it is same day. 

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