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Switched from BT to Sky Line Rental - Whats this charge!?!?
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phoenixk
Posts: 28 Forumite
in Phones & TV
Hi
Moved in to a new place at the start of February and had to pay BT to install a line. I had a feeling I wouldnt want to stay with BT so made sure not to sign up to a talk package or to any contract.
A couple of weeks later I got Sky and joined Sky Talk when they offered to take over my bt line rental as part of the deal at a reduced price.
I had already been billed the whopping great installation charge from BT and 3 months line rental in advance so I called them up and the person I spoke to told me they would refund the months of line rental I wasnt using in the form of a rebate cheque.
Fine I thought.
However I have now received a bill for £103.50 from BT comprising of £120.94 "one off charge" minus a rebate of £17.44 for the line rental I am now no longer using.
Perplexed I rang BT and was told that by going with BT when I joined I signed up verbally to a 12 month contract and that this was the cancellation fee to cover the part i'm not using!?!? I know for a fact I did not sign up to any talk packages and this cant be the line rental as they are refunding that, so what am I being charged for!?!?
Please help, I do not want to pay this and cant fathom why i'm being charged it in the first place.
Many thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.
Moved in to a new place at the start of February and had to pay BT to install a line. I had a feeling I wouldnt want to stay with BT so made sure not to sign up to a talk package or to any contract.
A couple of weeks later I got Sky and joined Sky Talk when they offered to take over my bt line rental as part of the deal at a reduced price.
I had already been billed the whopping great installation charge from BT and 3 months line rental in advance so I called them up and the person I spoke to told me they would refund the months of line rental I wasnt using in the form of a rebate cheque.
Fine I thought.
However I have now received a bill for £103.50 from BT comprising of £120.94 "one off charge" minus a rebate of £17.44 for the line rental I am now no longer using.
Perplexed I rang BT and was told that by going with BT when I joined I signed up verbally to a 12 month contract and that this was the cancellation fee to cover the part i'm not using!?!? I know for a fact I did not sign up to any talk packages and this cant be the line rental as they are refunding that, so what am I being charged for!?!?
Please help, I do not want to pay this and cant fathom why i'm being charged it in the first place.
Many thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.
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Comments
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It's a charge for breaching the agreed 12 month contract - partly for line rental and partly for the calls plan.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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If you look at the BT site is states all new lines come with a calling plan, looks like even if you went for the basic 'free weekend calls' plan ( no rolling 12 month contract) you are entering a contract for the first 12 months
If your intention was to leave BT why did you use them to install the line ?
Sky were offering free telephone installation by way of a credit of upto £122 on your Sky bill if they arranged the line install and you took TV,BB and line/calls from them....0 -
Well I had no idea sky offered that at the time or I would have!
What I cant understand is what that £120 plus cost is for?
If they are refunding my line rental for the months in advance I did not use it cant be to cover line rental. And if the talk plan I took out was the free "non contract" option they werent getting any money from that anyway!?
What i'm saying is that they arent missing out on any money by losing my custom, so why do I owe them so much??0 -
Because you breached the contract to which you agreed.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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Because you breached the contract to which you agreed.
If that's the case, what I don't understand is why they've agreed to refund line rental for the month when the line switched to Sky? If there was a contract to pay BT line rental for a minimum of 12 months, they wouldn't be refunding it, would they? So what exactly IS the OP paying for?0 -
Yeah that's my point!
What have I breached Heinz? There was no other financial obligation to BT so why would I owe them north of £120!?0 -
£70 for breaching the 12 month landline rental contract + the cost of the remainder of the calls plan contract.
Anyway, I'm sure BT Company Representative will confirm for you.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
£70 for breaching the 12 month landline rental contract + the cost of the remainder of the calls plan contract.
Anyway, I'm sure BT Company Representative will confirm for you.
So why are they refunding line rental if line rental is considered part of the 12 month contract? And isn't the call package included in the cost of the line rental, so therefore has no monetary value on its own?0 -
Thats it. I specifically told them I didnt want any kind of monthly obligation as I hadn't decide who to do my phone and broadband with. If there is a standard cancellation charge then they certainly hid it some T&C somewhere too.
But even if there is a £70 charge where does the other £50.94 come from if i'm on a fre plan!?
The guy at BT I spoke to earlier said I "must have agreed to a verbal contract of either 12 or 18 months" which I obviously would never have done, i'm not a halfwit!
Thats why I came on here to check out first. After the trawling the net it looks like the only way I might be able to fight this is to contact the Ombudsman or through e-mailing the CEO direct. Nobody has any reports of getting this resolved or the fee clarified through talking to BT customer services direct.
I would report on what BT now have to say but having been on hold for what certainly seemed like 4 hours i've given up for today.
I simply cant afford to throw BT over £100 for no reason whatsoever.
Has anyone else had this problem?0 -
can you copy and paste exactly the bill info and charges0
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