Held over a barrel by BT - is there a way out?

gembryn

Hi moneysavers!

I'm hoping to get a little help with a problem I'm having with BT. I've just been on the phone to them about it but as usual they were about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

Basically, I'm moving house in a few days. I've been with BT for about a year, subscribing for a home phoneline and broadband.
It turns out that the new house has a phoneline, but it isn't a BT phoneline. In order to continue with the broadband service they expect me to pay £125 for a phonline at the new place, or to cancel the contract I have to pay out the remaining six months of it (even though I'll obviously not get any use out of it).

I find this to be absurd; I've always paid my bills on time and have been a perfect customer for them, but now I have to lose out on 6 months worth of bill payments of cough up £125 for the supposed effort of enabling a phone line.

Do I have any options at this point? I'm looking for (shockingly) the cheapest way out of this situation, so jumping ship to another ISP would my first choice if possible.

Yours hopefully,

Gembryn

shadowdragon

did you sign any paperwork to tie you into a contract.
I thought BT ran 12mnth contracts (thats what ours is).

I had something simalar with sky, when we moved into my current property, there was already a sky dish and receiver installed so we pretty much rang them and got a card for a basic package, the dish then malfunctioned so i rang them and they wanted me to pay for an engineer, when I told them to stuff it and cancel my account, they started harping on about 12mnt contract. Which when I pointed out that I had not signed anything I didnt have one, they sent an engineer free of charge.

It could be that BT are just trying it on. If you havent signed anything just tell em port it over or you will go elsewhere.

McKneff

somewher on this site BT were doing a special offer installing a phone line for about £29 ood

mrJ_5

a contract is a contract, you can't just get out of it - BT fulfilled their end, so you should fulfill your part of the agreement. If you don't want to pay the £125, then you'll need to pay the 6 months (or find an alternative way to get BT to install the line cheaper - but that may involve another 18 month contract)

PW07

try the post office to re connect your line all you will have to pay is 3 months line rental no 12 month contract like BT

System

did you set up bt via the phone if so tell them you are disputing the length of the contract and YOU want to hear the phone recording where you are agreeing to it.we had a similar problem and they could not produce the recording even though they said they had it so the fee was waived.

shadowdragon

mrJ wrote: »

a contract is a contract, you can't just get out of it - BT fulfilled their end, so you should fulfill your part of the agreement. If you don't want to pay the £125, then you'll need to pay the 6 months (or find an alternative way to get BT to install the line cheaper - but that may involve another 18 month contract)

If theres no paperwork and is verbal there is no comeback without much legal wranglings. Whats that addage "A verbal contract isnt worth the paper its written on" (think thats what it is).

Although I will say I have been with BT a long time (apart from a few months when I moved in with my partner and she already had NTL setup, which I got shot of and went back to BT) and they have been very accomodating, just the other day they negotiated me a better internet access deal, when it was up for newal (thanks to some great advice from MSE).

I think if you got through to a supervisor/manager you may be able to negotiate a cheaper deal. Its worth a try.