BT disconnection without notice and refuse to reconnect

lowebd

Hi all, I'm posting this on behalf of my girlfriend. She moved into a flat with a work colleague around 12 months ago. They split the bills, but her colleague was the one that looked after them all until she moved on after christmas. Since then my girlfriend took over briefly then passed the BT bills on to her new flatmate. The account has been passed down from a previous sharer, each time the direct debit and contact details were updated so the account was always never in credit.

To cut to the chase, the line was disconnected at the weekend. After an hour on the phone this morning my girlfriend managed to get BT to admit that the original owner of the account had requested it to be disconnected. I'm not sure what this implies - if BT detected a 'fraud' for some reason and somehow approached the other girl, or if the other girl just saw it on her credit profile or something else. Whichever, the only visible link back to the account opener is the username of the online account, although of course BT probably have the history stored away somewhere.

Now, is this a legitimate business process - to just cut a person off without telling them? I suspect not. Does she have a case for getting the line reconnected at no cost? And what is the best way to tackle it? Keep badgering customer services or head straight to the top via one of the CEO e-mail addresses I've managed to find in other threads?

Thanks in advance.

Buzby

Afraid I'd suggest she's only got BT's goodwill to rely on when it comes to reconnection. BT expects to know who their customer is (not unreasonably) it is to THIS person BT owe their duty of care. The fact that other people contributed to pay off the bill is of no consequence, they are NOT BT's customer.

If BT cut the line on the instruction of the original bill payer, then that's ab end t the matter...BUT as incoming tenant, your GF can arrange reconnection and since there's been no time for the line to be fully disconnected, they'll quote £125 but in all likelihood it will be a FoC reconnection.

The only trouble is, there will probably be a minimum term liability of 12 months.

lowebd

Buzby, thanks for your response.

Yes, she's kindly been offered the £125 charge for reconnection and a 12 month contract already, but doesn't want to commit to 12 months. It just riles me that they didn't contact her to offer to transfer the account over into someone elses name. Or at least warn her that she would be cut off. In her defence, BT did know who she was - the online account was always kept up to date in this way and so with hindsight the original account holder should never have passed her details on.

Buzby

I know where you're coming from - but from BT's perspective, they have no idea who would be the 'correct' person to broker a new arrangement with. They could phone... but what guarantee is there that the person that answers is either the actual person agreeing to the new arrangement (folk have been known to fib!) and as this is a formal 12 month commitment, your GF would be really hacked off if a flat mate gave her details and committed to the new term, when she actually hadn't.

Either way, BT needs to protect themselves, and others from any wrongful commitment. As you note, even with a free connection it still requires a 12 month commitment (which is standard) so there's always PAYG mobiles AND mobile broadband as an alternative. Virgin (cable) did at some time offer a 6 month minimum for students - so this still might be an option if in a cabled street. Good luck!

EdCov

12 month connection is standard???

It is only standard because BT decide that it is standard.

This is really tough on people who are the least well off, and just because other people are doing something does not make it right.

BT's early disconnection charge from a 12 month contract in no way represents their actual costs, it is time someone raised this practise with Ofcom.

jhp

If you dont want a 12 month contract their is always PO Homephone who i believe are the the only operator that dont insist on some sort of minimum term for a new line.

Heinz

EdCov wrote: »

12 month connection is standard???

It is only standard because BT decide that it is standard.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1588267

macman

Buzby wrote: »

Afraid I'd suggest she's only got BT's goodwill to rely on when it comes to reconnection. BT expects to know who their customer is (not unreasonably) it is to THIS person BT owe their duty of care. The fact that other people contributed to pay off the bill is of no consequence, they are NOT BT's customer.

If BT cut the line on the instruction of the original bill payer, then that's ab end t the matter...BUT as incoming tenant, your GF can arrange reconnection and since there's been no time for the line to be fully disconnected, they'll quote £125 but in all likelihood it will be a FoC reconnection.

The only trouble is, there will probably be a minimum term liability of 12 months.

As Buzby correctly advised, as long as there is a 12 month minimum committment on the new contract, they probably won't charge the reconnection-in this case it must be obvious even to BT that the line is physically intact and requires only an exchange reconnect. The £125 reconnect they quote is only to cover themselves in case they find that the line has been physically removed or damaged and requires an engineer at the premises to fix it.