No way to escape disconnection charges?

geofftheduck · 30 June 2009 at 3:23PM

Hello, just found this place, its quite fantastically interesting so far but syncophany aside I was looking for a bit of advice!
Moving out of our flat at the weekend and back to my parents house so in the process of cancelling all the utilities.
I've just got off the phone with 02 who supply our internet (which has been v.good it has to be said) and ran into a problem. Fairly reasonably theirs a disconnection charge for leaving early but as its only ten quid a month we were going to continue paying as it runs out in september (so paying £30 as opposed to a £48 disconnection fee) but the problem is that if we cancel the BT landline that it uses 02 have said that the internet will automatically get disconnected and charged accordingly.
I havn't phoned BT yet because i'm still in a good mood today and don't want to ruin it but is their anyway to avoid this as it seems like a total con!
Oh yes! We're still in the first 12 months of 02 but we've been with BT for around 20 months so i'm assuming we can disconnect anytime.
Any ideas?!

mrJ_5 · 30 June 2009 at 4:27PM

There's no way around it - the ceasation charge for broadband was introduced some time ago, and this would have been in O2's terms and conditions which you agreed to when signing up (or later, but still valid if they notified you via email, post, or via their website) - it's your duty to read and understand these terms before joining.

It's more of a case of cancelling the broadband service fully (ie. not migrating away to another service provider) than cancelling the phone line (though doing this would cancel the broadband service).

macman · 30 June 2009 at 9:43PM

How exactly do you expect the O2 service to continue once your BT phone line has been disconnected? Paying a disconnection fee is pointless, as it will be the equivalent of paying up until the end of your contract anyway.