BT and their Auto-Renewing contracts

brazen71

Hello, I have recently had my telephone line rental contract renewed for another 12 months by BT. I did not opt for this and am sure that BT should have informed me in writing that A) my contract was up for renewal and that if they did not hear from me they would automatically sign me up for another 12 months. Surely this should be the case, or am i wrong?

P.s can't seem to contact BT company representative on this forum either?

Heinz

brazen71 wrote: »

P.s can't seem to contact BT company representative on this forum either?

They are not allowed to use the PM system.

They can be contacted by email @ [EMAIL="btcare@bt.com"]btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL]

brazen71

Heinz wrote: »

They are not allowed to use the PM system.

They can be contacted by email @ [EMAIL="btcare@bt.com"]btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL]

Thanks I managed to contact them just waiting on a response

TreadSoftly_2

And another person who has been hit by this one!

I have moved in with my partner who already has a telephone service, so I called BT to cancel my telephone line and broadband, only to be informed that I was caught in an auto-renew 12 month contract for Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls - apparently at no extra cost. They said they sent me a letter in August advising that unless I contacted them to cancel it was going to renew for another 12 months - I have never received this letter. I do remember signing up for it in August 2009 but, as far as my memory goes I was told at the time I was signed up for 12 months - not that it would auto renew after that. I assumed that after that I would be able to cancel at any time with a maximum of 1 month's notice - to me that's what I would have understood by a 'rolling' contract.

BT have now told me that to cancel my contract with them will cost me over £100! I can't continue to pay for a service to a property I no longer live in. They would waive the charge if I transferred the contract to my new address but I can't as my partner already has a service there.

I argued this with a service rep yesterday who just kept repeating the script at me, as I expected. I asked to speak to a Manager and was advised one would call me back within 2 hours - as I expected, 36 hours later, no-one has.

I'm astounded to be asked to pay over £100 to leave a service I wasn't aware I had signed up for in the first place and very bemused as to how they can make a £100 charge for a service that was sold to me as being at 'no extra cost'!

Has anyone had any joy in getting the frankly sharkish charge taken back? Will going to Ofcom do any good? I swear I will never, ever recommend BT to anyone after this :-(

amus

I have recieved a letter today from BT telling them I will have to pay a termination charge of over £70 as I am moving to another provider.

Anyway rang them up and asked them where Id signed anything that says they could renew my contract. Got a load of rubbish about how its a verbal agreement when you originally agree to take out the plan and apparently it shows up on every bill that you are tied into a renewable contract.

Asked the sales rep to provide me with a recording of the phone call in which I agreed to this, because I remember when they rang me about this evening and weekend call plan I specifically told the sales rep that I already got free evening and weekend calls with my sky, and that I just needed line rental, which I was planning to move to Sky after my contract with BT was up. He told me it didnt matter anyway and he may aswel put me on this plan and it would cost no extra. Anyway I argued with the cust services rep yesterday that it had obviously been mis-sold to me as I made the sales rep aware that I was planning on moving my line rental to Sky once my BT line rental contract was up, and even after telling him this he failed to inform me that if he put me on the evening and weekend fee call plan it would auto renew and incurr cancellation charges.

Anyway the smarmy cust service rep just kept repeating that the fact that this plan was a renewable contract is on every bill (I dont get paper bills and just looked at my online bill and nowhere can I see any mention of a renwing contract), and that the sales rep was right because it doesnt actually cost any extra. I argued that was irrelevant, it was mis-selling when Id made him fully aware I intended on changing my line rental, and yet he still failed to inform me about cancellation charges and renewable contracts.

After telling her I wanted to hear the original phone call she said she may not have it as it was over 2 years ago to which I replied if its a verbal contract, if they dont have a recording of the original phone call how can they prove I agreed to it at all? Anyway after this she went off the line for about 10 mins and after speaking to her manager, said to phone billing to tell them to remove the charges.

Very sharp practice from BT!!!!!

HH62

I have line rental calls and broadband all with BT.
My broadband deal was set up with BT via this forum a year ago. It was only for one year. I'm now looking for a new deal as I believe I will automatically be moved to the highest price option if I don't contact them. I'm currently on Option 3 Unlimited Usage.
Thanks for the info about how to contact them, it used to be via PM, I will email them.

tigerking71

I have been a customer of BT for approx 14 years and have just recently decided to sign up with Virgin

Yesterday I received a letter stating that I will have to pay approx £63.63 in early termination charges.
How can they even think of charging me this ridiculous amount after 14 years is a joke.
I contacted BT & 1 off thier staff said thaty i have a 12 month rolling contract I explained that I haven’t signed & the only thing that I did sign up for was my 1st ever contract with BT over 14 years ago.
The gentleman then changed his tune & said that one of your advisors would have got a verbal agreement from me over the phone; I said that I haven’t agreed to nothing & if that is the case how come nobody from BT has rung me on a yearly basis to renew my contract with the company !!!!
I said that I wanted proof that I have agreed to this contract
Can they do this to me !!!!

Darth_Trader

I've just been unwittingly battered by another piece of BT sharp practice. Got a call and was immediately told my phone calls had been taken over by another company and was I aware of this. I said I was not. The BT rep asked if I had broadband, and I told them I do have BB with O2. BT rep says O2 must have switched my phone calls over to them and did I give them permission. Of course, this aggravated me a little bit, because I hadn't got a clue about that. Then the BT rep asked if I wanted to transfer it back to BT. I said yes. And then he signed me up for that blasted Unlimited Evenings and Weekends thing, and wanted me to sign up for 12 months saying it would auto-renew.

Thing is, I had literally just walked through my door with a handful of mail after just getting back off holiday, when the BT rep phoned. Having signed up for this, I then opened my mail and found a bill from BT, listing my phonecalls etc. In other words the whole deal over the phone was based on a blatant barefaced lie, and I'm fairly incandescent with rage at the moment about that. I only just finished an 18-month contract with BT in August, and as with all contracts, the relief was palpable when I finally got to the end of it, and was looking forward to a normal service from BT paying my bills on a month-by-month basis. Now it seems I'm tied in for life.

Question is, is this legally binding now? Given that shady, underhand and dare I say it, fraudulent tactics were used. (If they'd simply asked me to sign up for a new contract I'd have said "no, I'm perfectly happy with things the way they are.") I've already contacted O2 to confirm that they had absolutely nothing to do with my landline provision. Just waiting for that before pondering my next move.

amus

Darth_Trader wrote: »

I've just been unwittingly battered by another piece of BT sharp practice. Got a call and was immediately told my phone calls had been taken over by another company and was I aware of this. I said I was not. The BT rep asked if I had broadband, and I told them I do have BB with O2. BT rep says O2 must have switched my phone calls over to them and did I give them permission. Of course, this aggravated me a little bit, because I hadn't got a clue about that. Then the BT rep asked if I wanted to transfer it back to BT. I said yes. And then he signed me up for that blasted Unlimited Evenings and Weekends thing, and wanted me to sign up for 12 months saying it would auto-renew.

Thing is, I had literally just walked through my door with a handful of mail after just getting back off holiday, when the BT rep phoned. Having signed up for this, I then opened my mail and found a bill from BT, listing my phonecalls etc. In other words the whole deal over the phone was based on a blatant barefaced lie, and I'm fairly incandescent with rage at the moment about that. I only just finished an 18-month contract with BT in August, and as with all contracts, the relief was palpable when I finally got to the end of it, and was looking forward to a normal service from BT paying my bills on a month-by-month basis. Now it seems I'm tied in for life.

Question is, is this legally binding now? Given that shady, underhand and dare I say it, fraudulent tactics were used. (If they'd simply asked me to sign up for a new contract I'd have said "no, I'm perfectly happy with things the way they are.") I've already contacted O2 to confirm that they had absolutely nothing to do with my landline provision. Just waiting for that before pondering my next move.

I would tell them youre going to get a letter from O2 confirming they have done nothing to affect your phone calls or phone line and then ring BT and tell them you want a recording of the phone call sent out to you, and if they dont cancel the contract tell them you will contact trading standards.

Darth_Trader

@Amus - good idea re trading standards. Hadn't thought of that. I got an email back from O2 confirming they have never taken over my home phone calls. My first port of call - Citizens Advice Bureau - was shut today, so I'll see what they say tomorrow. That way I hope to get a timeline of who to talk to first. Whatever happens, I'm closing that new BT contract, either to return to the "pre-deception" point of being a BT customer with no ongoing contract; or to another provider. Hell, I might even go to O2 now and see if I can engineer a nice combined deal with my other contracts.

But I cannot in all conscience now switch back to my original BT offering under a contract, because that would, by definition, mean they profited from deceptive selling techniques. The stupid thing is that I'm happy staying with BT for the next 50 years...as long as there's no contract involved. IMO, telecoms contracts are for mobiles only, where there's a frontend risk to the company in providing top of the range phones at cheap prices, and they need to cover those costs. Landlines are a completely different thing altogether.