BT termination charges

amag1975

my mam was with bt for 30+ years and changed provider due to bt's ever increasing prices.she had been on free evening & weekends for 13months when she terminated her contract and BT said they were charging a £83.66 termination fee! i had set the original package up for her and was told by BT it was for a minimum 12 month contract.At no point did they inform me it was a "renewable" contract nor did they send a letter saying the contract was due for renewal! i sent an email(short & to the point) to BT via their website stating this and stated i would be grateful for an explanation.I had a reply at 7:25am the following day from somebody at BT saying the charges would be removed as i had not been made aware of this 'renewable' contract.All i had to do was contact BT when the final bill came and quote a verification code included in the email. hope this helps!!:j:j

mrsw

Tribulation wrote: »

Looks like that email did the trick

Less than 24 hrs later I received a call from BT saying they would remove the termination charge, they have confirmed this via email along with a refrence number

Who did you send the email to? I also need to send an email to BT, but unsure who to contact

Heinz

Unless you have good reason to 'escalate', THIS usually works.

mrsw

Heinz wrote: »

Unless you have good reason to 'escalate', THIS usually works.

Thanks Heinz, but I have tried that route before without success. Hence I do want to escalate.

maa_2

I am moving from one flat to another.
I had a BT line activated in my present falt in July.In addition I have had Virgin Broadband
the new flat does not have a BT line
They tell me that it will cost £120 to set up a new BT line in this flat.
i therefore want to switch over to Virgin Broadband and phone.
Will BT charge a cancellation fee even though there is no BT line in the new falt to transfer the account to?

Heinz

Yes, you signed up for a 12 month contract. They waive the charge if you start a new contract at a new address but, as you're not.....

nmdbaggy

I just had the same letter after deciding to transfer home phone providers. We had our BT line for just over 12 months, however BT sent a letter asking for £83.46 termination charges. BT claimed that we had signed up to a 12 month renewable contract. They claimed they had sent a letter about renewing the contract and received no reply from me, i don't recall receiving the letter.

However, I phoned the 0800 number given on the letter, and the first customer service rep refused to rescind the charges, hence I immediately escalated the call. The next customer service rep repeated information about the contract being renewed, I disputed whether this was the case, the rep contacted their manager and got the charges canceled.

I don't see how if you are over 12 month initial contract BT can claim you have passively agreed a new 12 month contract. It seems a pretty fraudulent attempt to restrict consumers choice. If this is happening to a lot of people then it would probably be worth a contacting OFCOM about it.

Zoom-n

nmdbaggy wrote: »

I phoned the 0800 number given on the letter, and the first customer service rep refused to rescind the charges, hence I immediately escalated the call. The next customer service rep repeated information about the contract being renewed, I disputed whether this was the case, the rep contacted their manager and got the charges canceled.

Just got a letter from bt with a cancellation fee. How do you find out if BT renewed the contract without our permission for 12 months? A few of you have mentioned escalating the issue. What do you mean by that? do you just ask for the case to be escalated while talking to the rep at the other end of the 0800 number? can't they refuse to do it?

I don't know if my mum has kept all the correspondence with BT so we'll go through everything tomorrow.

mobile48

See following thread for information on terminating BT contacts at no cost:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2632051