Bt £25 for end of Contract Outreach fee?

Dirrtland

Well I come to the end of my BT broadband and phone contract 8th Jan, I Went to Cancel the contract before it Renews, Only to be told that unless im switching to another provider I will be charge £25, For Outreach to go to the switchboard to stop the line!! then another person told me I would be charged it anyway Because im Switching/Continuing with Virgin??,

I got stuck in A contract with Bt For the Broadband Jan 2009, But although I have not used it I still Had to pay the direct debit each month, Because I was Trapped in contract, So I got Virgin (much better Provider), I Contacted Virgin whom said they have never heard of something so ridiculous Plus the Lady I spoke to said she worked for Bt and had never heard of it when she Worked there She also Confirmed with her Manager, whom had nt heard!!

They Said its in the terms and conditions, Yes I cannot find it!!! or on the site, which I may add is ridiculous .

I said I am not paying it, she said its fine I have to make you aware of the payment ,, But what does that mean? they're still gonna try and take it? or send Bailiffs?, she said its not bt its the wholesalers 'OUTREACH'

anyone else has this?

Regards leea

spike7451

You mean 'Openreach'.
As you have BT Phone & Broadband with BT & can only have ONE broadband provider per line,in your case BT,Then your Virgin Broadband must be by Cable & therefore has nothing to do whatsoever with the BT phoneline.
BT cant charge you when your Virgin services are not carried on any part of their network however they do charge for removal of their Tie Pairs from the D-Slam in the PSTN exchange.
HTH,
Spike (ex NTL/VM Service Tech)

syko29793

It may seem unfair (and i personally dont agree with it) But it is a charge raised at wholesale level for cease of broadband without use of a MAC or other recognised method.
see this link
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentFooterPopup.jsp?pagecontentfooter_popupid=26823&s_cid=con_FURL_ceasecharge

Its not just BT that charge other isps charge this too.

Dirrtland

But they can not charge me for something that I wasnt made aware of the start of the Service??, Virgin Have never heard of it, I Can not afford to pay it, I think they've had enough from me for the past 12 months of service I havent used!!!,

I was told I still Have to pay even with a Mac code

spike7451

If you are on/getting a Virgin Cable Broadband service you do not need a Mac code,You only need one if you are getting an ADSL Broadband service.
Any Mac Code you have now will have expired by 8th Jan anyway.

mrJ_5

Virgin should know about the ceasation charge for the ADSL part of their business - otherwise they're just lying to you (unless they have specific operators that deal with cable only).

This charge has existed for several years now so it would be in the terms. It's not BT's fault that you renewed your contract in January - if you gained any discounts, these would need to be paid back over the course of the year so BT can still make a small profit from you (rather than a loss - which isn't very business-like!!).

If you wasn't aware of it, then you didn't read through the terms carefully - terms are there for this reason!

You do not need to pay if you use a MAC to migrate your ADSL service to Virgin (so you'd pay no ceasation charge and therefore keep your BT landline) - but you cannot use a MAC to migrate to a cable based service (so you'd have to pay the £25 charge).

Dirrtland

I was Told 3 Different Stories, one being I dnt need to pay If I am Going to Virgin, 2nd I have to pay either way, because you dnt use a Mac code to go to a cable Provider, Therefore Still having to pay fee,

The Contract has not been renewed!, It runs out on 8th Jan 2010, Hence me Putting my call for cancellation in early because i know how long it takes to process, And they Say the Gave me terms and Conditions, they did not, Not in writing anyway, I ordered the service over the phone. They only Fees I was made a wear of was the Cancellation before end of Contract fees!!!

ACDeag

Leea_Cadie wrote: »

I was Told 3 Different Stories, one being I dnt need to pay If I am Going to Virgin, 2nd I have to pay either way, because you dnt use a Mac code to go to a cable Provider, Therefore Still having to pay fee,

The Contract has not been renewed!, It runs out on 8th Jan 2010, Hence me Putting my call for cancellation in early because i know how long it takes to process, And they Say the Gave me terms and Conditions, they did not, Not in writing anyway, I ordered the service over the phone. They only Fees I was made a wear of was the Cancellation before end of Contract fees!!!

I have the feeling that even if you had been given the T&Cs you would not have read them as most people don't. The others are right this charge has been around for a while. You are not charged the £25 if you continue to have broadband on your BT line, if you go to Virgin Cable your broadband is not on your BT line so it counts as a ceasing of broadband. If you go to Virgin's ADSL service (called Virgin National I think) then this is down your BT line and therefore you don't pay the £25.

KimYeovil

So Virgin staff do not understand the costs associated with transferring broadband. Your complaint should be about Virgin, not BT.

(And, btw, did Virgin sit on the phone with you for an hour and a half reading through a complete list of their terms and conditions? If not, why did you not insist they do so since you seem to think that is how telephone ordering works?)

And I don't understand. You can afford to pay for an expensive broadband contract with BT month-in month-out. You can afford to pay the subscription to Virgin month-in month-out. But you can not afford to pay the universal one-off termination fee. If £25 does stretch you so terribly then you may want to review your spending plans.

spike7451

mrJ wrote: »

Virgin should know about the ceasation charge for the ADSL part of their business - otherwise they're just lying to you (unless they have specific operators that deal with cable only).

This charge has existed for several years now so it would be in the terms. It's not BT's fault that you renewed your contract in January - if you gained any discounts, these would need to be paid back over the course of the year so BT can still make a small profit from you (rather than a loss - which isn't very business-like!!).

If you wasn't aware of it, then you didn't read through the terms carefully - terms are there for this reason!

You do not need to pay if you use a MAC to migrate your ADSL service to Virgin (so you'd pay no ceasation charge and therefore keep your BT landline) - but you cannot use a MAC to migrate to a cable based service (so you'd have to pay the £25 charge).

Virgin Media (Cable) & Virgin National (ADSL) are entirely seperate from each other,useing different systems & procesess.Cable use systems based on TeleWorst platform & ADSL use the existing Virgin systems,in place before the merger.

KimYeovil-
So Virgin staff do not understand the costs associated with transferring broadband.

Because the people working on the cable side are not fully trained on the PSTN based broadband products.The sales people should be but the CS often are not.

Dirrtland

ACDeag wrote: »

I have the feeling that even if you had been given the T&Cs you would not have read them as most people don't. The others are right this charge has been around for a while. You are not charged the £25 if you continue to have broadband on your BT line, if you go to Virgin Cable your broadband is not on your BT line so it counts as a ceasing of broadband. If you go to Virgin's ADSL service (called Virgin National I think) then this is down your BT line and therefore you don't pay the £25.

Actually I am quite Thorough, If I had been handed the T&C before my contract started then I wouldnt be arguing this Position!