BT Rip Off Help Please

kneedevil

Hi all, new to this site so bear with me

I've been with BT in my currently rented home for nearly a year. I have phone, broadband and TV with them. I've never particularly liked the TV service as it doesn't provide many channels I care to watch that aren't already on freeview. The broadband and phone have been fine if a little expensive.

I am now moving home at the end of December and decided I would cancel my BT service in order to give Virgin a try (they at least have Sky 1 and are cheaper). I called BT and they instructed me it was £105 to cancel by TV package that runs out on January 24th and £117 to cancel my broadband which runs until August after I changed to a reduced service. My phone line contract runs out on Jan 4th.

I thought I'd just switch everything to the new home and allow the contracts to run out so as to remove the canellation costs. However, BT then said I had to have a BT line to continue to have broadband and if I moved home I would automatically enter into a further 12 month phone contract which if I wanted to cancel I would then be subject to a charge of £7.50 for each remaining month.

So at the minute it looks like I just won't move anything over, will allow the BT vision to run out and will have to pay the cancellation charge for the broadband.

Is there any way round this? Any thoughts appreciated as BT have somewhat annoyed me with effectively trying to force me into another 12 month contract I don't want.

Thanks for any help

Buzby

Not really. The world of compewtition has ensured that the customer is 'locked in' for a minimum term when any new service is provided. It become a real pain when ancillary services (like BB) use the phonew line, as this means one contract is latched to another. Add to this that BB invariably has a longer minimum term (18 months) compared to 12 for phone service, you see how cleaver they have been.

As you've found, BT Fusion is absolute pants - is IS FreeView (that you pay for) with a couple of BB-provided-channels, and is the worst of the offerings currently available to consumers.

The only way to extricate yourself is to wind down the services as bail out when the minimum trms arer due, remembering to WRITE 30 days before anniversary date so you don;t get stuck with any additional and unwanted weeks of service.

I'd been a customer of BT for 35 years, right up to last month. They have no idea of how to treat loyal customers.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Just to clarify:

If it's Virgin cable, you don't need the phone line for broadband. It doesn't have anything to do with telephones and is supplied by a co-ax cable.

So you can get the TV and broadband from Virgin, and then if you want a landline as well, go with either Virgin, Post Office, O2, etc.

If it's not a cabled area then you'll need the landline for broadband assuming the new property can actually get broadband on the line there (not all can).

If you switch with BT you'll then be in a new 12 month contract with BT. So you might want to cancel and start anew with someone else at the new property.

KimYeovil

Another one who doesn't know what the term "rip-off" means. Education really has gone to the dogs, hasn't it?

If you want the freedom to change supplier and the freedom to have cheap calls packages and so on then you have to accept the natural consequences.

If you want to campaign to revert to an idyllic rose-tinted pre-competition nationalised provider then good luck to you. It isn't going to happen.

littleboo

Buzby wrote: »

As you've found, BT Fusion is absolute pants - is IS FreeView (that you pay for) with a couple of BB-provided-channels, and is the worst of the offerings currently available to consumers.

BT Vision, not Fusion, does not cost for Freeview content. The on-demand content ( not a "couple of BB-provided-channels ) is a very good option for those that just want to pay for what they watch with no monthly subscription with the obvious benefits of on-demand.

kneedevil

KimYeovil wrote: »

Another one who doesn't know what the term "rip-off" means. Education really has gone to the dogs, hasn't it?.

You can find many definitions of the term 'rip-off', the one I am going by for the purpose of this post is ' A ripoff (or rip-off) is a bad deal. Usually it refers to an incident in which a person pays too much for something. A ripoff is distinguished from a scam in that a scam involves wrongdoing such as fraud; a ripoff, on the other hand, is in the eye of the beholder'.

In my eyes (eye of the beholder if you care to keep up) I have been paying too much for a poor service for the past year. This, however, wasn't the complaint I was making. For BT to try to charge me £105 for the cancellation of my TV service which has one month left is a 'rip-off'. For BT to tell me I either have to cancel my broadband for £117 or take it with me to my new home in which I would then need to sign up for a futher 12 month line rental in order to use it, is a 'rip-off'.

Just to point out to you this would then mean my broadband would run until August and my line rental again until January 2011 so I would still be stuck with a BT product I don't want and never be able to cancel both at the same time without facing high cancellation fees.

I should realise by now that no forums are free from those opinionated people that feel the need to attempt to ridicule others posts whilst trying to make others believe they are better than the original poster. This is evident by your opening comment.

I had hoped better of a site that aims to help people financially but again, as with BT, perhaps I was somewhat naïve.

Thanks to those that have replied with something approaching common decency and manners.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Should I point out that if you cancel BT broadband, and don't take it with you to your new address you'll be ripped off, sorry, charged £25 for not doing so.

ACDeag

KimYeovil wrote: »

Another one who doesn't know what the term "rip-off" means. Education really has gone to the dogs, hasn't it?

If you want the freedom to change supplier and the freedom to have cheap calls packages and so on then you have to accept the natural consequences.

If you want to campaign to revert to an idyllic rose-tinted pre-competition nationalised provider then good luck to you. It isn't going to happen.

Would agree "rip-off" is such a mis-used word here. Normally means someone who has not read or remembered what they were they were told when they subscribed to a service and now can't get out of it.

mrtom21

kneedevil wrote: »

You can find many definitions of the term 'rip-off', the one I am going by for the purpose of this post is ' A ripoff (or rip-off) is a bad deal. Usually it refers to an incident in which a person pays too much for something. A ripoff is distinguished from a scam in that a scam involves wrongdoing such as fraud; a ripoff, on the other hand, is in the eye of the beholder'.

In my eyes (eye of the beholder if you care to keep up) I have been paying too much for a poor service for the past year. This, however, wasn't the complaint I was making. For BT to try to charge me £105 for the cancellation of my TV service which has one month left is a 'rip-off'. For BT to tell me I either have to cancel my broadband for £117 or take it with me to my new home in which I would then need to sign up for a futher 12 month line rental in order to use it, is a 'rip-off'.

Just to point out to you this would then mean my broadband would run until August and my line rental again until January 2011 so I would still be stuck with a BT product I don't want and never be able to cancel both at the same time without facing high cancellation fees.

I should realise by now that no forums are free from those opinionated people that feel the need to attempt to ridicule others posts whilst trying to make others believe they are better than the original poster. This is evident by your opening comment.

I had hoped better of a site that aims to help people financially but again, as with BT, perhaps I was somewhat naïve.

Thanks to those that have replied with something approaching common decency and manners.

With regards to an 18 month contract... Why didn't you take a 12 month contract on your broadband?

With regards to BT Vision... it is not just freeview you are paying for that is free. It is the On Demand library you get which has hundreds if not thousands of programs on it.

With regards to rip off in the sense of a scam... I'm sure BT didn't exactly trick or force you into taking this package... They would have also advised you check your terms and conditions in full as well as explaining the cancellation charges at the time you signed up.

With regards to your telephone line... Chances are it is on a 12 month renewable contract so I would call them up and make sure it does not automatically renew in January otherwise you may face further termination charges.

Regards.