BT Cancellation Escalading

RiverTam

Hi there guys,

I guess I should have done this a few months ago, but I've been so scared and have been trying to avoid it.

Basically, me and my partner moved into our new flat back in October. We weren't 100% sure whether to get BroadBand or not... At t he end we decided to get it! But damn it was expensive, something like £36 a month for the package that we needed...

We agreed to the package and asked them to send the modem and etc to us.
They said they didn't know 100% if the line was connected or not so they may have to send an engineer down to connect our phone line.

A few days later we realised that our phone line was already connected so there was no need to send an engineer! We called BT and let them know that and they canceled the engineer coming round. However, on our first bill we noticed we got charged something ridiculous like £227!

They charged us for CONNECTING the line! Although it was already connected! We called BT and informed them of that - and they agreed to refund our money, but not after they made us wait for 40 minutes on the phone - which resulted in a massive phone bill on my partners mobile phone! (That's probably how they got their moneys worth and refunded me in the first place :@)

Anyway, halfway through our order, we decided we didn't want BT, they were being unprofessional by making us wait for so long and connecting us to different departments every 5 minutes which was a real pain!

We called BTs cancellation department and they said for us to hold. After an hour of waiting we gave up! It was ridiculous, that hour cost my partners bill to sky rocket even further! We tried calling back the next day, but again, after a 45 minute wait there was no use!

So not only did we not manage to cancel our BT Broadband account, my partner also had a stupidly high phone bill.

We received our BT package and decided to call BT once more in order to try and cancel the service. However, they said now that we've received the product we can't cancel! Although we never even OPENED the router box or DIALED a number from the silly phone line!

They said in order to cancel we'd have to pay roughly £300 to do so! Which we thought was unfair because we've already been charged something around that sum for PHONING BT in the first place!

We left it for a few months because:

1. We were angry with BT and fed up wasting time and money contacting them.
2. We didn't really know how to approach it all that well.
3. We were scared! =[

Now BT have issued debt collectors against us, informing us that they will take us to court if we do not pay up! =[
Again which isn't fair, because when we try to contact BT they don't listen or care! But when we try and contact them we get no reply!

Is there anything we can do against BT or the debt collectors?

Surely there must have been a '28 days peace-of-mind cancellation' time slot or something?

We don't think it's fair that they didn't answer the phone when we tried contacting them in the middle of the order to cancel it!

Lastly, they performed a credit check on my partners home address (parents address) which passed. Will they still have that information? We were considering moving flats next month and depending on how this BT dilemma goes along we may or may not...

We don't know what to do, we can't afford to pay the charges, cancel fees, court fees and admin fees they keep adding on!

Does anyone have any advice on how we can get around this?

RiverTam

Wow

Over 90 reviews and not a single reply?

Comon guys, must be something we could do to defend ourselves?

mrtom21

RiverTam wrote: »

Hi there guys,

I guess I should have done this a few months ago, but I've been so scared and have been trying to avoid it.

...

A few days later we realised that our phone line was already connected so there was no need to send an engineer! We called BT and let them know that and they canceled the engineer coming round. However, on our first bill we noticed we got charged something ridiculous like £227!

...

Anyway, halfway through our order, we decided we didn't want BT, they were being unprofessional by making us wait for so long and connecting us to different departments every 5 minutes which was a real pain!

We called BTs cancellation department and they said for us to hold. After an hour of waiting we gave up! It was ridiculous, that hour cost my partners bill to sky rocket even further! We tried calling back the next day, but again, after a 45 minute wait there was no use!

So not only did we not manage to cancel our BT Broadband account, my partner also had a stupidly high phone bill.

...

We left it for a few months because:

1. We were angry with BT and fed up wasting time and money contacting them.
2. We didn't really know how to approach it all that well.
3. We were scared! =[

...

Surely there must have been a '28 days peace-of-mind cancellation' time slot or something?

We don't think it's fair that they didn't answer the phone when we tried contacting them in the middle of the order to cancel it!

Hello . The reason I did not comment when I first saw this is because your story has a lot of confusing parts. I have deleted parts in the quote which I did not want to discuss and instead focused on the areas which confuse me:

1. The phone bill your partner has because of ringing from her mobile??? If the BT line was already connected you could have rang BT from that surely?

2. You stated 'half way through your order' you decided to cancel... Was the broadband ordered after the line was connected I thought they were both ordered together? Was the activation day for the line not the same date as the broadband install?

3. You hung up whilst on hold waiting to cancel. From what you put on your post you never actually got to speak to the cancellation team. I understand your frustration being on the phone so long but if you want something done you have little other options. I have never been on the phone to BT on hold for 1 hour. Any advisor that put a customer on hold for an hour surely would have been sacked the following day.

4. You have left it 3 months. If you ignore bills that are piling up you get yourself into more debt. You should have written a letter via recorded delivery from the start cataloguing your calls, what has already happened and what you want done.

Have you considered emailing a BT Rep on here? Their profiles have contact details.

fck

"Now BT have issued debt collectors against us, informing us that they will take us to court if we do not pay up!"

There is little point trying to contact BT if BT have issued debt collectors against you. You would need to contact the debt collectors who I doubt are going to be helpful other than to offer you a payment plan, also be aware that some debt collection agencys use a premium rate tel No.

I am not an expert but you may be able to complain in writing to BT customer services then otelo if you are not satisfied, However, some people think complaining to BT then otelo is a waste of time, however, you only other course of action is to go to court based on the information you have given here which seems to be you were ignored by BT when you tried to cancel the order. ( You could have wrote a letter)