BT contract monopoly

clairet707

Is there any way of getting out of BTs 12 month contract monopoly (without paying hundreds of £)?

Were currently with BT for phone line and calls and are out of contract with them - we want to swap to O2 for phone line and calls

Simple you might think but no...

We are moving house in 2 weeks and to move the phone and consquently the broadband we are tied in to BT for another 12 months so swapping to O2 is a no go..


How is this fair or legal and is there anyway of getting round it?

Heinz

Yes. Any of the firms now in the market can arrange connection/installation/reconnection of a line so there is no need to get BT to do it.

Go to a firm like O2.

iniltous

As already stated if you are out of contact with BT at your old address then all you have to do is call BT to end your service, although out of contract you may get a £25 cease broadband charge, but apart from whatever the notice period is you are 'free' to leave, (if you are correct about not being in contract).
At your new address if you dont want to use BT (and thus not be in contract to them) do not call them and ask for them to provide service, but call whoever it is you do want to supply your service, but as you may have noticed lots of companys imply you need to get BT in first, thats not true, but getting some CP's to do anything other than migrate you from BT isnt easy.

clairet707

Our bb is already with O2 hence wanting to go to them

We called to not renew our 12 month rolling evening and weekend plan with BT back in Feb (and had confirmation and we are now paying the extra amount for the priviledge of not being in contract)

O2 seem to think though that they cant provide me with a line, I 'HAVE' to have a BT line in place first.. How do I get them to do this anyway

Heinz

I'd take the view that, if a company is prepared to lie to me when I am trying to give them my business, they would not think twice about stitching me up in the future. Hence, I'd take my custom elsewhere.

BTW, the reason for the lie is that, to take over an active BT line, Openreach would charge them £2.35 whereas, for a new connection, they'd charge £103.40.

OldGreyFox

clairet707 wrote: »

O2 seem to think though that they cant provide me with a line, I 'HAVE' to have a BT line in place first.. How do I get them to do this anyway

Their telling you porkies.

See their price list new lines connected for £85.

http://broadband.o2.co.uk/downloads/...Price_List.pdf go to page 30.

owitemisermusa

clairet707 wrote: »

Our bb is already with O2 hence wanting to go to them

We called to not renew our 12 month rolling evening and weekend plan with BT back in Feb (and had confirmation and we are now paying the extra amount for the priviledge of not being in contract)

O2 seem to think though that they cant provide me with a line, I 'HAVE' to have a BT line in place first.. How do I get them to do this anyway

Simply get Post Office Home Phone instead, problem solved!

If there's a BT line there, Post Office will reconnect you free. You can then move to O2 Homephone whenever you like.

BTW, it would appear that O2 have less than satisfactory T&Cs for their homephone service so read through carefully.

HTH,

OMM.

clairet707

owitemisermusa wrote: »

BTW, it would appear that O2 have less than satisfactory T&Cs for their homephone service so read through carefully.

HTH,

OMM.

Can you explain this please? I have read through the T&C and nothing less than satisfactory jumped out at me so not sure what you are getting at?

owitemisermusa

clairet707 wrote: »

Can you explain this please? I have read through the T&C and nothing less than satisfactory jumped out at me so not sure what you are getting at?

There's a thread here about charges for leaving, charges for fixing your line, limits on your monthly usage etc.

Not seen them myself, only reporting what I saw.

Here it is: O2 Homephone T&C Thread

boatman

I'm looking to get a phone line at my property for apx 8 months, mostly so i can have broadband. Spoke to BT and they told me the line has been disconnected, they checked and said the previous tenants 'must' have asked for this(there is actually a dial tone and i can dial numbers, so don't know what she checked!!), , so they want to charge me 125 to reconnect(and for what, 5 minutes work!!), . I've been with BT for about 10 years but because i went traveling for a few months they cannot continue my previous contract.
For me its simply not worth paying for the line, they want 18month contracts and to take phone/tv/broadband, didn't even offer me the cheap connection offer.
If i move in to a property i don't pay to be connected to gas/electric, why do phone companies think its acceptable, OFCOM are no use whatsoever....
Phoned OFCOM and they just kept saying the 'operator' has done nothing wrong.. got so fed up with him saying it, i said "nor did the MPs with there expenses", same bl**dy thing, bad regulation/rules!!
All i want to be able to do is move in to a property, be able to use the phone for a while then move out, should it really be so difficult...?

And, why can i make and receive calls on a phone all the companies tell is not connected........... If someone like Sky provided the line, would this explain why they tell me its disconnected?

Heinz

IMHO, your best bet is to try Post Office Home Phone. They don't tie you to long contracts.

If you can actually dial out, the line is still active on somebody's, perhaps not BT's, network - so it would help if you could establish who's (try dialling 17070 and, if you get the circuit's identity AND a series of options, it's a BT line. If the options are missing, it's someone else's). Then try 150 and see who answers.

It is not logical to use the gas, electric and water infrastructure for comparison because none of them ever use their wires or pipes for another subscriber (because they can't physically do so).