BT Charging for Cancellation

Funtimefrankie

My mums BT contract ended on 6th August 2010 so we decided to move our calls, broadband and line rental to talk talk as we already had Broadband with them(tiscali). So Talk talk contacted BT on 4th August to advise them of the switch over. Everything went fine until 18th November we received a Bill from BT looking for £89 because we cancelled during the contract! So I called BT and explained to them that we were out of contract but they said that because we didnt personally cancel, the contract automatically renewed for another 12 months. TalkTalk said that they would contact BT and get everything sorted in the beginning when we decided to go with them. Also, my mum paid the amount to BT last week when the bill came in. I would like to know if we have any chance of getting this money back or is it BT or Talk Talk that we should be following it up with??

Heinz

It sounds like you were on BT's auto-renewing Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan and didn't respond to the letter you received 11 months into that contract (which was your opportunity to cancel).

I'm afraid also that your mistake was to believe that when "TalkTalk said that they would contact BT and get everything sorted in the beginning when we decided to go with them" they would actually do so (they don't care about your previous provider, they just want you as one of their subscribers).

david39

Actually, the fault was that you did not understand the Terms & Conditions of your BT contract.

The automatic renewal of the contract unless the subscriber advises otherwise is a common feature of many similar annual contracts including most insurance policies these days.

There are several threads on these boards started by people who have fallen foul of this type of contract with British Telecom and others.

spike7451

Heinz wrote: »

It sounds like you were on BT's auto-renewing Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan and didn't respond to the letter you received 11 months into that contract (which was your opportunity to cancel).

I'm afraid also that your mistake was to believe that when "TalkTalk said that they would contact BT and get everything sorted in the beginning when we decided to go with them" they would actually do so (they don't care about your previous provider, they just want you as one of their subscribers).

Yup,too true as so many have found out to their cost,OP doesn't say if they oobtained a MAC code from BT,My guess is no MAC code has been used hence the charge as well.

chequers1964

We have decided to move to SKY for phone and broadband and upon cancelling our contract with BT for the phone service after having had the same line for nearly 3 years were somewhat dismayed to find there was still a cancellation charge of £39. Apparently the wording in BT's standard T&C is that we were on a 12 month renewable contract for our unlimited any-time plan and that this gives them the right to reset their termination charges every 12 months. Whilst neither the good lady or myself are exactly specialists in contract law this terminology is still very ambiguous and no doubt we are not the first people to be caught out on this one, this clause of being able to reset these penalty charges was never clearly explained and we feel we have been deliberately mis-led to BT's advantage and although it's only £39 it has left us feeling as though BT have 'Had one over' on us and it's not a pleasant feeling!
Has anyone else suffered the same experience and do you know if we have any recourse to claim the money back?

Owain_Moneysaver

chequers1964 wrote: »

Has anyone else suffered the same experience and do you know if we have any recourse to claim the money back?

Tell Bt you're happy to continue on the 12 month contract but you expect them to honour the contract prices of 12 months ago.

They will 'allow' cancellation of the contract if you contact them fairly quickly after they put their prices up.

They will still try and charge you though, despite saying they won't.