Cancelling BT vision, phone and Broadband

Mr_Creed

hi,

im currently paying £56.00 a month capped for the use of BT's vision (that hardly ever works), phone line and line rental (we hardly use) and broadband (40g usage, that is very slow), only went with BT as we are not in a Virgin area and Sky was too expensive, it was fine until it came to the billing, i get paid on the last day of every month, which i informed the advisor and he said fine, we can take it out, via direct debit on the 1st of every month, after 3 months of continually ringing up and informing them of this stipulation, they kept sending me bills with different payment dates, leading to arrears on my account, when they had been made aware on numerous occassions of my circumstances, im at my wits end and have just been quoted by Sky a cheaper and much better deal, however i spoke to an advisor at BT to find out how to go about cancelling my service and he informed me that there would be a charge of £513.75 to end my contract as i am contracted to a 24mth service (first i knew about it) and to pay this would be the only way to get rid, i really need to know if there is any clause in my contract that can be paired up to the lousy customer service i have received, the diabolical internet speed and most of all the TV service service that just isnt on a par with Sky, all advice or feedback welcomed

A very frustrated BT Customer!

Heinz

Surely you knew before you ordered that BT Vision was just whatever digital terrestrial TV reception you could obtain via your aerial plus some on demand content?

Mr_Creed

yeah, but i need to get rid of it, its very poor

Browntoa

its obvious when you sign up online what the minimum terms are , if you signed up by calling BT the advisor would (should) tell you the same thing

macman

So how long did you think the minimum term was, and how long have you been in contract? BT Vision is probably the longest contract, and of course if you switch phone/broadband that will no longer function. So you're stuck with it unless you can prove mis-selling.
What tests have you carried out to see if your speed can be improved? 9 times out of 10 the fault is on the customer's equipment, wiring or set up, not on the ISP's side.
For BTV to function properly, your line needs to support a minimum speed of about 2MBps-does it?

Mark_In_Hampshire

Two things - you appear dissatisified with the service and the price. Mind you they're linked, if it all worked, would the prices be OK?

If you want to escape without penalty:

As far as the BT Vision thing goes, I think you have to have BT Broadband as your ISP for that. So you are tied to both of those.

Unless:

As macman says the line needs to be able to support a 2Mbps downstream service (since the connection sets aside 1.5Mbps for the Vision box).

If your line can't support a 2Mbps downstream service, you can't have BT Vision. It should never have been supplied as it would never work. On the other hand nobody including BT knows whether a given telephone line will support 2Mbps. According to BT about 93% of lines do (I'd suspect the true figure is much nearer 80%)

So you could start by taking a look at the stats shown up by your router (home hub?) and have a look at the Sync Rate and IP Profiles.

If the connection isn't quick enough then BT will have to take the Vision thing back and void that off.

Separately, this might then lead to action on your connection - for instance, there could be a line fault, a stuck IP profile... many things.

So I'd start by progressing the Vision box until you have that working flawlessly because that's where the "unravelling" may begin.

Alternatively, wait for a change to the terms and conditions and then cancel the relevant service - for example if BT Vision goes up by £2 a month then you can cancel that contract without penalty (unless there's something in the terms that allows for a price increase)

The problem you have is that you have the Vision service piggybacking the broadband service in turn requiring the line, and you have to keep at least the first two with BT. These multiple contracts can leave you a bit stuck unfortunately.

macman

Yes, BT Vision requires that you take BT Broadband,it won't work without it (or seemingly with it either...)

Mark_In_Hampshire

For the anoraks, that's because to stream TV the Vision box utilises a particular feature of the broadband connection called "QOS" in order to try to maintain a fixed speed rate for the TV regardless of what else you do with the connection.

Gallowgate1

I've been with Bt for 14 of the 18 month contract and am about as unhappy as I could be. Their customer services have been poor generally. Recently I decided to switch to another provider and called Bt. I had no problems paying the remaining rental fees for broadband and Vision, but was shocked to hear I'd have to pay over £200 for the vision box! Now, if I was at the start of the contract I would understand this, but not towards the end. There T&C are a bit vague on this.

Mr_Creed, I sympathise.