BT charging for renewable contract cancellation

sunlund2311

Hello people, need some advice
my wife cancelled our BT phone line 18th of last month. we gave the two weeks notice even though we did not have to ( silly i know) so the line ceased 1st August.
We were at the end of the free calls contract, due to be renewed 24th of July.
We received a bill on-line dated the 21st where we were charged
£ 16.90 line rental with a credit as below:


Unlimited Evening and Weekend

- £ 0.48 _ 20 Jul-24 Jul 11
Plan Deal

I might be totally wrong but to me that indicates that the contract has been cancelled as of the 24th

Today had an email that bill was ready online, so i checked and lo and behold :

UK Evening and Weekend Deal Cancellation Charges
1 Aug 11
You cancelled this service while on contract - so this charge is for your
Phone Line to the end of your contract

£35.23

I have been on the on-line/phone to customer services (India, in the middle of the day??) and they say that we were still in contract.

Again I might be wrong but the fact that we were billed for the service before end date means the contract no longer exists ( for want of a better word) anyway..
I have stated that DD has been cancelled and obviously that i dispute the charge.

Now what to do/say ?
The CS has told me that a UK advisor will phone back within 8 hours after checking original phone conversation with wife. She is adamant that no mention of cancellation charges was made and that everything was cancelled.

I know its not a great deal of money, but its the principle of it. Principles are the only thing that i have spare at the minute

Any advice or thoughts please ?

brewerdave

Typically BT have accepted the line cancellation but your auto renewing E & W/ENDS package was counted as renewed because ,presumably,your wife did not specifically ask for it not to be renewed!
The charge for the call package was made because their charging systems assume that you aren't going to renew and then would credit you in the next bill!

sunlund2311

Thanks for the reply brewerdave
Still no call back from them (26hrs+) later.
I was thinking the same way, but I was present most of the time during call and I told my wife to ask about the call plan.
Don't think she specifically mentioned the plan, but she did say "So that means everything is cancelled ?" and the she was told yes and that we would receive a bill for money owing. No mention of cancellation fees etc

I know we will probably have to admit defeat, but not before I have to
eg they provide proof that we didnt cancel
They provide proof we were informed of cancellation fees- Phone call recording
Plus as you mentioned the way they charge when renewing- we paid for the service from the date that the contract was due for renewal, So was there a contract anyway? Clutching at straws admittedly with that one

BT_company_representative

Hi sunlund2311

I have just seen your post and would like to look into this for you. Check out my profile section were you will find my contact details.

Regards David

sunlund2311

Hi David
Cannot Pm you.
Have filled in the contact bt form on your profile.
Thanks for your help

sunlund2311

Sorry it's taken so long to reply and sorry to bump Lifes been a bit hectic lately.

Had two calls the day after I used Davids contact form. Wanted a few details, checked and phoned back to tell me the charges would be cancelled and I received a refund cheque earlier this week.

Nice to be dealt with by somebody who doesnt sound like they're reading from a script

Thanks for your help