Cancellation Fees

Karianna

Hi

I think I'm being taken for a mug by BT. I tried cancelling my phone line which I've had for years (because I can no longer afford to pay). They now say that on top of the 30 day notice period required. I have to pay a £35 charge for cancelling a contract that renews each year on it's own!!!!! They say that they send a letter every year to advise that your contract is finishing, but does this mean that if you stay with BT your tied in for another 12 months. My mobile phone company lets me cancel any time after the initial contract period even if I'm still with them, they only time it times me into a contract is if I up grade!

Can anyone give me some helpful advice?

McKneff

Do you actually receive a letter each year saying the yearly contract is finishing.

Buzby

No. You misunderstand - BT provide you with free Off-Peak calls, and for this you agree to an auto-renewing minimum term. If you declined this offer, you only get free off peak calls at the weekend. It remains your choice, accept the lock-in, and get the free calls, or reject it and pay for your weeknight calls. Recieving a letter when it renews is not a requirement, just an obligement so not getting one does not invalidate the agreement (it's all in the T&C you agreed). I refused this deal, and then left BT under my own terms.

iniltous

Seems to be a way out even if the auto renewing contract has been done correctly, BT are putting up line rental and I presume will have to inform you of this (by letter ?)..the T&C's state that you have the right to cancel if this change is to your material disadvantage, and you have 10 days to tell BT you dont accept the change to the contract and leave, putting up the price is to your disadvantage, also I thought the penalty for early termination was £2/month so even if the contract had just renewed it would be £24 not £36

steveE2

also I thought the penalty for early termination was £2/month so even if the contract had just renewed it would be £24 not £36

It varies according to the package £2.50-£5.50 for call plans
Full details:telephone and broadband/Vision packages
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentFooterPopup.jsp?pagecontentfooter_popupid=26746&s_cid=con_FURL_termcharges

Buzby

And again for clarification the contract doesn't auto-renew - it is the minimum term lock-in. However, I gather OFCOM are about to outlaw this as a marketing ploy to prevent telco's using the to catch the unwary (as it 'prevents competition').

dkfan

bt are currently trying to charge me £31.74 for "termination charges", i recently changed to another provider 3 weeks before end of my BT "contract" was due to renew to be told by my new provider everything was going through ok (it is only supposed to take 2-3 wks to change provider), to then find BT was still charging me for phone calls made after i had changed. BT only left it another month before informing me they had acknowledged my change of provider and informed me of the termination charge - i had left it until nearly the end of my BT contract before cancelling purposely so i wouldn't be hit with cancellation charges, only for "go slow" approach from BT that left it until a month into a new contract with BT before they let me go, i have written to BT with evidence of date of new contract with new provider, including billing date from new provider that clearly show they charged me from end of june, (BT still charging me from then)

dkfan

BT got me on a rolling contract as they call it. I changed provider at the end of my contract (2-3 wks before to make sure it would go through in time as I was told it took 2-3wks to change over), thought all was fine especially as I had e-mails from new provider to say welcome etc, checked my final BT bill on-line, to find they were still charging me, got back in touch with my new provider who said they would follow it up with BT, It was a month later when BT acknowledged my leaving them (when I was then a month into my old BT contract with them??? - perhaps they went slow for that reason???), they now say I owe them £31.74 termination charges. I have written to their Durham address with copies of all e-mails etc from my new provider inc. bill date, have yet to hear from BT apart from demands for money - which I have agreed to paying my final bill but dispute the termination charges, no answer from BT yet

steveE2

dkfan wrote: »

bt are currently trying to charge me £31.74 for "termination charges", i recently changed to another provider 3 weeks before end of my BT "contract" was due to renew to be told by my new provider everything was going through ok (it is only supposed to take 2-3 wks to change provider), to then find BT was still charging me for phone calls made after i had changed. BT only left it another month before informing me they had acknowledged my change of provider and informed me of the termination charge - i had left it until nearly the end of my BT contract before cancelling purposely so i wouldn't be hit with cancellation charges, only for "go slow" approach from BT that left it until a month into a new contract with BT before they let me go, i have written to BT with evidence of date of new contract with new provider, including billing date from new provider that clearly show they charged me from end of june, (BT still charging me from then)

Did you actually tell BT you did not want to renew the contract before signing up with the new provider?
BT cannot charge you for calls after you were connected to the new supplier as they would have no record of what these calls were.

Buzby

steveE2 wrote: »

Did you actually tell BT you did not want to renew the contract before signing up with the new provider?
BT cannot charge you for calls after you were connected to the new supplier as they would have no record of what these calls were.

Yes they would! BT Openreach provide the call data to anyone supplier that requests the billing, so siwthcing to another provider doesa not mean your billing becomes invisoble to the previous one. What your new supplier says is immaterial, you need to have given BT formal notive of termination in which YOU stipulate the end date. If you didn;t (and are relying on your new supplier to do all this) you leave yourself open to the situation you describe. Without an explicit leaving date, these carry-overs are common and whilst you can argue, unless they agree to manually modify the charge, you'll be stuck with it.