BT con - do I have any rights?

billdrick

In July I was sent this email from BT:

http://epidm.edgesuite.net/BTEM/1210/2046815_BTC_BB_AR_Lovehearts_VAT_Q4_Email/BT_BB_AR_Lovehearts_VAT_Opt3_25_60_Q4_Alt.html

This is basically an offer of a £5 discount per month if I renew my broadband contract with BT. I took advantage of this offer, but the discount didn't show on my August bill.

Having contacted BT through their website, they assured me the discount would be applied to the next (November) bill. I've just received this bill, the discount is not there. And the bill includes a leaflet detailing price rises in my broadband package!

I've emailed BT again and received this reply today:

I can confirm that your account is registered for Broadband option 3. The rental charge is £25.60 per month including VAT.

Please be informed that there is no order been placed on your account for the broadband option to be provided at the discounted rate which is £20.60 per month including VAT. Therefore, I am afraid, you will be charged at the normal rate (£25.60).

I've been with BT for about ten years. In the past couple of years I've seen a slight increase in my download speeds (since moving to a new property) but this has been balanced out with days and weeks where I have had no internet connection at all, especially since renewing my contract. The service from customer support has also been terrible.

I want to leave BT Broadband, BT Phone and Sky TV, and get everything with Virgin Media.

Would I be within my rights to cancel my broadband contract and NOT expect a cancellation charge for this? Have they broken their agreement? I understand there would still be a cancellation charge for the phone line.

Also, I've been with Sky for many years, is there a cancellation charge for Sky TV?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Buzby

No. Your rights are restricted, as your obligations are noted in the contract. As far as Sky TV is concerend, as long as you have completed any imposed minimum term (usually 12 months) you can give notice to leave at month 11.

Speeds are not guaranteed, neither is continued service, so the compensation for less-than-advertised service is usually a rental rebate, not a contract waiver. For info, VM also have minimum terms and are tenacious in extending this time each and every time you alter something on your account.

Contracts will continue until YOU cancel them, if within a minimum term, they charge you the difference as an exit fee. If outwith, then 30 days notice will apply, and no fee UNLESS there was a decomissioning fee, which would have to have been agreed when the contract was taken out.

bod1467

billdrick wrote: »

I took advantage of this offer

Specifically HOW did you take advantage? Via website? Via phone call? Via email?

All of these methods should have an audit trail - even the phone call would have been recorded by BT.

billdrick

BT have called us and arranged a new lower price for a new phone and broadband contract, much lower than the discount I was originally banging on about. This makes it cheaper for us to stick with BT instead of going over to Virgin.

With regards to broadband speed, I understand you rarely get what's advertised. What I don't find acceptable is a complete lack of broadband service whatsoever - occasionally, for days and sometimes weeks on end, there is no internet at all. The hub just sits there blinking at you. In my experience, BT's telephone support extends as far as "is it plugged in?" and no further, which is frustrating.

bod1467 wrote: »

Specifically HOW did you take advantage? Via website? Via phone call? Via email?

All of these methods should have an audit trail - even the phone call would have been recorded by BT.

The offer was through an email, the one I linked to in my first post. I told BT this but they were not having it and refused to acknowledge the offer existed, even though it's right there!

Mark_In_Hampshire

The answer is to withhold payment of the £5 and email them to say why you've done so.

If you pay by direct debit then you can't do that, so your only recourse is to keep on at them (via email not verbally) setting out in simple steps (bullet points) what was agreed, what is wrong, what you want done etc.

Looking at this on a "balance of probability" basis - you can refer to the original offer, you did call to renew your contract, and so it should apply. So make that all clear.

However I do wonder - the discount was for renewing which infers a new contract term. If you're on month to month (no renewal for a term, so no discount) then they may, actually, have inadvertently provided you with your escape clause anyway since you're not actually in contract if you have already served the minimum term?

Finally as regards a price increase, yes, you are within your rights to refuse the price increase. They can then elect whether to continue to supply at the lower price (which should be the discounted one by the sounds of it) or void the contract and let you escape without any penalty except perhaps the £30-ish fee for discontinuing a broadband service (buried away in the Ts and Cs and payable anyway). Unless, and you'd need to check, the Ts and Cs of the broadband service make explicit provision for one or more price increases during the term.

chanz4

I used to be a bt broadband engineer, if its not locking on all the time try to restart the hub.

billdrick

chanz4 wrote: »

I used to be a bt broadband engineer, if its not locking on all the time try to restart the hub.

We have to reset the hub regularly, usually it works but a little frustrating to have to keep resetting it. Occasionally restarting or resetting does nothing to solve the problem.

Calling BT will take us through the same process of resetting the hub, taking the front of the phone socket and someone remotely controlling the laptop to install things, which is painful to watch as the connection drops, and the whole process is pointless because the problem is with the hub, not one particular computer. The internet will return momentarily, during which time BT support says the problem is fixed - five minutes later the internet is gone again. We call BT back, they go through the same process.

username9876

Have you tried connecting to the router by ethernet?