BT broadband cancellation charge

akkers

I have been with BT for 18 months for broadband and telephone service. In that period I suffered faults on 2 occassions and each time they send out an engineer after 4-5 days. Waiting that long with telephone or broadband service - my work as disrupted and lost a lot of telephone calls. So decided to switch to Virgin.
However, BT are trying to charge me a 'Broadband cancellation charge' of £30. I was never told about this charge when I joined nor is there any mention in the contract papers that I received. I queried this with them. A BT person rang me today and said that the £30 charge is not for leaving; I did not obtain a MAC code off them so they are charging me this amount. I told him he was talking a lot of nonsense. Why would I need a MAC code if I was moving to Virgin (a cable company).
It appears that they are slapping this random £30 charge for all leavers and expect majority of people not to notice or fight back. If anyone does query it then they give him some technical googlygook to confuse them.
I am taking this to my solicitor and reporting it to Trading Standards as well.

cajef

It is a standard charge if you change ISP either without using a MAC or changing to cable, it is a cease charge to pay for disconnecting your broadband service from the BT exchange and is applied by BT to all ISP's, it is in the Terms & Conditions of your broadband service and has been in place for several years.

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentFooterPopup.jsp?pagecontentfooter_popupid=26823&s_cid=con_FURL_ceasecharge

chanz4

akkers wrote: »

I have been with BT for 18 months for broadband and telephone service. In that period I suffered faults on 2 occassions and each time they send out an engineer after 4-5 days. Waiting that long with telephone or broadband service - my work as disrupted and lost a lot of telephone calls. So decided to switch to Virgin.
However, BT are trying to charge me a 'Broadband cancellation charge' of £30. I was never told about this charge when I joined nor is there any mention in the contract papers that I received. I queried this with them. A BT person rang me today and said that the £30 charge is not for leaving; I did not obtain a MAC code off them so they are charging me this amount. I told him he was talking a lot of nonsense. Why would I need a MAC code if I was moving to Virgin (a cable company).
It appears that they are slapping this random £30 charge for all leavers and expect majority of people not to notice or fight back. If anyone does query it then they give him some technical googlygook to confuse them.
I am taking this to my solicitor and reporting it to Trading Standards as well.

Your solicitor will find the same thing , and cost you double to find it out

kwikbreaks

The thing to bear in mind is that it isn't some random punishment applied for no good reason. When you get ADSL installed there are connections made at the exchange to the ISPs equipment. There is an Openreach charge for this but it is usually absorbed by the ISP in return for a 12 month minimum contract or sometimes longer.

When you move ISP using a MAC those connections get moved if necessary - and if neither ISP is LLU nothing gets moved but some keyboard work is involved to get your routing correct. There is an Openreach charge for this too but once again it is normal for the gaining ISP to absorb it.

When you terminate ADSL entirely Openreach will disconnect the ADSL ties and charge the losing ISP for that work. Very few absorb the charge - they pass it on to the customer and all the contracts will mention this somewhere or other.

macman

This charge was imposed by OR 3 to 4 years ago now, and is passed on by every ISP if you migrate without a MAC. I suggest that you didn't check your T&C's clearly enough, as it was certainly in place 18m ago. And even if it hadn't been, the contract allows them to change the T&C's as they wish as long as they notify you.
You are wasting your money and TS's time if you take this further.