MSE News: BT reveals price rises - but you can escape the hikes

brynhh

OK I'll give that a go now and see what they say, as long as I can have it until the 27th I'm happy. Thanks a lot for your help. I'll post back my results!

brynhh

Just called them up and because I had a home move order in place (as I was originally going to move the service before I had the email), they have to cancel that first then they can cancel the account. So they said to call back tomorrow and they can put the account cancellation through and it'll be 30 days notice, won't cut off straight away. Lady I spoke to this time was far more helpful and didn't question anything, just got on with it.

So that's a bit of relief at least, keep my connection here for the meantime, will get a Plusnet order in for the new place and no charges all round. Cheers again Quentin!

Further news:

Placed an order with Plusnet to be installed on Friday 29th, just had an email saying it'll be 10th December! Well over 4 weeks away, that seems bonkers. They said Openreach need to put a connection in, but even so.

w81

anna2007 wrote: »

Thanks Scrounger - do you know if it's in BT's t&c's that LRS won't be refunded if you cancel due to the price increase? I had a look before sending in my cancellation on Friday, but soon gave up as there are so many terms that seem to apply to my account! I did read the 'legal stuff' on the BT website re LRS and it says at the end that you won't get a refund if you cancel, but that exclusions apply (that's all I could find though)..

Not sure if someone else more knowledgeable has already answered this but I foudn a bit about the term here about not refunding line rental: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/assets/downloads/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf

"Line rental

BT’s standard telephone service is provided over a Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) line. Line rental is payable
monthly, quarterly or 12 months in advance. Standard line rental
is payable following receipt of your monthly or quarterly bill, but
you can obtain an early payment discount of £44.40 by choosing
to pay in advance by taking our Line Rental Saver option. The
standard line rental charges are £15.45 per month or £46.35 per
quarter. The discounted Line Rental Saver charge of £141.00 is
available for customers paying 12 months in advance. This
discounted charge is non-refundable if you leave within the
period that the payment covers and is subject to terms and
conditions. "

(My bold). I felt that they were effectively making a gain out of me leaving by not having to provide me with the line rental.

brynhh

So the next chapter of my story, just called up to cancel the account as per their instructions yesterday. Had ages of why are you leaving, it's only going up by £2 again, eventually got them to look into cancelling and they come back and said cancelling the account is free of charge but I have to pay £30 to stop the broadband because I'm not going to another supplier at this address. Absolute nightmare trying to deal with these. Can't be bothered with this hassle, think emailing the CEO office might be my easiest option, does anyone know if gavin.e.patterson is the correct address?

Quentin

Yes .

anna2007

jimmyhart wrote: »

...cancelling the account is free of charge but I have to pay £30 to stop the broadband because I'm not going to another supplier at this address. Absolute nightmare trying to deal with these. Can't be bothered with this hassle, think emailing the CEO office might be my easiest option, does anyone know if gavin.e.patterson is the correct address?

Yes, the address is correct, I received a reply within a few hours on Saturday, and my cancellation was all sorted by Wednesday (would have been sooner but I kept missing their call!).

I think the £30 cessation charge is applied by all the providers if you don't use a MAC, or arrange transfer through the new provider. It covers the costs of BT putting a stop on the line, not sure it's a cost you can avoid if you're starting with your new provider at your new address?

brynhh

anna2007 wrote: »

Yes, the address is correct, I received a reply within a few hours on Saturday, and my cancellation was all sorted by Wednesday (would have been sooner but I kept missing their call!).

I think the £30 cessation charge is applied by all the providers if you don't use a MAC, or arrange transfer through the new provider. It covers the costs of BT putting a stop on the line, not sure it's a cost you can avoid if you're starting with your new provider at your new address?

I see what you mean and appreciate where the charge may come from, but I would have thought the fact my Infinity is increasing in price means it negates any charge such as that, as I am entitled to cancel the service within 10 days.

Either way, emailing him now and will see what he says.

anna2007

will.moindrot wrote: »

Not sure if someone else more knowledgeable has already answered this but I foudn a bit about the term here about not refunding line rental: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/assets/downloads/BT_PhoneTariff_Residential.pdf

"Line rental

BT’s standard telephone service is provided over a Public
Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) line. Line rental is payable
monthly, quarterly or 12 months in advance. Standard line rental
is payable following receipt of your monthly or quarterly bill, but
you can obtain an early payment discount of £44.40 by choosing
to pay in advance by taking our Line Rental Saver option. The
standard line rental charges are £15.45 per month or £46.35 per
quarter. The discounted Line Rental Saver charge of £141.00 is
available for customers paying 12 months in advance. This
discounted charge is non-refundable if you leave within the
period that the payment covers and is subject to terms and
conditions. "

(My bold). I felt that they were effectively making a gain out of me leaving by not having to provide me with the line rental.

This is helpful, thanks will. I'd still like to see the elusive t&c's for Line Rental Saver, to see if the exclusions cover refund of LRS when cancelling penalty-free.

Whether it's in the t&c's or not, I'm sure BT refusing to refund prepaid line rental would be viewed as unfair and unreasonable by the ADR scheme and the courts.

anna2007

jimmyhart wrote: »

Either way, emailing him now and will see what he says.

Definitely worth a try, as it's effectively another penalty when there should be none

brynhh

anna2007 wrote: »

Definitely worth a try, as it's effectively another penalty when there should be none

Yeah exactly, that's my opinion too. I could understand if the internet wasn't going up, but it is, so it should be subject to the same cancellation terms as the other services.

She said it is because the engineer has to disconnect the service. What? OK it has a different faceplate because it's Infinity, but I can't imagine they will remove that. The only thing I can think of is they have to change the connection for his house in the street cabinet back over to ADSL rather than FTTC, but that's not my problem.

Either way, got this reply pretty quickly, so hopefully something will progress soon:

"Dear Mr xxx,

Thank you for your e-mail. Gavin is currently in a series of meetings with limited access to his e-mail, so I am replying on his behalf to avoid further delay. Please be assured that Gavin will see and read your correspondence on his return.

I am sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing, I will pass this to our senior service team for investigation and response directly to you.

Kind regards,
Tracy."