Can BT hold me to a contract that I never received a confirmation of?

Elliot_Richards

Hi All,

After contacting BT to find out when I could leave the uncompetitive tariff I'm currently on they pointed out that when I moved house to a new build (6 months ago) and they installed a new line, I in fact entered into a new 18 month contract, which I didn't realise and didn't have made clear to me. I was told by the adviser when organising things that I simply had to upgrade my tariff to a new one that worked out the same as the last and it would waive the £120 connection fee.

My stance is that if I'd have had it made clear to me that a new 18 month contract was being entered into I wouldn't have gone for it and after checking, BT have confirmed from their records that for some reason a copy of the new contract was neither posted or emailed to me.

Their stance is that the fact I had the new connection work carried out at no charge meant that I accepted the terms.

Does anyone know if I can be held to this or I'm within my rights to leave because I didn't receive any confirmation to even be given a chance to review what I was in fact agreeing to?

Many thanks

kwikbreaks

My betting is that they will claim you were told so making it a verbal contract. It's pretty much common sense that getting a free install of anything is going to involve a minimum term contract.

You could try calling the citizens advice bureaux to see if you can get out of this without a charge.

thomcooper

I'd say you're probably on thin ice here if you ordered it through the internet, its pretty clear that your signing up for 18 months.

If it was on the phone, its your word against theirs. The fact that they never sent out a contract to you according to their records means that you could argue that you never saw the full Terms & couldn't fully assess the contract & if necessary us your right to cancel which I believe is a 14 day cooling off period (check this point).

I'm dealing with BT Customer Support at the moment on another point & they seem to be controlled by a bunch of tick boxes. I know that I am in the right in my instance & am going to take it all the way in my case.

You should expect to pay for the Openreach connection though if you manage to get out of the contract as this is a service that has been provided & completed which has materially benefitted the property (as in you now have a connection to the Openreach network).

I do have to agree with kwik though. You're pretty naive if you think that someone is going to turn up & do a free installation without tying you into a contract of some form.