Charges from BT after leaving.

Boohoo

Hello.

I switched my broadband/line rental and calls from BT to Sky.
The switch was completed at about 3pm yesterday at the moment all is ok.
About an hour after switchover I get 2 emails from BT.
1st saying sorry you are leaving and telling me what services are being cut off.
2nd email saying as I am leaving early I will have to send back the HH4 and I will be charged about £6 as I am leaving the contract early. Also there may be a charge for not using a MAC and as I am no longer a BT broadband customer I will be charged for BT sport.
I took out BT broadband on 10/08/2013 and my last bill in Jan was paid upto 9/02/2015 so I don't understand why I have to pay extra and still have to return the HH4.
I also cancelled sport which I due to end on 9/2/2015.
In all the calls I have made to BT about asking for a MAC twice and stopping sport I was told that as I am in the last few days of a min-term contract and I have paid upfront I will not have to pay any charges.
Are the emails standard ones or are they correct?

penrhyn

If you cancelled the service you will be liable to a termination charge levied by BT Openreach for the work done at the exchange to move you to Sky. Around £30 last time I looked.

Boohoo

penrhyn I had 5/6 days left run on the 18 month term when I switched over. I did request a MAC from bt but it was never used as Sky online says the switch squad will take care of this. I also asked Sky and BT and was told no charge if I am still having broadband only I will be charged if I stop broadband altogether.

iniltous

If Sky used a proper migration process, using a MAC or not, then you shouldn't get charged a £30 broadband cease charge, but as it's you and not them that get the final bill if they didn't use a migration but ordered a new line then you get stung,not them, so little incentive for them, did you keep your BT number ?, if you did it would suggest a migration, if you got a 'new' number it's probably not a migration

Swipe

Sounds to me like the switch has taken place just before the BT 18 month contract has ended. You should have waited until the last day before initiating the switch.

Boohoo

So it looks like BT win all round then.
You pay upfront and if you leave 6 days before the 18 months have finished you lose the upfront cost and you still have to pay the extra few days on top. If you pay line rental yearly discount of over £160 and then leave 1 or 2 before they will not refund you.
In all the calls and live chats I have had with BT they all said I will not pay any extra charges as I am in the last month of min term so they have lied.
I went to Sky because their free broadband deal was ending and BT were going to charge me more for the bundle I was on with them now.
initous I have kept the same phone number so it is a migration from BT to Sky.

iniltous

Boohoo wrote: »

So it looks like BT win all round then.
You pay upfront and if you leave 6 days before the 18 months have finished you lose the upfront cost and you still have to pay the extra few days on top. If you pay line rental yearly discount of over £160 and then leave 1 or 2 before they will not refund you.
In all the calls and live chats I have had with BT they all said I will not pay any extra charges as I am in the last month of min term so they have lied.
I went to Sky because their free broadband deal was ending and BT were going to charge me more for the bundle I was on with them now.
initous I have kept the same phone number so it is a migration from BT to Sky.

If you leave 6 days before the end of your minimum term the early termination charge would be small.
If you didn't give notice , 14 days or a month I think depending on line or broadband rental, then there may be a charge for this,
if you paid advance line rental for a year and leave before the year us up they state that you don't get any refund, but if it's only a few days it's only going to be a small amount, it would be a bit daft to pay a year LR and then move provider after a couple of weeks, and it does say no refunds if you leave early
The £30 broadband disconnect fee is different, if Sky use the correct process then the cost of disconnecting BT is tied up in the cost of provision that Sky pay Openreach to move you from your previous provider (BT) to them, if they don't use the correct procedure they probably get a cheaper charge from Openreach but it doesn't stop the cease charge being raised by OR and your old provider passes that charge on from OR to you
I would start by asking Sky if they used the industry migration process, then ask them to credit you with the £30 saying they didn't tell you about the £30, or you could try BT but TBH why would they give a waive the fee if they say Sky didn't do the transfer properly, and as you have already left, there is nothing in it for them
Obviously both Sky and BT will say it's the others fault, you may never know for sure,
You don't say how much in total the final extra charges are, is it a few quid over £30 ?

Boohoo

iniltous I didn't pay line rental in advance I was saying if you did and then leave you lose the money and BT win.
I paid one month line rental/broadband calls and caller display in advance of £42. My advance runs from 10/01/2015 and ends 09/02/2015.
The email says I will have to pay £6 for the remaining months and "may" have to pay £30 for ending broadband and as I am no longer a broadband customer the FREE BT sport will have to pay for that but price was stated.
In a another email from them I have been told to send back the HH4 as I have left early. They will send me a final bill 14 days after I have stopped all services so I wont know the final total till then.
I have paid 18 months for all these services from them so it's not as if I have left a few months early is it?

stockton_2

BT do not take prisoners but I would wait until you get the final bill which might not be as bad as you fear: especially given the reassurances you have received from your phone calls to BT. It sounds to me very much like they have sent a standard letter.

With regards to the HH4 why not email them to ask permission to keep it? I get the impression that with some ISP's it is considered less hassle to let the customer keep the router. May be they were using that as a lever to try and keep you.

I am not entirely clear about the bt sport. Are they saying you have to pay for this until the termination of your contract, as it is no longer free? How much will this cost; and for how long?

penrhyn

Why do you want to kep the home hub op? You can't use it with Sky, is it just so you can sell it?

Boohoo

I am not entirely clear about the bt sport. Are they saying you have to pay for this until the termination of your contract, as it is no longer free? How much will this cost; and for how long?

I got a letter stating that unless I renew my broadband for a min of 12 months I will have to pay £6.75 a month for sport channel. I January I called BT and gave them notice to stop BT sport and I was told that it would stop on 9/02/2015 and there will be no extra charge as I have paid upto that date.
As for the email about HH4 I got this email 1 hour after I had switched over to Sky on Tuesday so it was too late to try and keep me as a customer I think it was a standard email but again in the calls to BT there was no mention of me having to send it back as I was told that I have been a customer for 18 months.