BT Broadband - How to leave without a big charge?

insurgente

Morning all, I'm hoping that I can write down our situation with BT in a sensible manner, and if someone can advise me if we're getting a raw deal here . Any time someone calls up BT, we seem to get a different answer.

There's a few of us in a shared house. So our broadband/line rental month runs from the 13th to the 12th. On the 28th we pay in advance for the month ahead. Our 18 month contract with BT expired some time ago, and we've been on month to month ever since

As we're all leaving the house (getting kicked out), my housemate has been quite zealous about cancelling everything and having all bills wrapped up sharpish.

She called up BT on July 31st, requesting that the internet/line be cancelled "ASAP". They told her the soonest it could be cut off is August 7th.

(I've talked to BT many times and was told there was a 1 month notice period to cancel... it sounds like they didnt tell this to my housemate.

My housemate tried to cancel BT way before, but was told nothing could be done until July 31st as there was an "open order" for BT Sport. i.e. we were cancelling it as they tried to sneak the increased cost on to us for a service we can't use.

When I cancelled BT Sport at no point was I told that it would interfere with anything else to do with our account).

Ok so, due to cancel August 7th: BT told me that we'd have to pay the £30 cancellation fee, but we'd also get an amount refunded for the time we didn't use (7th August to 12th). But I was told that would be it.

To me, having to pay a disconnection charge to stop using a service when the contract is long ended is pretty ridiculous, but if that's the deal so be it.

Now the final bill arrives to be paid August 28th, and we have the disconnection charge, no refund, and also a charge for broadband and line rental from August 13th to August 30th.

Considering everything was cut off August 7th, and the variety of answers I was given, I cant get my head around paying for a service we don't have. Essentially, not having broadband for 3 weeks costs way more than 1 month of broadband.

The bloke on the line at BT didnt seem interested in my point of view and just forwarded me this:
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/36061

I just feel like BT deliberately mislead my housemate and just set out to give us the worst possible deal as we're leaving the service:

I'm aware that there is a notice period. Why didn't they tell that to my housemate? Why tell my housemate the way to disconnect in the "cheapest way possible and to prevent future charges" is to disconnect after 1 week? Why would a customer willingly pay for 1 month of something and only use it for 1 week?

I know BT can hide behind the fact that "we're only doing what the account holder asked us to do" but that's a little disingenuous.

What are my options? On the phone to BT I requested: correct the charge so it is just the £30 disconnection fee. Or reconnect our broadband for the rest of the month, as we're paying for it anyway.

Naturally both aren't doable... Anything else? I could potentially cancel the payment/direct debit, but this is probably not worth a bad mark on the credit history.

wow apologies that was long! but I appreciate any input :cool:

mije1983

The £30 charge is a standard Openreach cease charge when you cancel broadband and don't migrate to a new service. This is seperate to any notice period you have to give your provider. Most, if not all, providers who use BT lines pass this charge to the customer. As far as I know, there isn't a way to get out of it.

stockton_2

It all seems in order as far as I can see. You are paying the standard £30 discontinuation charge plus the month's notice. To be fair, you appear to have asked BT to stop the service as soon as possible and that is what they have done.


A couple of years ago I asked BT to stop my services early as I was leaving my flat a couple of weeks before the end of the month's notice. The last thing I wanted was to leave an open BB and phone service for new tenants who could have mis-used it and run up bills in my name. This must be standard procedure for BT when customers make their wishes known.


You did well to avoid falling into the BT sports trap.

insurgente

I agree that perhaps BT took advantage of my housemate's gullibility (for lack of a better word...it's early).

why would a customer say to a company "I tell you what, I want to pay you for a service, and i dont want you to provide it. how bout that?" Of course they wont say no, they could've at least advised her better.

However, I myself called BT before this all happened and was told we wouldn't be paying out the rest of August. Why would the BT employee lie? Or give me a different answer every time I call up?

stockton wrote: »

You did well to avoid falling into the BT sports trap.

Yea some great avoidance by myself: avoiding an extra £5 to then pay 10 times more

My housemate tried to cancel the internet long ago, so we would've served the 30 day notice and got cut off fine. However BT told her there was an "open order" on the account (to cancel BT sport) and that the account couldn't be touched until BT Sport was cancelled (july 31st).

again, at no point when we cancelled BT Sport was it mentioned that it would interfere with anything else with the account....why keep changing the terms every time we call?