BT Contract Charges & Cancellation

sheadas

Hello all,

This is my first post!

I am trying to help a friend with some finances. She signed up to BT phone & broadband in January 2015 for £27.00pm. Since then BT have gradually increased the monthly cost to around £60.00pm. Upon trying to contact BT for an explanation she has either not been given any reason at all, or been cut off from the advisor when they don't seem to be able to answer the question.

Due to pure frustration she switched her phone & broadband deal to another provider for £12.00pm. She has since had a letter from BT requesting early termination & equipment fees of approx £170.00. This seemed excessive considering the reason for the change was due to unexplained monthly contract increases, but was accepted as it wouldn't take too long to make a saving given the difference between £27pm & £12pm let alone the increase to £60pm.

However 2 weeks ago she received an email from BT stating they now want £300+ for early termination & equipment fees (seems like a huge jump). She has tried to contact BT who again are very unhelpful. She has now emailed them asking for an explanation & to pay the original request by instalments. To date she has not had a reply.

The package was originally for line rental, weekend phone package (not used & no phone connected) & broadband.

What is going on here?
How can an agreed contract increase from £27.00approx in Jan 2015 to £60.00approx by Aug 2015?
How can you look online, chat, call & email with no explanation?
How can the charges increase from £170 to £300+ for cancellation?
Is there any way of fighting this due to the reason for cancelling being for un-agreed contract increases with no warning or explanation?
If BT can charge for breaking a contact early, what can we do about them changing the agreement cost mid way through?

I don’t know about you, but I would want a lot for £60pm.

Sorry to ramble on & thank you for your input.

JJ_Egan

Reads as user has deliberately broken a valid contract .I note no sign of a complaint letter to BT .

If the monthly price increaded as described this is more than likely phone or other service charges and broadband charges for over allowance .
The monthly and call charges are all listed in the users monthly BT Bill / members area .That is the place to start the why was it so much investigation before terminating a valid contract .

sheadas

You are right, why didn't we check online - of course we did. BT have also been contacted multiple times. Termination was due to not being able to afford £60pm which was explained to BT. We are in the process of writing a complaint now.

I'm not an idiot, thank you. I will just work it out myself!

Please delete thread.

macman

It's not a fixed price contract, so BT can increase the cost any time they like, as much as they like. However the customer can then leave without penalty while still within the minimum term, as long as they give the price rise as the reason, and give notice within the specified period from the notification of the increase.
Since your friend didn't do this, the full ETC is payable if the contract is broken, so there are no grounds for complaint about that.
The bills should clearly state the amount charged for each component of the service and so show where excess charges have been incurred, so what does that tell you?
As advised above, the most likely reason for extra charges are exceeding her broadband data allowance (if on a capped tariff), or making calls that are excluded from her call bundle (eg daytime calls, premium rate nos. etc).

iniltous

Although BT have put prices up (like every other provider) nothing like the percentage increase you state, so this isn't going to be why the amount to pay went up so much, I think your friend may have had one of these deals where say it's an 18 month contract , but the first 6 months are free or a much reduced rate, so obviously on the 7th month the amount to pay increases a lot,
If your friend had this type of deal , but wasn't aware of it, I'm sure BT will say they sent emails or letters detailing the contract and it's up to the customer to read them ,
If your friend did have an 18 month contract and moved to another company after say 6 months then obviously the early termination charges will be high, and what's more the T&C's will no doubt say that you also have to pay for the equipment they sent if you don't fulfil the terms of the contract
Obviously BT should explain where the charges come from, but I recon she does owe the money to BT,

DandelionPatrol

sheadas wrote: »

Hello all,

This is my first post!

I am trying to help a friend with some finances. She signed up to BT phone & broadband in January 2015 for £27.00pm. Since then BT have gradually increased the monthly cost to around £60.00pm. Upon trying to contact BT for an explanation she has either not been given any reason at all, or been cut off from the advisor when they don't seem to be able to answer the question.

Due to pure frustration she switched her phone & broadband deal to another provider for £12.00pm. She has since had a letter from BT requesting early termination & equipment fees of approx £170.00. This seemed excessive considering the reason for the change was due to unexplained monthly contract increases, but was accepted as it wouldn't take too long to make a saving given the difference between £27pm & £12pm let alone the increase to £60pm.

However 2 weeks ago she received an email from BT stating they now want £300+ for early termination & equipment fees (seems like a huge jump). She has tried to contact BT who again are very unhelpful. She has now emailed them asking for an explanation & to pay the original request by instalments. To date she has not had a reply.

The package was originally for line rental, weekend phone package (not used & no phone connected) & broadband.

What is going on here?
How can an agreed contract increase from £27.00approx in Jan 2015 to £60.00approx by Aug 2015?
How can you look online, chat, call & email with no explanation?
How can the charges increase from £170 to £300+ for cancellation?
Is there any way of fighting this due to the reason for cancelling being for un-agreed contract increases with no warning or explanation?
If BT can charge for breaking a contact early, what can we do about them changing the agreement cost mid way through?

I don’t know about you, but I would want a lot for £60pm.

Sorry to ramble on & thank you for your input.

Quoted for posterity.

sheadas wrote: »

You are right, why didn't we check online - of course we did. BT have also been contacted multiple times. Termination was due to not being able to afford £60pm which was explained to BT. We are in the process of writing a complaint now.

I'm not an idiot, thank you. I will just work it out myself!

Please delete thread.

You might not be an idiot, but you are being rather rude about a post which does actually point to the root of your friend's problems.

You might have contacted BT a billion times, but if they decide to be the least bit slippery, if you have only contacted them by phone, you will find that there is absolutely no record that you had contacted them. So written complaints, of which you have kept copies would be required.

Before you cancel a contract unilaterally, you

• need evidence of a breach of the contract
• must write to give the supplier an opportunity to fix the problem and a warning that if they do not fix it, you will cancel

Please accept that you have gone about this the wrong way and try to sort the matter from there.