Its Been Confirmed That Line Rental Saver Is Refundable

Ypaymore

Have a read of this article.

"In light of its price increases, I contacted BT to cancel my service, as per the rules you recently reported. I was told that as the line rental and broadband are separate, if I cancelled I would lose my pre-paid line rental payments. I challenged this, but was told by the member of staff that BT is a big company with good lawyers and I would lose the money. Is this right? JD, by email

No, what you have been told is wrong. We asked the regulator, Ofcom, about your experience, and it says: “We contacted BT to express concerns about the exit terms it was imposing on customers who had paid line rental upfront, and BT has now assured us that customers wishing to end their contract following its price increases will now be given a pro-rata refund of any line rental paid upfront.”

BT has confirmed it accepts this and will be contacting customers and briefing its advisers. To be clear, if you leave a phone company mid-contract due to a significant price rise within 30 days, you should not incur penalty charges – including pre-bought line rental."

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/22/bt-refuses-refund-prepaid-line-rental-cancel-service

A_Frayed_Knot

My view on this is, you have paid for a service up front. You should be supplied with it for that specified time with no increase. Yeah, I know :rotfl:

A bit like, if I bought double glazing, paid for it, then a few months later the company come back and say, we want more money, we have increased our prices.

Oh, and - of course the Line Saver is refundable, How do I know - because they have refunded mine on my bill and charged the new rate !!!

Onlythebest

A_Frayed_Knot wrote: »

My view on this is, you have paid for a service up front. You should be supplied with it for that specified time with no increase. Yeah, I know :rotfl:

A bit like, if I bought double glazing, paid for it, then a few months later the company come back and say, we want more money, we have increased our prices.

Oh, and - of course the Line Saver is refundable, How do I know - because they have refunded mine on my bill and charged the new rate !!!

Not my experience. When I upgraded to Fibre, there was no charge for the Line Rental component, as I already have Line Rental Saver. I would have been incensed if they had tried to refund LRS and charge full line rental on the broadband contract.

So what were your circumstances?

teddysmum

Onlythebest wrote: »

Not my experience. When I upgraded to Fibre, there was no charge for the Line Rental component, as I already have Line Rental Saver. I would have been incensed if they had tried to refund LRS and charge full line rental on the broadband contract.

So what were your circumstances?

I'm assuming that they were leaving.


Line rental saver gives you a fixed , lower price, because you pay in advance and are committed to 12 months' service. You are dealing with a business and that will not give away discounts for no reason.


If you leave within that 12 months, then you are not entitled to the discount, having broken the terms of the offer, so you should get some money returned but not calculated at the discount you have not earned.

A_Frayed_Knot

Onlythebest wrote: »

Not my experience. When I upgraded to Fibre, there was no charge for the Line Rental component, as I already have Line Rental Saver. I would have been incensed if they had tried to refund LRS and charge full line rental on the broadband contract.

So what were your circumstances?

Took out a year contract in October last year, broadband, phone and tv. Paid line rental up front for the year in advance, which only left my monthly payment for broadband paid by direct debit.

I was incensed, believe me, so posted on here for some comments and advice. I didn't think this was right.

teddysmum wrote: »

I'm assuming that they were leaving.

Line rental saver gives you a fixed , lower price, because you pay in advance and are committed to 12 months' service. You are dealing with a business and that will not give away discounts for no reason.

If you leave within that 12 months, then you are not entitled to the discount, having broken the terms of the offer, so you should get some money returned but not calculated at the discount you have not earned.

I wasn't and have no intention of leaving, they just took extra money from my direct debit, so looked online at my bill to see why extra had been taken, and there it was, refund for LRS for that month, and as prices have increased, the new rate charged.

Looks like I need to get on the phone.

Vegastare

I was told less than 30mins ago it was not, I am ear deaf with trying to explain to BT that should I not renew my phone/broadband which ends shortly and does not run concurrently I will loose 2 mths line rental that I paid last year.
I am told that this is my loss if I choose to leave BT and there will be no refund

JJ_Egan

In your case its not refundable .
Ofcom said .

f you leave a phone company mid-contract due to a significant price rise within 30 days, you should not incur penalty charges – including pre-bought line rental."

ariarnia

I phoned up to leave plus net Thursday last week because of the poor line quality (internet dropping constantly) and when asked clearly stated I was leaving because of the price increases and made no mention of the quality of service.

I received an email telling me I would not be refunded my line cost of £185 (paid in advance) and then saw this thread.

Result of todays conversation with Plusnet re Line Rental Saver:

Info: You are now chatting with Pinhak.
Pinhak: Good morning *me*, I'm Pinhak. How can I help?
*me*: Good Morning, I'm hoping you can answer a question for me about an email I received today.
Pinhak: Sure, I will try *me*
*me*: You've advised that, as I'm cancelling, My line rental paid in advance is not refundable. is that right?
Pinhak: That is correct, the line rental saver is non refundable unfortunately
*me*: Okay. but Ofcom have said "if you leave a phone company mid-contract due to a significant price rise within 30 days, you should not incur penalty charges – including pre-bought line rental."
*me*: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/22/bt-refuses-refund-prepaid-line-rental-cancel-service
*me*: So I'm a little confused
Pinhak: Oh, you are leaving due to the price increase?
*me*: Yes.
Pinhak: I did not realise this was the reason you were leaving
*me*: does that change things?
Pinhak: It will do indeed *me*, I shall look into your account for you
*me*: Thank you.
Pinhak: Can you kindly confirm the account username please
*me*: ***, Phone number affected: ***
Pinhak: Thank you
Pinhak: Can I take the 3rd & 7th characters of your password please?
*me*: * & *
Pinhak: Thank you *me*
Pinhak: You will need to speak to the cancellations team *me*, unfortunately they are not available on chat until 9:00am this morning
*me*: Can you forward a ticket to them so we can talk via email
Pinhak: I can see we have received a request from your new provider that they are looking to take over your service but it does not note the reason for you leaving
Pinhak: I can leave a ticket, but you would need to speak/chat to the cancellations team
*me*: okay - at least they should have the basic details then. Thank you for your help today and I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Pinhak: Thank you, I hope you have a good weekend too

Followed by my conversation with cancellations:

Info: You are now chatting with Ryan.
*me*: Good Morning Ryan, I spoke to someone called Pinhak earlier this morning and they said they'd leave the ticket open for you to see as I needed to talk to you? My user name is *** and the phone number is ***
Ryan: Sure, and the 2nd and 6th characters of your password?
*me*: * & *
Ryan: I'm just looking at it now, one second.
Ryan: Right, so I can see you have free broadband for 12 months and then the LRS paid for.
*me*: Yes.
Ryan: All you'd need to do is sign up with another provider and they'd take over the line for you.
*me*: and you'll refund the LRS?
Ryan: With regards to the LRS, I will send information to billing now.
*me*: Can you confirm how many months I had left on the contract? There was a delay in me getting connected but I'm not sure if the contract started from when my service started or when I signed up?
Ryan: 11/10/2017 is when it would have ended.
*me*: So I will get about 5 months LRS refunded?
Ryan: Around that amount yes, billing will work it out for you
*me*: great. thank you for your time today - hope you have a lovely weekend.

Result.

I should get around £77 back

Thank you to Ypaymore for digging out the article.

Anon

I assume the same should apply to Virgin too - has anyone experience of getting Virgin Media to refund please?

[Deleted User]

Old thread

Anon

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Old thread

I know - but this is a related question! Shall I start another identical thread on the same topic or, which seems far more logical, as it is relevant, ask it here to keep the answers about different providers together, given the round of price rises and Virgin have been known to say you cannot get a refund? The same OfCom rule should apply to Virgin too?