Major issues with BT Basic, disabled customers and cooling-off period

lukat

Hi everyone, 
I will try to make this short.

I am a person with disability and have placed a BT Basic order in April (£5 basic telephone + £5 basic broadband). They assured me I would not be charged any activation fees or other fees that are not BT Basic.

They are supposed to send me a form so I can be assessed for eligibility. It's been weeks now and the form was never sent nor received.

They have now issued me with a bill a day after activation. The bill is for £37 which I cannot afford. Their website says I need to pay before the end of the month.

If you search for this issue, you will find dozens of elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who are not sent the eligibility form for months and in the meantime are being charged the full extortionate price of an expensive BT packages for months and months. I am finding myself in the same appalling situation soon if I don't act very quickly.

My biggest question is, can I switch to another provider during the cooling-off period without being hit by early termination fees from BT? Say, if I switch today to Zen broadband and then cancel BT during the current 14 days cooling-off, can they still bill me a whole 18 months of a contract because I switched, even though I never signed up for a normal full price BT package?

What would happen if I have to cancel BT during the cooling-off after switching to Zen but when I do so, Zen hasn't finished taking over the line?

Thanks a lot for reading me 

JJ_Egan

When did your contract start ??

lukat

JJ_Egan said:

When did your contract start ??

BT Basic was ordered on 25 April. The broadband is active since yesterday, but not under the BT Basic terms. It's under some default BT standard package.

Am I right to think that if the rules of that standard package apply, the cooling-off period started yesterday? Meaning I have until 1 June to make a move?

I was told on the phone the following:

24 months contract - £27.99

BT Basic team will override that.

Won’t be charged at all.

Already waved the £60 activation fee. (even though now a £10 activation fee is showing)...

14 days cooling off period from activation.

tehone

Serious question - If you can't afford £37, then how are you going to afford Zen?

What did they say when you called them? https://btplc.com/inclusion/ProductsAndServices/BTBasic/ApplyingforBTBasic/index.htm 

If your post is correct about April, then its outside of a 14 day period at the moment already

Neil_Jones

The broadband you can add onto BT Basic should only cap the total amount to £10.07 which includes the broadband and the rental.

https://btplc.com/inclusion/ProductsAndServices/BTBasic/BTBasicBroadband/index.htm

Unfortunately until you fill in and return the form you don't get BT Basic.  You need to phone them up and shout at them again.  Not entirely sure how moving to BT Basic broadband affects what you have now contract wise but its technically an internal move so...

But yes, seriously if you can't afford £37 now, how would you propose to afford Zen?  They're not cheap.

You can only get BT Basic with BT.  Nobody else offers it, its one of those social tariffs that BT are obliged to offer.

lukat

Zen is now £29.99 per month. Still a little pricey. But I just came out of taking Vodafone to the adjuctors (CISAS) and I won. They had charged me a bill for £460 when they were not allowed too. Horrible experience. Going through the entire complaint process with Vodafone was really damaging.

At this stage, I also need to think about my mental and physical health, so if Zen will be £29.99 for life and have the best voted customer service, that might be a saving in the long run. I would prefer £22 or £25 but £37 is way over my budget.

When I called in April, they said the 14 days cooling-off period would start when the service is activated, which was yesterday.

Neil_Jones

Yes but if you are entitled to BT Basic why pay £30 to Zen when you would only need to pay £10.07 to BT all in under their Basic scheme?  Chase the form again.

lukat

I can't afford to pay £37 a month for the next 5 months like they did to some elderly people... and like I said the stress of chasing yet another failure from a broadband company is too much for me to cope with. I assumed BT Basic was going to be simple. I've already asked for the form 3 times. They seem to be driving people mad on purpose while charging them full price. Despicable.

its 2020, they should have sent the form as a PDF instead, especially during the context of covid-19. Shame on BT for how they treat vulnerable customers.

JJ_Egan

Have you tried your BT members  help page > community forum . Often get a top level CS help that way .

lukat

Neil_Jones said:

Yes but if you are entitled to BT Basic why pay £30 to Zen when you would only need to pay £10.07 to BT all in under their Basic scheme?  Chase the form again.

Have you read my previous messages? BT is already billing me £37 a month and never sent me the BT Basic form. I've chased the form 3 times already. And now that my 14 days cooling-off period has started with a package I never signed up to, I don't want to be battling BT for the next 6 months and be told I owe £222 in 6 months time (6 x £37).

At this stage they are running what amounts to a scam targeting vulnerable people. See the following thread:
https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/BT-Basic-Broadband-application-missing-delayed-application-forms/td-p/1954698

The BT "top level" CS forum moderators have not been able to help any of the people who have complained about BT Basic and not receiving the forms. I don't have time to chase BT anymore, I've done that for a month. The 14 days cooling-off clock is ticking. I am not going to chase the form again or try to get help from BT because they are not willing to help. They have made that very clear.

Does anyone have any clue on an answer for my original questions:

"My biggest question is, can I switch to another provider during the cooling-off period without being hit by early termination fees from BT? Say, if I switch today to Zen broadband and then cancel BT during the current 14 days cooling-off, can they still bill me a whole 18 months of a contract because I switched, even though I never signed up for a normal full price BT package?

What would happen if I have to cancel BT during the cooling-off after switching to Zen but when I do so, Zen hasn't finished taking over the line?"

cranford

You say your contract is for  £27.99 a month for 24 months so your first bill of £37 is for a few days in May and then a full month. So it is just £27.99 a month an I right?
Even if they send you a form tomorrow I doubt whether after you have sent it back this will all be done within the cooling off period. You must phone them and get them to agree that you can leave under an extended cooling off period since they have failed to send you the form.  However they say this under their T&C's " If you decide to cancel within this period, you will have to pay for the services you have used and any connection charges that may apply. " 
IE they are still going to charge you at £27.99 a month so unless you have all of this in writing you need to be careful about cancelling.