Post Office "cooling off period" when customer dies?

PenultimateFM

When a family member died, Post Office said that they are legally obliged to implement a 14 day "cooling off period" before closing their phone service account. This sounds nuts to me: the account holder lived alone in a rented flat so the estate will have to pay line rental for 14 days so an empty property has a phone line with no equipment connected to it. Does anyone know whether the Post Office really is following the law?

brewerdave

Were they supplied with a copy of the Death Cert.? If not ,presumably the "cooling off" period is to allow the account holder to cancel the closure IF it was some sort of mistake (or very sick joke!)
I supplied BT with a copy of the death certificate and they closed my mothers account immediately. 

PenultimateFM

The customer service rep did not ask for a death certificate and didn't offer the option to send one. We have certified copies for just such a situation, but so far only the bank has asked for one (others just accepted notification online or by phone).

PenultimateFM

Just wanted to reiterate that Post Office said it was a legal obligation to have a cooling off period when the account holder dies. That's what I'm querying as it seems odd that a consumer law could prevent executors from carrying out their own legal responsibilities.

JJ_Egan

Might be the law but never had that problem .Always dealt with the Bereavement Teams though .

mac.d

Never heard of that before, but perhaps ask the question in the Deaths, Funerals & Probate section of the forum?

PenultimateFM

mac.d said:

Never heard of that before, but perhaps ask the question in the Deaths, Funerals & Probate section of the forum?

I wondered about that forum and will try there. Just thought it odd that a phone/broadband supplier would use the phrase "cooling off period" when a customer dies.

macman

It would be a notice period, not cooling-off. However, death should void the contract without penalty.
The 14 day wait would normally apply if someone asks for a transfer of service on a line which still has an active subscriber: they would then write to the subscriber advising that someone is applying to take over the line: hence the 14 day hold.
This shouldn't apply in the case of a bereavement, but then TalkTalk have a shambolic system to handle bereavement accounts, unlike most other utility suppliers.