Moved Home- Can I cancel my contract with BT?

Adam_Southward

Tried getting an answer to this on the BT forum but no joy. Would sooner have an answer before I waste more time pursuing this if it's pointless. Apologies in advance for length of post.

I upgraded my broadband in April last year. I moved home on the 19th March this year. On the 17th, I arranged to move my Fibre broadband package to my new property via the online home move facility on BT's website and received an email confirming dates and times for the move. So far so good. However, the following day I received an email saying that this would have to be cancelled, due to there being no space in the fibre cabinet for new services. While I understood the reasons for this, I was concerned that I would end up paying for services that I would no longer be receiving. In addition, no attempt was made to offer an alternative in the meantime, just a vague promise that "our engineers are working hard to increase capacity in the cabinet and will progress the order as soon as capacity is available."

Shortly after getting this email, I got in touch with BT via the online complaints form, stating my concerns- the fact that not even a provisional date had been given for when the services I was paying for (including Youview channels I couldn't watch because I didn't have adequate internet!) might start and that no alternative had been suggested, given the indefinite time until these services would be available to me.

My "complaint" (more of a query really, as I understood why I couldn't have fibre there and then) was obviously registered and had the generic "We're sorry, we're looking into it and will contact you soon" attached to it on the website. However, ten days passed and I still hadn't heard anything. I started typing up an email escalating it to a full complaint but then decided to see if I could get more response via Twitter. Lo and behold, within seconds of tagging BT and mentioning their poor customer service, I got a reply. I was staggered by the response. No one had even been assigned to handle my case. I was helpfully informed that I could get copper broadband in the absence of fibre though (no advice on how to go about this was provided, mind. Bit of an issue when it's not immediately obvious how to do so online).

Fast forward to April 5th, now 15 days since I raised my issue and still no official response from BT. However, that day I got a phone call from them, apologising for not responding. They also explained that it wouldn't be possible at any point in the near future for me to have fibre in my house- this is apparently due to the fact that Openreach is no longer installing new capacity in cabinets and are going to be rolling out supply directly to the home instead. Not great news, but at least they were going to put me in touch with someone to arrange for me to have copper now (incidentally the gentleman I spoke to initially was really helpful and told me not to accept if anyone suggested closing my complaint that day. Oh and also that the lack of response happens more often than it should... Wish I'd caught his name!).

Even during the phone call to arrange copper, there were issues. I was on the phone for around an hour because the person dealing with it was having problems with her computer! Anyway, eventually, everything was sorted, although no arrangement was made regarding cost, given that I was downgrading massively from my previous package. I was given the date of 14th April for my new services to begin. However...

(Just an aside, since the call arranging copper I've been dealt with by a gentleman named Ethan who seems to be handling my complaint personally. He's been pretty helpful, but I should point out that he arranged for me to get a broadband dongle so I could have internet while I waited for my connection to be sorted. Great, except that it got sent to my OLD address and I had to wait again for a replacement!)

Back to that "however"- after being informed that an engineer wouldn't need to visit my house to sort the phone line, the 14th arrived. I (impatiently!) waited all day for some communication to say I was up and running- right up until the midnight cut-off point BT advise. No broadband. No communication informing me of any delays. I logged onto the website again to see an apology notice attached to my order. "We're sorry your broadband isn't working yet. We've got a specialist team working on it and will let you know as soon as we have more news." Brilliant. Not!

On the morning of the 15th, Ethan rang me again, apologising, telling me that an engineer visited the exchange yesterday and apparently there was a disconnection between my house and the exchange so they were having to get a specialist engineer in to have a look at it. Everything would be sorted within 24-48 hours, but definitely by this coming Monday at the latest. Given that's almost a month since I sent my initial query, it hardly gives me any faith in BT on the whole with the way this has all been handled.

After that lengthy diatribe, my question is this: Is it within my power to just say I want to cancel my contract now and without having to pay anything to do so? The product I'm going to be getting is nowhere near as good as the one I was paying for and, to my mind at least, essentially this means it's should be classed as a new contract and I'm within my 14 day cooling-off period, even though technically I'm only halfway through the one I signed up to last year. I've just lost patience and faith in the company and am really disappointed with all the delays and apologies. I know I can get Virgin here and at this moment that is much more preferable to me. I hate this, but as a customer of over five years who's upgraded at every contract renewal time, with no prior issues, I would expect better.

Thanks for reading and for any advice.

unforeseen

No different to Virgin users. You bought a product for the address you lived at not to your new house. They just can't supply the same product there.
Your option is to pay for early termination and start a new contract at your new address.

They might, if you talk nicely, allow you to continue the current contract and adjust your price to the same as the ADSL product they can supply

iniltous

As already stated , BT never changed the terms of the original deal, you did by moving , they offer a home mover service rather than simply saying ‘ to finish the contract early will cost you £**, separately will you require us to provide service at the new address or will you use someone else ?’ ,  that would be a perfectly legal approach, but they strive not to penalise you by offering a home mover service even though it’s not strictly necessary.

Your experience seems a little out of the ordinary in that moving to an address that has access to FTTC but no spare ports in the FTTC ‘cabinet’ isn’t that unusual, what is, is not being offered exchange based ADSL while waiting for a FTTC port to become available.

If the address you are moving to has service at the moment , who is it with, if it’s an Openreach based provider and is FTTC , then that port presumably will become available when the current occupant advises their provider that they are leaving the property.
If they don’t use OR then the length of the wait for a spare port is unknowable, but if it’s an area with both VM and OR FTTC then there may be quite a lot of consumers switching, so a port may not take that long to become available, even if OR are not keen on  adding more capacity to the FTTC estate, if your real aim is to use VM, you may have to accept the ETC and move on

Adam_Southward

Thanks for all the replies.

To be honest, if BT had simply just offered copper in the first place I'd have been quite alright. I understand that I've made the decision to move and have to accept that the service I was getting isn't available here. It's the subsequent delays and general lack of communication that have put me off, along with the fact they basically said I couldn't have fibre but didn't offer an alternative until they were pushed to.

One point I should add is that I was informed by Ethan that Openreach is ceasing to provide FTTC in my area and definitely won't be adding more ports to the cabinet. Apparently, they're looking to roll out a fibre direct to the home service, but there's no time frame available for when that is happening.

Also, in the email I received confirming my "new" contract/home move, it mentions the 14 day change of mind period. If it doesn't apply in this case, why is it included in the email? It's also a 24 month contract, which is the standard contract length for a NEW contract.

After much thinking, I've decided to have Virgin Broadband AND keep the BT for now, just for the phone line, a luxury I can afford due to not having a mortgage or rent to pay. However, I won't be renewing or upgrading with BT when the time comes. Interestingly, having only placed my order with Virgin on Friday, they had workers here this morning sizing up what they needed to do. Compare and contrast with the speed BT/Openreach work at and Virgin are already streets ahead.  

iniltous

It’s not really a fair comparison, you ordered VM, as part of the installation ( for an address that hasn’t had Virgin before ) someone has to come out and physically put the VM ‘line’ into your property from the Virgin cabinet ( more accurately to the wall of your house ) that’s part one, part two will be another engineer comes out and provides another connection from the outside to the inside of your home.

Your OR based connection wouldn’t have needed a visit to your home, just a visit to the FTTC ‘cabinet’, but if all the ports are already in use then there is no point sending anyone ( or giving you a date for service )

If this area has both VM and OR FTTC and the OR cabinet is ‘full’ , then that suggests many may have ditched VM and gone over to OR , (unless the OR FTTC service was provided before the VM FTTC service,) but there are not many areas where OR’s FTTC was in before VM’s version of FTTC ( the vast majority of Virgin isn’t fibre to the property, it’s fibre to the cabinet and a copper coax cable to the home ) so I would be thinking why have lots of people left VM in your area ?

As far as Openreach not adding ‘new’ capacity to the FTTC estate, that’s probably 
partially true , if a FTTC cab is full but spare slots for new cards are available , ( so an easy expansion) then they will probably add capacity, it’s relatively cheap and quick, if however the cabinet is properly full and to add new capacity would require a new cabinet, a power feed to the cabinet , link cabling to the copper cabinet etc,etc then quite understandably that won’t bother and concentrate on FTTP , as expanding in that situation is costly and time consuming.

There are areas where VM , 25 years ago, missed out, some only a few metres away from existing VM services but they didn’t go back and fill in the missing addresses, ( it wasn’t worth the effort ) it’s no different with OR and FTTC 

Adam_Southward

Have to agree to disagree about the comparison. On the phone with BT on Thursday (bearing in mind they knew there was a problem on Wednesday when my service was meant to start) I was told the connection issue here would be sorted in "24-48 hours... DEFINITELY by Monday at the latest." Yet here we are, past midnight for the Monday, still no service and yet again no communication. This isn't even for fibre, don't forget. It's an existing copper line.

Just for reference, it looks like it's all fibre to the property with Virgin in my street- the engineer who visited this morning pointed out the connection they need to install is also on my next door neighbour's house. Most of the houses in the immediate area are using Sky or Virgin, according to the network detector on my PC and the vast number of satellite dishes I see here every day. Virgin are heavily trying to get people to switch to them- they've done major work in the area to reach more people and obviously want a return on their investment. I presume it's largely the Sky users filling up the cabinet.

Chino

Adam_Southward said:

After that lengthy diatribe, my question is this: Is it within my power to just say I want to cancel my contract now and without having to pay anything to do so?

Not read your post in its entirety but If the reason is that you're moving to an address where BT can't continue to supply you with the same FTTC service as you're on now, then yes, you can. See my post in response to a similar question here.

brewerdave

iniltous said:

As far as Openreach not adding ‘new’ capacity to the FTTC estate, that’s probably 
partially true , if a FTTC cab is full but spare slots for new cards are available , ( so an easy expansion) then they will probably add capacity, it’s relatively cheap and quick, if however the cabinet is properly full and to add new capacity would require a new cabinet, a power feed to the cabinet , link cabling to the copper cabinet etc,etc then quite understandably that won’t bother and concentrate on FTTP , as expanding in that situation is costly and time consuming.

Our "village" is currently in the throes of an FTTP  install drive; As a consequence Openreach appear to be uninterested in expanding the FTTC capacity of existing cabs. It seems to be a case of waiting for ports to become available when either people upgrade to FTTP or "cancel" their existing connection for other reasons. And then it seems to be first come ,first served -altho it flags up as waiting list !

Tokmon

Adam_Southward said:

Have to agree to disagree about the comparison. On the phone with BT on Thursday (bearing in mind they knew there was a problem on Wednesday when my service was meant to start) I was told the connection issue here would be sorted in "24-48 hours... DEFINITELY by Monday at the latest." Yet here we are, past midnight for the Monday, still no service and yet again no communication. This isn't even for fibre, don't forget. It's an existing copper line.

Just for reference, it looks like it's all fibre to the property with Virgin in my street- the engineer who visited this morning pointed out the connection they need to install is also on my next door neighbour's house. Most of the houses in the immediate area are using Sky or Virgin, according to the network detector on my PC and the vast number of satellite dishes I see here every day. Virgin are heavily trying to get people to switch to them- they've done major work in the area to reach more people and obviously want a return on their investment. I presume it's largely the Sky users filling up the cabinet.

The vast majority of Virgin is coaxial cable so if your getting full fibre this must be a very new Virgin installation and only done in the last year. 

JJ_Egan

Chino said:

Adam_Southward said:

After that lengthy diatribe, my question is this: Is it within my power to just say I want to cancel my contract now and without having to pay anything to do so?

Not read your post in its entirety but If the reason is that you're moving to an address where BT can't continue to supply you with the same FTTC service as you're on now, then yes, you can. See my post in response to a similar question here.

Worth a try but the T&C say A service , they do not say the same service .

Adam_Southward

JJ_Egan said:

Chino said:

Adam_Southward said:

After that lengthy diatribe, my question is this: Is it within my power to just say I want to cancel my contract now and without having to pay anything to do so?

Not read your post in its entirety but If the reason is that you're moving to an address where BT can't continue to supply you with the same FTTC service as you're on now, then yes, you can. See my post in response to a similar question here.

Worth a try but the T&C say A service , they do not say the same service .

Well... Last night, having been informed previously that everything would be sorted "definitely" by the 19th of April and then told I'd hear more on the 22nd, I was told there's been no progress and I now have to wait until at least the 26th to hear anything. With still no guarantee that it'll even be sorted by then! I feel that's failure to provide "a service." Sent an email asking if I can cancel now. To me, it's beyond a joke that they're struggling to provide just a phone line and basic speed internet. As much as BT are blaming Openreach, if they'd responded to my query sooner this might all have been resolved by now.