BT Charges

Bunter53

We cancelled our Broadband contract with BT when it expired on the 22nd Feb2023 with the direct debit payment to end on the 28th of the month. At the same time we decided to get rid of the landline as well. After contacting BT we were told that we would still have to pay  the rental charge for the month of March because, they said, it takes up to 30 days to disconnect the phone line! We are currently not using the phone or the broadband so we will be paying for a service that we are not using!  If BT are doing this regularly when people switch supplier they must be making a fortune for doing nothing. How can it take 30 days to switch off a phone!!!

MorningcoffeeIV

It's just the standard 30 day notice you agreed to give in your contract. Nothing to get excited about.

It doesn't take 30 days to switch off a phone - you can switch your phone off whenever you want. There should be a button on the side or the front.

Neil_Jones

Bunter53 said:

We cancelled our Broadband contract with BT when it expired on the 22nd Feb2023 with the direct debit payment to end on the 28th of the month. At the same time we decided to get rid of the landline as well. After contacting BT we were told that we would still have to pay  the rental charge for the month of March because, they said, it takes up to 30 days to disconnect the phone line! We are currently not using the phone or the broadband so we will be paying for a service that we are not using!  If BT are doing this regularly when people switch supplier they must be making a fortune for doing nothing. How can it take 30 days to switch off a phone!!!

Yeah it tells you this when you sign up.  30 days notice.

If you gave your notice on Feb 22 you'll get a pro-rata refund when it does end on March 4.

iniltous

As stated , it doesn’t matter how long it takes to switch off a line , you need to give a months notice , that isn’t the period it takes to turn the line off , it’s simply the period quoted in your agreement .
 If your intention was to quit immediately after a minimum term has expired ( so as an example a 24 month minimum ) , you don’t wait until the end of month 24 to give notice , as you will pay for 25 months , if you don’t use the service in month 25 that’s upto you , it’s still there if you want to use it , you give a months notice after month 23 of the deal, that way the last month of the minimum term is also the months notice , you ‘only’ pay for the 24 months of the minimum term that way , if you didn’t do this , that’s not BT’s fault , but yours .

When you advise them you are leaving, it’s a month notice from then , that’s what you agreed to from the outset, nothing at all to do with the physical action of removing service , after all if BT simply switched your service off after 24 months ( if that was the minimum term ) but you didn’t realise your ‘contract’ was about to end and were ‘happy’ to continue , you wouldn’t be happy to be left without any service .
If you moved to another provider using Openreach, this month notice is only 10-14 days , and the new company serve notice on your behalf, presumably you have moved to a non Openreach provider