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Leaving BT

5 Posts

in Phones & TV
Beware: if you try and leave BT not only do they require a month’s notice but they dont take into account your agreed leaving date when they issue a bill during that notice period. Instead they charge you a full months rental (in advance) as if you were remaining. They then send a final bill 7 days after leaving (showing a refund due) and eventually repay you. A great cashflow win for BT but a rip off for departing customers. I get the final bill has to be after your departure date in case you have gone over usage limits, but why can’t their system at least cut the rental payment to run only until the departure date? I wonder how much extra cash this gives BT for those 1-4 weeks?
Any ideas how I can avoid overpaying. They refused to adjust my current bill, and I am concerned I’ll be penalised if I cancel the direct debit (can I even pay other than by direct debit?)
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FWIW you'll never be overpaying or penalise dfor anything, you'll get a final bill with credits for days you never had the service etc. There's really nothing to worry about
At the end of the day if you don't like how a company runs their business, use a different service that is more akin to your ethos of how a business should be run. Wasting your life complaining about things you cant change is pointless.
There is always the possibility that the migration date ‘slips’ ,from the date the customer was given by the new ISP for their ‘new’ service to start , if it’s delayed by a day or two , you remain connected to the old provider who will bill for those extra days , and the new provider doesn’t start charging till the actual date of migration, not the original date they gave you, so the losing provider cannot raise a final bill until the actual date of changeover is notified by Openreach , they cannot assume it’s the date the new provider gave you, in case Openreach are delayed doing the work , if a bill were provided for the proposed date , then a new final bill were needed for a couple of extra days it would get extremely messy.
As stated , every ISP does this , why single out BT for something the entire industry does ?
If you argue in this situation the consumer has lent the provider some money for 3 weeks interest free , that same consumer could have made many chargeable calls upto the day the changeover takes place , and wouldn’t have to pay for those call for 3 weeks , in that case is the provider giving that consumer an interest free loan ?
It’s always been the case that rental is charged for in advance and call charges in arrears, you don’t say what line of business you are in , but presumably you don’t have millions of customers , and automated billing systems.