BT advance rental rebate

alcollinge · 3 July 2018 at 6:51PM

Beware BT bandits! Just had my price increase letter from BT and contacted Customer Services to take up my option to cancel. I am around 6 months into a 12 month contract. I had no issues at all until I asked when my rental rebate would be paid. I paid it 12 months in advance so it is a significant amount. I was then told categorically that if I’d paid advance rental it was not refundable under any circumstances. The reason I was given was that as line rental prices were not being increased then they weren’t obliged to refund them. I explained that I had bought the service as a package all together and that you couldn’t have broadband without a line and as such they had to refund my rental. I also quoted Ofcom and Martin Lewis who both say that it has to be refunded. Also BT are quoted in the Gaurdian 17/11/2017 as saying that they will ensure their Customer Advisors knew that a refund should be paid. That worked didn’t it!
After a 10-15 min wait for him to “consult” with his Manager he apologised to me and said it’s only this year that this changed and he didnt know.
Is it me or shouldn’t this be some that automatically happens given the level of technology BT SHOULD have!
It leaves me seriously doubting the honesty of BT.

pmduk · 3 July 2018 at 7:45PM

I've worked in customer services in Telecoms (not BT). Changes such as this are notified to staff by service messages which can arrive throughout a shift. Team managers can monitor which staff members have read them, obviously with the aim of ensuring all are read promptly. This doesn't always work and, anecdotally, some of the outsourced call centres are notorious for not reading them at all.

Mister_G · 3 July 2018 at 11:02PM

Go for a small ISP with a UK based call centre. Won't always be right, but you probably stand a better chance of discussing any issues.

mnbvcxz · 4 July 2018 at 6:14PM

Heh. About a year ago I had exactly the same thing. Every time I called I had to insist three times and the third time they would put me on hold and then five minutes later say "Oh I must have been away when the policy changed". Every single time.

In the end I just started saying "I'm sorry to be awkward but I'm going to proceed on the assumption I will get the line rental back one way or another in the end" and that generally speeded the negotiation up a little.

After I left I then had a message saying they would keep the line rental which seemed to be a ploy to get me to call back again so they could suddenly find an extra special offer to keep me if I canceled my migration... It was a much better offer but I was too worn out by then to take it. Before I actually migrated the offers were an unmovable poor price.

A month after I had migrated I had to call up and go through it again to get them to actually remember to refund my line rental which they did in the end with an apology.

It helped a little to cite the guardian article and various others saying OFCOM had forced them to refund line rental.

EE managed to keep me after a price rise but again I had to prompt them to actually do the refund of my line rental...

How anyone who does not read outside advice ever discovers and enforces their rights by just talking to BT customer service is beyond me.

boatman · 8 July 2018 at 5:02PM

https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/BT-price-changes-April-and-August/td-p/1709458/highlight/false/page/18

See post 180, BT's own forum moderator posted that you will get back line rental paid in advance.

Mayday · 14 July 2018 at 9:26AM

In a similar vein, we've decided to leave BT Broadband - do we still have to inform BT despite new supplier saying they'll handle everything?

JJ_Egan · 14 July 2018 at 10:33AM

Mayday wrote: »

In a similar vein, we've decided to leave BT Broadband - do we still have to inform BT despite new supplier saying they'll handle everything?

Depends if you are in contract or not .
Not in contract then no.
In contract if you fail to notify BT as per the email then you have cancelled a valid contract . BT will charge the remaining months on the contract .
See multiple identical posts .

iniltous · 14 July 2018 at 10:39AM

Mayday wrote: »

In a similar vein, we've decided to leave BT Broadband - do we still have to inform BT despite new supplier saying they'll handle everything?

It's gaining provider led, so you shouldn't need to contact them , unless you are not really committed to the new provider want BT to offer a retention type deal, but otherwise the 'new' provider effectively issues your notice to quit .
If you are within a minimum term , and are taking the opportunity to leave penalty free, then the letter or email you got from BT , offering the option to leave because of the price increase should indicate if you need to inform BT ( to make note to waive the early term charges ) and you need to do this within the period quoted ( 30 days)

yvonne13_2 · 18 July 2018 at 1:49PM

I just had the same conversation with BT as I paid my line rental upfront for the year too. I spoke with a rep called Danny from the Stockport office and she advised, I wasn't entitled to get my money back if I leave my contract early. I asked her if she could clarify with a manager as the email clearly advised I would not be charged a termination fee therefore, all moneys paid upfront for services I won't be using must be refunded. She came back and advised she misunderstood what she read and confirmed I was correct and I would be refunded all monies back which falls outside the termination date.
My 30 days starts from today so I have until 17th August to tranfer termination fee free.

BT advance rental rebate

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