I have decided to take out BT broadband mainly because I read as many bad reviews and horror stories about other providers. But I spoke to a BT salesperson last night and it appears that it takes them a week to deliver the equipment which is long enough, but then she said I have 5 days from the day I sign up to cancel if I wish! The only reason I'd want to cancel is if the service was no good and I can only know this when I activate the account after a week. So what good is the 5 day cancellation policy that BT gives you? She then said that I could cancel after I have activated my account but it would cost me £40!

I am really baffled by all this. Why does it cost them £40 to cancel an account? Is this how much it actually costs BT if someone no longer wants their service before the contract expires? 

I also want to know if I have any rights if there is a fault and my broadband doesn't work after a week. Seeing that they will be charging me for this, do I have any rights if I cancel my direct debit payments until the problem is resolved?

  

Hi Peyman

You've just opened a big can of worms in relation to contracts for broadband providers.

Basically as regulation is 'light touch' then providers can get away with whatever they like at the moment including adding hidden charges.

Ofcom are not doing anything about this and I'm afraid the best advice I can give you is share experience with other consumers out there and by doing so make a more informed choice.

In relation to cancellation policy - with BT if you're not happy I would cancel now, there are some providers that offer a 30 day moneyback guarantee during which you can cancel anytime - Vodafone at Home and O2 Broadband offer this.

Cheers

Jason

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Jason Lloyd

moneysupermarket.com

Thank you Jason. I finally decided not to go with BT. I have read as many bad reviews about other providers. But for me it came down to whether I want to give any more of my money to BT and I definitely never want to pay BT another penny if I can help it, not after the trouble I have had getting through to their customer services (I still haven't managed to get through, have waited hours and hours in total).

So I went with Be Broadband in the end. It hasn't been connected yet and I realise that I may have as much trouble with them too but at least I don't feel mugged by BT again. I doubt BT cares about my £18 a month, but I do. I rather pay someone else double that amount.

I was with TalkTalk and moved home. As I wished to contuinue my TalkTalk phone/broadband services at my new address, I telephoned TT. They stated that it was BT's responsibility. BT stated it was TT's !
Finally, I was told by TalkTalk that I had to have the active line at my new address registered in my name with BT, and contact them again once completed.
This took BT two weeks to complete, and the only information that I received was a bill for three months line rental (in advance). TalkTalk was informed and they completed the transfer a few weeks later.
I have just received my BT bill, and was expected to see a refund, but was charged £70 for termination minus my advance line rental payments.
So my pleasure for moving house and staying a customer with TalkTalk, I have had the honour of paying BT, line rental, call charges, & £70 termination fee !
Hardly fair !
Any ideas on how I can recover my £70 charge ?

I have just received an e-mail from BT regarding the cancellation charge.

"Regarding Cancellation charge of £70.00, I would like to inform that From 01 May 2007 the minimum term of 12 months applies for all line provision and takeovers. Customers joining BT on or after the 01 May 2007, and subsequently ceasing within this term are charged the remaining line rental up to a maximum of £70.00.
You can get more information about this in the welcome letter from BT which you might have received from BT "

This welcome letter that I have not yet received outlines the cancellation charge, but as BT states 'the welcome letter from BT which you might have received from BT' , how would you know of the charge if the letter 'might' not have been sent !

I have requested a copy of the script used, but have not received it.

Hello

I would like to share my experience with providers so it may help you all.

BRITISH GAS
Some time ago, when I moved to a new place I was in charge of the electricity bill, so I call british gas and changed the name of the bill. A few month later they sent a letter to me asking for around 300 pound for a period over a year.

Since the people in the house regularly paid the bills and we had the receipt, I sent an email to BG explaining the issue and asking them to correct the bill. After 1 or 2 hours wasted on the phone they said they were going to send me a new letter....and surprise! they sent another warning with a surcharge of 60 pound and saying that they would come to my place to disconnect the electricity with the police.

I called them again and the same again: waste of time and money. I put a complain through the independent watch dog and I sent the same complain to them with the people from watchdog on copy. Some days later, the people from watchdog called me asking me about the situation and saying that they would contact BG to see what happened.

Some days later, I got the right bill, which was just 40 pound.

**** Advice for BG complains ****
Do not waste time and money calling them. Contact the http://www.energywatch.org.uk/ and explain the situation.
Also send your complain to BG with the energywatch people on copy (I even included some European organisms on copy) and keep copy of all your emails and bills.

BT

I moved to a new place and I needed to activate the line in order to have internet at home. Since BT is the only provider who can do this I had to call them to activate this service. I was informed about the set up fee of 125 pound, which you cannot avoid, and they offered me some other packages that were interesting (international calls, etc). I told them that I wanted the line just to connect to internet and refused their offers. I said that I preferred to have a look to the market and then decide which offer was best for me.

Some weeks later I moved to Talk Talk, whose package of phone, broadband and international calls was much better than any other offer in my area and it wasn't much more expensive than just the line rental of BT.

A few months later I received a letter from BT with the final bill of around 300 pound. In the details of the bill they said that it was due to the cancellation fee.

As I had never been informed of this, I did some researches on the net, read a lot of similar stories about BT and decided to put a complain.

I sent an email to BT, also a copy to the guys from http://www.otelo.org.uk and to some other organisations (www.ofcom.org.uk , that help the consumer.

I got a few replys but none of them saying something that could help me. BT said something like this

Dear Mr Gates,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding cancellation charges.

In response to your e-mail, I have looked into your account and found that your account has been terminated and there is an outstanding amount on your account for £289.25 . Further, the cancellation charges are the held to term charges for cancelling the services before the term which you have agreed for.

Further, after checking your account I can conferm that the cancellation charges are correct and needs to be maintained.

If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

**** I've put in bold something they said I agreed but that I never did. I contacted BT over the phone, I signaled them that I needed a line because I wanted to set up internet and I couldn't go with any provider unless they activated my line. Later on, they never sent any contract or T&C to me so I didn't sign anything.

Some time later I received a remainder for the cancelation charges and I decided to call them to explain the issue and clarify the situation. I don't know if they listened to my recording and found that I was never told about any cancellation charge, but they cancelled the cancellation fee and let me go with no charges. They even refunded me some money.

**** Advice for BT complains ****

Review the information you received from BT, verbally or written. If you contracted your services over the net have a look and see if they say something about the cancellation charges in the T&C.

Call them to explain the situation. I don't know what information they verify on their end, but if you are lucky like me that I hire the service on the phone and I wasn't told at all about the cancellation charges and didn't sign any contract, then you'll resolve your problem.

SOME USEFUL LINKS TO COMPLEMENT THE ABOVE

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consumers/buying-selling/sale-supply/unfair-contracts/index.html

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

http://www.berr.gov.uk/

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/19992083.htm

http://www.otelo.org.uk/pages/39contactingotelo.php

We joined talk talk after being told by the sales rep in carphone warehouse, that talk talk would take care of all our problems with Bt, and there'd be no charge to us. This seemed to be going fine, as we recieved a bill for £0 from BT, then the next day we recieved a second bill for £137 as apparently we were under contract with BT and talk talk should have told us that there could have been a possibillity of this happening, but they are too intrested in making a sale. We are now in debt because of talk talk so be careful what you are actually signing up too and make sure your not under contract with BT

shawny:

I have just received an e-mail from BT regarding the cancellation charge.

"Regarding Cancellation charge of £70.00, I would like to inform that From 01 May 2007 the minimum term of 12 months applies for all line provision and takeovers. Customers joining BT on or after the 01 May 2007, and subsequently ceasing within this term are charged the remaining line rental up to a maximum of £70.00.
You can get more information about this in the welcome letter from BT which you might have received from BT "

This welcome letter that I have not yet received outlines the cancellation charge, but as BT states 'the welcome letter from BT which you might have received from BT' , how would you know of the charge if the letter 'might' not have been sent !

I have requested a copy of the script used, but have not received it.

Good News - After ringing 0800800150 etc, trying to get to the complaints department. I finally sent an e-mail to cceo AT bt.com requesting that my charges to be refunded promptly. The following day I received an e-mail confirming that the charges would be refunded.

Bad News - After waiting ten days without a sign of the refunds - I found that they were sent to a BT Office in Aberdeen - due to the fact that this address is used when a customer has left BT (as their address is no longer in the system !)

Good news - I eventually received my refunds - £74.50.

If I was anyone leaving BT, and your 'sorry to see you leave' letter doesn't state the charge (my letter stated you may be charged) - then hold your guns, and request the refund - if charged.

My refund, was due to the fact that the only paperwork sent to me was my bills - no T & Cs or anything.

I would like to say thanks as the charge was dropped by half, which is a result. I have since emailed the ceo at talk talk seeing if they'll refund the £70 charge left behind. Well if you ever need to get in touch with CEO's of any organisation there is a good site. Their address is www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html which has most companies email for the top brass and also gives some good advice on how to write your email.

If BT think they're getting £70 off me when i finally get a broadband connection with another company, they've got another think coming. They're not getting anything off me, since they tricked me into becoming their customer in the first place.

Hi, I have just been charged £161.46 for switching from BT to sky for line rental. I was not under any contract with BT although they are insisting that I was. The only information I recieved was a final bill. I am with sky for tv and broadband and they offered me free line rental for 3 months.So I took it as I was not on a contract with BT. One of their sales team phoned me in January asking if I wanted to go back with BT and I said no as I was in contract with Sky, they continued to pester me for weeks until one night after being at the hospital with my son I had a call and I said to them send me information in the post, I said I do not want to be tied in a contract with anybody, I did not agree to anything I am also on the TPS service which is supposed to stop these calls.I also recieved silent calls off a BT number all the way through my sky contract for the last 12 months.I know it was them as I looked up the number online.I had been a customer for over 7 years and cannot believe how they treat customers who they have had so much money out of.I rang them up to be told by the automated service that as I was no longer a BT customer I was not allowed to use the service. How the heck are you supposed to ring them then. I went online to discover that my online account had also been barred.Yet another way they stopped me contacting them. I finally got through to them by ringing bt and pressing the wrong buttons, by saying I was not ringing about the number I was calling from. The man I spoke to was extremely curt and cocky and made out I had a verbal agreement which I had not then said he was unable to help, did not offer me to speak to a supervisor when I asked and said that I would hear from them within 3 days and put the phone down on me mid conversation. It took 2 week for them to correspond, but only with a final reminder. I was not under contract with them yet they seem able to pull stupid figures out of the air and demand payment just for you changing provider. Who stands up for the public on this matter. I have just emailed a complaint. It is rediculous £161.46 for what exactly. They will not even say what it is for apart from its a one off figure. I will never go back to BT ever again. They rip people off for nothing and get away with it. Does anybody know if or why they are allowed to do this. I am really annoyed. Can anyone advise?

Sorry for the essay.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT THEM ALL, that's what I say!!!

I had a total nightmare with BT and with Talk Talk which went on and on for a year. I had been totally clear about what I wanted to do from Day 1, which was: move house, find out the new telephone number, stay with Talk Talk. Simple? Ooooh nooo.

I ended up spending at LEAST 50 - 60 hours of my time chasing my tail. At LEAST 40£ in internet cafes because of no broadband. At LEAST £200 paying BT's connection and disconnection fees for a service I never wanted but was forced to get, even though I was told that Talk Talk should be able to just transfer my service from old to new number. Never ANY paperwork from either BT or Talk Talk.

In the end, I paid all BT's fees and couldn't be bothered to fight them, I didn't have the energy. But in order to get a service from Talk Talk, my phone calls to their call centres didn't make any impact at all, so I reccomend this strategy, and this ONLY.

Keep a diary from Day 1. Get names of people spoken to and solutions promised. Never believe anyone in a call centre.

Write to Charles Dunstone, CEO of Carphone Warehouse, which owns Talk Talk, stating your case. no more than 1 side of A4 paper. Include an INVOICE - a proper, professional-looking one, for around £2500 or whatever you think they owe you. Be clear. Eg: My time - 50 hrs @ £ 50.00 per hour, plus £40 internet cafe fees, plus etcetc.

I had a call from Charles Dunstone's top team at 9am the following morning after I sent this invoice. They grovelled phone calls to me every week until the TT service was working, and they paid me £150, which I said was not enough as I believed they owed me £2500 - but I knew I wouldn't get that. Although I seriously believe that's the amount they SHOULD have paid me in terms compensation of my wasted time etc. Anyway, invoicing for an extortionate amount is the ONLY way to get their attention.

Now that it's all working, I'm glad I'm with Talk talk, but BOY they should have rewarded me £2500 for fighting so hard to get their service!!!!

Thanks for the reply.

I have just emailed the bt ceo. I am waiting for a reply but expect they will force me to pay. They are already threatening legal action even though I only changed my phone line a month ago and the final bill was the only time that they had said I was in a contract even though I am not aware that I was. When they speak to you they try to talk you into saying that you to agree that you were in a contract and that by discussing a package makes it a verbal contract, I said to him that bt rang me up one night and I told him I was with sky. He insisted that I was in a verbal contract, I told the guy I was not and I did not have any contract. He would not have it and cut the call.Nobody at BT had informed me of any contract prior to the final bill, or any cancellation fee.

They treat ex customers like crud they will not accept calls from my line and said I cannot use the customer service line.How then,do they expect me to tell them that they are wrong?

Bizzarely now they will probably harrass me umpteen times a day with calls to go back to them, like they did when I switched calls to sky. Like that is going to happen after this fiasco. They have had my money for the last 7 years but they will not get any more out of me. They even disrupted my line when I changed over and made it fuzzy. They still have not explained that one either.

Oh yes, another possible organisation to turn to is CONSUMER DIRECT and if they can't help you they might put you through to someone who can. Email them. They helped me to get a year's free electricity when Southern Electric cocked up my bills and FORGOT to charge me for a year when I'd even given them my DD details! I refused to pay for a year's electricity in hindsight. Got through to a senior person who just wrote it off. Brilliant!

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Hi

Situation resolved.

I received a phone call off bt, and the guy appologized and admitted it was an error on their part. I had the full amount wiped and the account is now clear. Such a relief, yet it should not have happened in the first place. How is it I feel greatful when I have gone through sleepless nights about this? Strange but at least thats one thing off my mind. I also asked for it in writing and received an email, confirming this, although I would prefer a letter.

Thanks for the posts that included the emails of the ceos of companies as this is the route I took.

Anybody else in this situation, do not take the attitude off some of the sales/customer service staff. They will not accept that there is an error no matter how often or logically you explain it to them. Go to the heads of companies.