Hello

I am hoping you can resolve this difficult predicament I appear to have launched myself unwillingly into...

Today (13/04/07) I attempted to transfer my current subscription to BT for a much more vaule-rewarding deal with Virgin Media.  I made a call to Virgin Media (who were very fast to respond to my call...no long BT 'holding' calls here:)) anyway I asked if they could do me a deal which is parallel to their '3 for £30'

-Full TV package (obviously minus the sky channels etc)

-4mb broadband (which is what i am receiving currently from BT)

-Free anytime phone calls to landlines

-25% off calls to mobiles from landline

-£30 payback after staying with then for a month, (£25 installation one-off-charge; so a gain of a fiver!)

and they offered all this for £54 per month.

 

Currently i am receiving around 4mb (£26.99 per month) internet with BT, with whom I am to pay the conventional £12 line rental (which Virgin exempts) plus the stupid call packages/options etc which means my quarter bill when adding on internet and all calls to be around £185.  By switching to Virgin I am benefitting from the TV and receiving similar internet and free calls, with mobile calls reduced.

However when I rang BT (was on hold what seemed like forever and then had to be transfered despite calling the correct number!) to cancel my broadband they informed me despite me being a customer for over 2 years because I had upgraded last year (even though this was due to them urging me to) the contract was restarted, so i am contracted with them until 10/08/07. and if I want to change over to Virgin I have to pay a £45 cancellation charge to BT for the line, and carry on paying the £26.99 per month until august meaning I will be at a financial deficit of about £180.  Is there anyway I can break contract from BT? I am spending way too much for the deals they are offering me! and isnt the customer always right?

Summarising, I want to terminate my current BT Broadband contract with as little charge as possible to myself.  Why should i pay for something I dont want? Why should I pay more to get rid of something I dont want? Even though they fall back on the line of "sir, you ticked the box to agree to our T&Cs therefore you are contracted with us until August the tenth" PLEASE HELP ME OUT OF THIS STUPID SITUATION!!!!

Under the cicumstances there are two options,1) decide you are going to break your contract with BT and pay what they ask, which they are legally able to demand, or 2) wait until it expires on 10/08 then change over your supplier.

Getting out of a contract purely because you have found it cheaper is not a just cause to break it, the only legal way you would have would be if, BT were to break it's contract with you firstly, i.e. long periods of disconnection, or non delivery of the services in their contract with you, sorry to say.

This is very interesting as I am in exactly the same predicament, I have opted to join Virgin as their product suits my needs and budget.  On informing BT that I would be quitting, I was informed that the penalties for early termination would most likely run into hundreds of pounds.  I propose to contest this on the grounds that BT did not fulfill their contractual obligations to me by providing a connection speed (broadband) that was fit for my purpose.  I paid them the maximum charge for up to 8meg broadband and have never achieved a speed greater than 1meg, my average was 547kbps.  I know they will counter with 'we only say up to 8meg', but my argument is that there were cheaper packages available for speeds up to 2meg which they could have offered as an alternative given that their line and equipment in my area is incapable of attaining the higher speeds that I wanted.  Whether I am successful or not with this counter claim, I will NOT be paying them a penny and they can take me to court, lock me up and throw away the key for all I care, they have had enough of my hard earned already!

nice to know im not the only person to disagree with BT and their lack of care it seems for customer satisfaction Graham.

i rang Virgin today informing them of BTs comments and they said "you should not have to pay to cancel the landline, there is no charge for cancelling contracts early, only outstanding payments need to be completed to the end of the contract" once they heard how ridiculous BT were being they commented that they will contribute £30 towards the remaning payments (which without a cancellation fee remains at £77 with this new reduction) then they added that from the 1st of May my new deal will be not £54 per month but rather £48.50

so im leaving it to virgin to sort things from their end, (i still havent finalised details with virgin, haa haa not tieing myself down into another contract just yet, getting to know the ins and outs first) once this is done and BT inform me of my cancellation and send me the bill then i will decide on whether to pay it (it should be £107 plus the cost of calls up to the date of cancellation, (ten £30 reduction from Virgin)).

you have a legimate reason for not paying Graham, i simply found a better deal, so i will probly end up paying (provided i get what i want, and it is only £77) final thought, dont let them put your off (BT) that you will get same speeds with virgin, if virgin have promised you a better speed they will achieve it, but make sure they quote you a good speed, remember anything spoken to you in conversation is gospel, if they say it, they have to stick to it, so try and catch them out, always works, however virgin staff seem very easy to understand and happy to help, very unlike BT- Big Tw**s

Virgin do seem more sympathetic to your plight than BT, lets hope their good customer care continues once the contract is signed!

I am confident that Virgin will get close to providing their quoted speed as the cable network in my area is very good and can handle more traffic than BT's out dated equipment.

I have cancelled the direct debit for BT so when they attempt to take the over inflated charges from my account, they will get a surprise.  When they send me a bill, I will pay for any services that I have actually used, but the extra charges for early cancellation will not be paid!

I'll keep you posted as to what happens over the coming weeks and I hope you will too.

Good luck 

 

"Virgin" and "Customer Service" is an oxymoron in the broadband world.

I have people on various BB suppliers throughout the UK and invariably - if they become dependent on BB as their 'lifeline' they come back to BT.

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

had a call today in person from a virgin representative... he discussed in detail what i would be getting from virgin and showed me very simply how the situation lies, he did a great job in making everything seem clear, he told me a that there was a way to exit my existing contract and not suffer too many problems as a result.  if i was to tell them im moving out and living in halls of residence (since im a student already its understandable) when i go back, and for the summer im going travelling then i dont need the connection anymore, and they will issue me with a bill, which i will not pay for any as yet unused services, if i dont pay they cant take me to court (because to take someone to court you have to owe more than £200); incidently BT didnt mention this when they were threatening me.  also if i refuse to pay anything then make them think they are getting somewhere when i offer them 50% of what they are asking, i was told by the he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned guy that BT wont really care, especially if you reluctanly offer to pay 50% of what they say you owe, and he then commented to say i couldnt keep my number obviously (cos that looks suspicious to BT). 

The virgin speeds for the broadband are minimal speeds offereed so i am guarenteed for over 4Mbps, (also their 10mbps deal is going to be upgraded to 20Mbps next month, but that is just ridiculous, also its £18 more, but not useful to me, but that will be 20Mbps at LEAST beat that BT).  i have signed up with virgin and just need to pay for the installation charge, but the deal looks very promising, as for BT i will be paying no more than £90 if i have to pay anything at all! lets just hope virgin arent going to screw me over

neralcm --- I am in no way sticking up for BT, if you want to break a contract though, do not take what Virgin are telling you as a fact, after all they have an interest in signing you up as a customer......Source below from. www.direct.gov.uk

But the truth is there is not a mininum amount of money you can be taken to court over, so proceed with caution. I would hate the wrong advice to influence your decision, ending up with you in trouble. If you look at it from a different perspective, people are threatening legal action against unfair bank charges, often totalling less than £200 in a lot of cases. So you can take someone to court, for less than the amount they have mentioned, don't forget also the loser of the case usually gets all the court costs awarded against them.

Small claims court

For claims up to £5,000, you can represent yourself at your local small claims court. The court can rule on claims for specific amounts and issue warrants enforcing its rulings. However, it can't award damages or compensation.

County Court

Claims for any amount can be heard in the County Court - no minimum or maximum limits apply.

High Court

Claims over £15,000 can be heard in the High Court. You must take legal advice and have a lawyer to represent you.

Hello conmankiller ,

Renewing Contracts and finding better deals can be complicated however you are
100% correct in both your posts I completely agree,

Sound advice.

Mike.

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If you are unsure about anything you have read or for further advice

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i was with ntl before the take over and signed up to bt for the bb worst thing i ever did got it set it up and what a waste of time it was after 4 days yes (FOUR) days i rang to cancel it as the speed was rubbish and i got sure now problems but you will still have to pay the full bill i offered to pay for the month and was spoken too by an idiot who was very rude so asked to speak to unit manager and she was worse so i ended up canceling my phone and bb and put a complaint in but nothing back about it i will not be paying them at all i got a debt recovery unit letter today asking me to pay £517.32p for using the bb for 4 days i have told them to take me to court as i will be talking to my soliciter about this matter. i am now back with ntl/virgin and very happy with the 10meg bb what they offer  

hi everyone,

I'm not too good with this broadband shiznay but when my daughter asked me to get it i did.  Think BT were aware that I was not very techno and I ended up getting god knows what, for I thought about £26 per month.  Firstly this parcel arrives with wires and connecters etc.  No idea what to do with them so I called BT for advice.  I was talking to someone many miles away who I found very difficult to understand.  I was embarrassed to ask her to repeat herself constantly but I really did not know what she meant when she told me I needed a "local in genie".  Eventually I had to be transfered to someone who told me I needed a local engineer to set up the broadband and that it would cost me £50.  Eventually Between us, we managed to get it going.  The broadband was activated about two weeks later but I was billed the most enermous amount from the day I signed up.  I truely nearly dropped down dead when I opened it.  Sorry BT said but it seems I have to pay 3 months in advance.  No one told me.  I have to pay service charges, no one told me.  I have to pay line rentals and technical support charges as well as these stupid amounts for friends and family calling mobiles and abroad.  Oh my god.  I managed to pay the bill and then when the next one came I swear to god I almost lost the will to live.  Nearly three hundred quid!

I have never been in this much trouble before and I am on such a small wage its not possible for me to pay all this.  I have been paying as much as i can afford but its not enough for BT and I can now no longer even accept calls.  Apparently I;m under contract until march next year so I am well and truely stuffed.  HELP

 

Yvonne

Hi I'm glad i saw this post i'm having the same problem with bt broadband , I joined bt 2&1/2 weeks ago after leaving orange My issue was the download speeds during the daytime where slower than a dial up connection 10kbps with my peer 2 peer  software and i know for a fact that the sites i get my torrents off are alway very fast. But at nightitme the speeds after 12midnight where almost normal getting to their peek @ 4 in the morning 230 kbps.Ive been on the phone to bt in India for hours now but its had to communicate because of the different accents .
They told me the same thing if I cancel I'll be billed for the whole year and I've got to prove to them they're giving me a poor service i've tryed to explain to them that up untill i left orange coming through the same bt landline &  bt exchange my speeds where fine 220kbps all the time and now fecked up since joining bt the engineers have been out and the line is fine im ready to pull my hair out lol.Ive also found out that if i have a complaint with bt it has to go on and on for 12 weeks b4 i can pass it on to ofcom who will then take my case further with a bit of luck maybe they ll do something.

Hope this helps abit and some1 can help me

 

don
 

Hi Don,

 

Sorry to read about your problems but sadly I'm not suprised at all.  I've given up fighting them now because I'm under contract with them and I have to pay a very high price to get out of it. I always thought that the contract was between them and me but I'm not so sure because its only me that has to abide by it.  They are a huge company and you have no chance against them.  They don't listen ever, they never reply to phone calls or offer any advice but they can ring you e mail you or send you letters when they want your money from you! 

 worked out that it was going to cost me a fortune to leave them because they would still make me pay for their services until the contract ends as well as paying another company to provide me with broadband and telephone plus I'd still be paying BT for the use of their lines in my house.  Rubbish ......

Sorry. 

Yvonne

I had phone and broadband with NTL before I, too, migrated to BT for a year's contract. I thought that the product was better and cheaper with NTL, but I was tired of having to call them to renegotiate the bill every month. I got connected to BT Phone on May 17th and Broadband May 24th. After problems with my first bill on June 9th and bad Customer Service I called to cancel on June 11th. I got reconnected to NTL today. However, a call to BT told me that I would have to pay my 12-month contract for Phone and Broadband in full. What I'd like to know is:   Is this a contract or a credit agreement? Is there a cooling-off period, and how long would that be? If BT can rightfully recoup lost revenue, is there a maximum limit or the full year's worth? Any ideas for regulatory bodies or sources for information? i'm sure we are not the only ones burned by BT.

hello yevains,

 

Think you are in situation llike myself.  I'm afraid they appear to hold all the cards and they will hold you to a full years contract.  They are very difficult people to deal with.  My bill is enormous although my actual calls made for three months was only 23 quid.  I'm without phone now.  I cannot even except calls although I have asked them what difference it makes to them.  They do not care, they have you and you will have to pay according to them.  I would sooner stick pins in my eyes than give them anymore money than I have to so I would sooner use my mobile and then when my contract is up I will move to another supplier.  If you know any different then please let me know.

Yvonne