Problem with BT with big fee for cancelling contract for broadband

[Susie100]

My sister phoned to mention to BT about cancelling her broadband and they never mentioned £800 fee.

Her bills kept going up which she was struggling to afford.

 

Earlier they reduced her payments taking Sky Sports off but failed to mention a new contract had started.

All sounds very strange.

 

Apparently she was in a 24 month contract she didn't realise.

My mom had been ill and my sister was having a stressful time.

She went to Sky as it was far cheaper.

 

She has a contract with BT mobile and phoned up as it wasn't working

then came the shock she owed them £800 and they have barred her mobile.

 

Shocking service and I can't speak to them on her behalf.

 

Who has £800.to tussle up?

Obviously she is really stressed over this and don't think she will sleep tonight.

 

Thanks BT great service Not

[Manxman in exile]

When she rang BT did she just "mention" about cancelling her Bb contract or did she actually tell them to cancel it?

 

I've just renegotiated my Bb contract with BT (I know they're useless but I can't be bothered doing too much work to look at any other provider) and I've managed to save money plus they are meant to record 'phone calls and I know (because I spoke to several different call handlers over two weeks) thatthey take very accurate notes of their conversations with customers.

 

She needs to find out if she actually did cancel the contract.  (I'm sure others will suggest doing a SAR).

 

Also what sort of contract did she have with BT?  Presumably it included Bb, mobile phone and Sky?  If the contract had just renewed, BT should have emailed her confirming contract details including duration, how to cancel and cancelation fees.  They've just done this for me for the contract I renegotiated two days ago.

 

EDIT:  It's not clear, but are you saying she's been charged £800 cancelation for Bb or are you saying shae hasn't paid them £800 she owes on her phone?

 

She ought to be able to look at her BT account online to see what she owes and how her bills are made up.

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by Manxman in exile

[Susie100]

Hi

she did say she was cancelling and returned the equipment.

It looks like they put her on a rolling contract for 24 months when she phoned before trying to reduce her payments as they kept going up.

 

I know Sky haven't done that to me.

She didn't see that email as she's had lots of stressful situations.

No letter in post or when she originally phoned about reducing her bill well over £100 they didn't tell her about this contract.

 

Like you say there should be recordings.

BT mobile contract is separate to broadband and the cancellation fee is for the broadband.

They have blocked her mobile so she can't use it and that is a contract.

 

She is phoning CAB in the morning and checking through her paperwork.

I'm quite happy with Sky as they tell you upfront what is happening and have never rolled over my contract.

 

Thanks for taking time to reply it is much appreciated. 

[dx100uk]

forget CAB you might as well phone bt back as thats about as useless as they'll be.

 

you can't have a rolling 24mts contract', bt rolling contracts are month to month only, thats an industrywide accepted definition of what rolling means.

 

what happened here is she earlier changed her 'package' removing skt to reduce costs.

as with all providers that invoked = means she entered into a new (in this case) 24mts contract.

 

she latterly phone to cancel that contract, and thus bt charged her the cancellation fee/loss of revenue over the remaining months of the contract.

 

the fact that she owes them 'this money' but didn't pay it, then entitled them sadly to cancel the mobile contract, which sadly again they allowed to do.

 

rock and a hard place if she wants to keep the same mobile number.

 

Or

as long as her phone is not imie blocked by bt (in otherwords she purchased from BT under the mobile contract) but simply locked to BT (which is easily gotten around for a small fee at many shops/market stalls or if someone is tech savvy follow the guides on youtube to unlock the phone for an even smaller fee. and wack a new sim in it.

 

as for the £800 bill simply ignore them.

they'll sell the debt on 

and if anyone like Lowells or anyother powerless DCA debt buyer wants to do court, it's easily defended

we've not lost one case like that here.

 

 

 

 

[Susie100]

Thanks for your advice. They didn't really reduce her bill when putting her on the rolling contract. She's emailed BT to complain as well about £800 fee. She will have to check where she stands with her mobile contract given she is still paying each month as she still needs to have a mobile phone for emergencies. A lesson on how careful you have to be when changing providers

[dx100uk]

so her phone is working again now and she happy with that..

 

they didn't put her on a rolling contract, when she changed the services provided (removed sky) it would trigger a new fixed terms contract of XX mts of which they would have advised her of that upon the phone at the time. thats what all providers do.

 

as this wasnt too long ago, fire off an SAR and as well as the all info line in our sar template add a line wanting call recording with reps between date ss to date xx

lets make sure they did/didn't tell her .