I'm about to move house. I phoned BT to tell them.
They said that'll be £45 to disconnect. I said I don't want a disconnection as the people moving in will want the phone line.
I don't understand why I should pay just to stop having a service and this hasn't happened with my previous moves.
Anyone else experienced this.
mark
What precisely did you ask BT to do? A disconection or "same day take over"? The latter used to be free and was the norm but these days of unbundled lines and mobiles many people don't want a BT line anymore. You'll have to contact the new occupier to see if they want a BT line.
Were your previous moves handled via the "same day takeover" system?
I would suggest you try again, and say you're moving out. Different BT employees seem to use different rule books.
Bit late now. It'll be recorded on screen. I'll wait to get the bill then see if there is any wriggle room. A minor consolation was that I got through to someone who was English.
mark
It's worth escalating to a complaint after finding the relevant pages regarding moving on the BT website. The fact they said they were going to charge doesn't mean they will. The important thing is to have told them you were "moving".
I have known BT staff to do everything they could to wriggle out of a refund, including lying and making the rules as they go along. The best one was talking to the complaints department about a connection charge, where I was offered a 50% discount. I said I would accept the offer but would still proceed with the complaint. He then withdrew the offer. I then pointed out that he made an offer and withdrew it and asked for his name so I could make a further complaint. He refused to give his details and gave me the refund in full. It took me a 2 letters to their complaint office to get their attention.
How long have you had the line with BT?
could you have been in a minimum term contract still?
Phone BT during the week, not at weekends, not over lucnh.
Weekdays you might get a UK call centre, weekends or busy times you get India. India don't have a damned clue about anything. We were offered a charge of =A3125 for sorting out a LLU issue, a charge which then vanished entirely.
What precisely did you ask BT to do? A disconection or "same day take over"? The latter used to be free and was the norm but these days of unbundled lines and mobiles many people don't want a BT line anymore. You'll have to contact the new occupier to see if they want a BT line.
Never heard of that, so I think I must have just let the new people deal with it.
I did protest that I didn't want a disconnection just the line transferred to the new people. didn't get far with that. No doubt they'll stick a re-connection charge into the new people.
mark
Phone BT during the week, not at weekends, not over lucnh.
Weekdays you might get a UK call centre, weekends or busy times you get India. India don't have a damned clue about anything. We were offered a charge of £125 for sorting out a LLU issue, a charge which then vanished entirely.
I am fired up for a dispute with BT but with having to be moved out by tomorrow morning I've not got the time ATM. But I'll be back on the case.
mark
Hah! I've dealt with BT for years, and the chances of them recolecting your call even if you wanted them to is non-existant!
the people moving in will want the
"We do this, because we can, and we know that in any test of will, you will weaken and die before we do."
All notions of public service died when that woman decided to give away the national infrastructure to private companies "in the interest of the consumer". That would be something like /this/ consumer, I guess:
Beg pardon for sullying this fine group with politics! And I have to admit that I do see faint signs of the principles of customer service coming back into one or two private titans, EON to name one.
John
Not normal practice UNLESS you have agreed to a fixed term contract with penalty clauses for early cancellation.
More details of your contract?
Is the £45 really just for ceasing the service at the old address?
Surely what the new occupiers may want if, as, and when they arrive cannot be material to any charge made for ceasing the current service.
Has Mark even said he wants a BT phone at his new address and if he does is there a serviceable line already there ? Just because there is a line in the new property does not necessarily mean it is serviceable it could have been reused years ago and to re-instate service may need a new line back to the exchange.
Derek
Garbage. Like all such who espouse these views, you don't remember what it was really like before.
On Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:19:09 +0000, Huge wibbled:
I think BT is rather better at advancing technology and customer options than the GPO. Remember when you were only allowed to rent your phone, in choice of maybe 1/2 dozen colours.
However, I also think that electricity has done rather worse than before.
The CEGB used to do a ton of their own development at Leatherhead. They used to care to stockpile fuel for power stations for upto 18 months, rather than the 6 weeks of coal if you're lucky that seems to be the norm now. They thought burning coal was a good idea and burning gas was bad, to be done as little as possible in order to provide a fast response power station for load balancing, rather than as a golden egg,to be slivered away at for a quick profit. I don't recall asking for services to be moved involving the level of rapeage that EDF enjoy inflicting on their victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers.
Water - ambivalent. The current lot seem to be building pipeline and reservoirs, just as the nationalised lot did.
I remember when it was black, and bakelite.
And had no dial at all.
And you might have to wait 6 months to get it. And modems were the size of shoeboxes, finished in crackle finish enamel, did 1200/24 half-duplex and could only be rented at enormous expense.
Curates egg. If you can bothered to chop and change, as a customer it's probably better. But you have a point about the backroom stuff.
Naah. Water was privatised because it needed huge amounts of money spending on it following decades of State underfunding and the Government didn't want that expenditure on its books. Much better spending the money on a client state that will vote for you. Or giving it to your rich chums, depending on which way your politics lean.
It is impossible not to agree to minimum term contact with a telco. This is the only type of contract that they offer. The only issue is whether you haven completed the term
tim
By far the biggest issue with the public version of BT was the 6-12 months wait in the queue before you could even get a phone.
tim
The was more a change of policy laid down by government, wasn't it?
They care a lot more about leaks than they used to.
MBQ
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