Our lovely friends British Telecom have triumphed again!!!!
As you will have previously read, we have been 7 years in limbo trying to sell our house which has meant that we have been loyal to BT all that time - simply because to change provider we would have to sign up to a long contract and we didn't know when we would sell the house. Well that didn't happen so we have been stuck with BT all this time.
A few months ago I finally convinced myself that I could justify having a smart phone. For a very reasonable price I secured a monthly contract which gave me enough free (of course I've already paid for them in the contract) minutes that I no longer needed to use the land line. In fact the total contract was cheaper than the call cost on the land line - I don't have many friends you see, either that or I'm just a plain misery and never phone anyone.
RIPOFF NO 1.
BT now charge me a fine of £2 per month for NOT using my land line. What a joke!!!Moving on - I recently purchased a long-range WIFI finder for when we are out and about travelling which boosts the wifi signal and picks up many more wifi's than my laptop. This is a brilliant piece of kit - ask me if you want more information.
Well, when sat in my study I can pick up 24 different wifi's in my area, one happens to be my brother's as he lives close and one is the Cloud at my local pub. So actually I don't really need to have Broadband or a land line and I can still survive and be in contact with the world, and of course all my friends that I never get around to phoning (actually I don't like using the phone). I must admit the thought of perhaps not having access to broadband does leave me with the feeling of a
So with our travels being imminent I decided (after getting agreement to share my brother's broadband) that I would cancel our contract with BT completely.
Try finding out how to cancel your contract with BT!!!! Their website is rubbish - of course they don't want you to cancel do they. It says you can cancel by any way shown on their bill, email, phone, letter etc then when you get into it you have to call an 0800 number. Well my experience of calling 0800 numbers to BT is that you are left hanging on for absolutely ages so I decided to take the old fashioned route and physically write to them and to give them 30 days notice to cancel my contract - yes a proper letter!!! - in the post!!!!! Can't remember the last time I did one of those.
So yesterday I received a call from their Account Support department (or whatever they call themselves) to check that I really did mean to write them a letter and that I was really sure that I wanted to cancel my contract with them.
RIPOFF NO 2.
They are now charging me £30 for the privilege of allowing me to cancel my contract.
Well those of you who know me will understand that I'm not a one to rant and moan at the poor soul on the other end of the phone - ok then I am, so I did - for 23 minutes. It's totally laughable. What sort of organisation is this? This fee is apparently a compensation for BT to physically disconnect the service at the Exchange. If I had moved to another provider there would be no fee.
I knew it wouldn't do any good, but it did make me feel better. I made him find the section in the T&C where it said that a charge would be made so that I could read it for myself.
If you are interested - here it is.
Broadband cancellation T & C
The poor guy on the end of the phone then had to ask me a final question:- "Are you sure you want to cancel this contract".
SURE, SURE - after that of course I'm SURE.
Well that rant made me feel better as well.
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