Sponsored Links

BT Broadband, governed by distant selling regs?

I signed up to BT Option 3 to start on 11th April, on the 11th April could not get my laptop to connect via wireless, said the laptop adaptor was incompatible, this was the error message thrown up by the hub 6 or 7 times and that I should connect via USB, which did work.
On leaving AOL we had approx 2.5m to 3.5m download, sometimes as low as 512k.
BT so far has been 224K tops!
although this is a diff lline to AOL, we switched to our otherl ine as the AOL one had a max of 2m and this one comes up with 3.5m
Tried to cancel on 12th April (via the India call centre,) who had not got a real clue, told that it would take af ew days to settle down, but not to worry I had 21 days to decide.
3 days later no better, cancelled via e-mail, took 5 days to answer telling me "Tough" you are tied to us, if you want out it will cost you £449 ! Oh and it takes............ 10 weeks to stable the connection
I have e-mailed back saying I do not appreciate being lied to to saying I had 21 days, and maybe they would like to download the voice recording, but have not heard back yet.
Surely they must comply to the distant selling regulations, plus if it can't do the job I want it to, then it aint no good to me
 
I believe 224Kbps is below even BT's minimum quality of 400Kbps+ (anything below is usually considered a fault), though don't forget that if you're within the first ten days of service than your line can become unstable as it is "trained" to find the best speed.

Having said that, the cancellation fee price they're charging is utterly ridiculous and your first port of call should be to put in a complaint with BT's complaints handler - OTELO. I'd also complain to the ISPA, Ofcom and Trading Standards. Make sure you keep a log of everything.

Normally I'd suggest paying their "fine" but in this case it's so huge that you'd actually get better value taking them through the small claims court.
 
This was the e-mail I got after complaining again!......

[I]Mr Williams,[/I]

I understand this, however the terms and conditions state the cancelation period
and this will have been discussed when ordered, so you have asked us to cancel
after the service has gone live which is too late.

The speed will take upto 6weeks anyway this will not happen overnight and you
are not paying for speed so even if this is only 1MG we cannot cancel due to
this.

I am happy to cancel but before I do, im still not sure that you understand what
you will be charged to do this.

The charges will be the reminder of the term and you are breaching the contract
you have agreed to, so you are better keeping this than ceasing it. We
understand your circumstanced may have changed, however this is not a reason for
us to break the contract just agreed, you have taken this on, so unfortunately
you will be charged £449.82 which is the rest of the contract at the price of
the broadband.

If you are happy with this then I will cancel.



Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Booth
eContact Customer Service
 
Sponsored Links
You could class that as a deadlock leter and contact BT's ADR to complain if they say you can without BT charging you then BT have to accept this and release you from the contract.
 
Distance from exchange:

You are approximately 2.27km from the exchange. Note that this is the straight line distance - the actual cable length will be longer!

Now I don't want to appear too stupid, but what is ADR? :confused: apart from Automatic Dialogue Replacement they use in films!!
:)
 
(ADR) is the abreviated form of Alternate Dispute Resolution scheme. sorry for using jargon.

here is a link that gives a description http://www.wwww.radioauthority.org.uk/complain/internet/isp/cancelled/no_adr/


Latest reply from B.T...., they seem to have overlooked that I had spoken at length with the nice lady in the 'local number' call centre in India!

I totally appreciate your frustration, however as you originally asked to cancel
based on no issues, I informed you that the cooling off period had passed which
is why we couldnt cancel, now if you are experiencing tech issues, then you need
to give us every opportunity to try and resolve this before expecting us to
cancel with no charge?

If you have not done so already you can call 0845 6007 030 this is the tech
helpdesk, if you have called them and they cannot solve then we will pass your
details to the UK helpdesk who will, contact you directly to try and rectify
this.

Please note that you have only had the service a matter of weeks, so the speed
will not have reached its full potential for at least 6 weeks anyway?

If you have not called the above number yet please do so, however if you have
please let me know and I will then send this to our UK help and they will
contract you.

Nobody will escalate this until you have at least given our tech help chance to
resolve this.

I await your reply.



Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Kate Booth
eContact Customer Service
Ref: 16822538
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £24.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Shell Energy UK ISP Logo
Shell Energy £26.99
109Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £27.99
145Mbps
Gift: None
Zen Internet UK ISP Logo
Zen Internet £28.00 - 35.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £15.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £19.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
BeFibre UK ISP Logo
BeFibre £21.00
150Mbps
Gift: £25 Love2Shop Card
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5472)
  2. BT (3505)
  3. Politics (2524)
  4. Openreach (2291)
  5. Business (2251)
  6. Building Digital UK (2234)
  7. FTTC (2041)
  8. Mobile Broadband (1961)
  9. Statistics (1778)
  10. 4G (1654)
  11. Virgin Media (1608)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1451)
  13. Fibre Optic (1392)
  14. Wireless Internet (1386)
  15. FTTH (1381)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules