Cancel contract without penalty

[andyt147]

My broadband and phone line worked absolutely fine yesterday morning but upon seeing a BT van outside my property yesterday afternoon nothing now works, the phone is dead and the hub flashes purple, I have gone around in circles for hours on my mobile with "advisor's" online and over the phone with no solution, my question is, can I cancel my contract without penalty as they are not providing a service at all, that I am paying for, and move to another provider. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[licquorice]

The short answer is no, you need to give BT a chance to fix the fault.

You say you have been going round in circles, what have customer services actually said? Have they acknowledged you have a fault?

I suspect your line has been disconnected in error.

[imjolly]

have you checked service in your area for problems

https://www.bt.com/help/check-service-status

if nothing showing then phone 0800800150 from mobile and report a fault

you cannot cancel without penalty until BT have been advised and the organise an openreach visit to fix the problem

[andyt147]

BT have replied with "The fault is outside the property", exactly where there 'engineer' was, I had no faults before this apparent 'engineer' turned up, they have also said. " we will try and fix the problem I did not have before their 'engineer' arrived in 5 days", to me this is obsurd and very incompetent.

[licquorice]

Its a fault, it will get fixed.

It would be exactly the same whichever provider you used as the network belongs to and gets fixed by Openreach not BT. Agree its unfortunate that the fault appears to have been caused by activity by Openreach.

[andyt147 · Accepted solution]

Thankyou for all your replies and advice, I am now of the feeling I'm basically up the creek without a paddle, the work that I've now lost far outweighs paying the remainder of the contract they have failed to uphold, but as I suspected another provider is still at the mercy of open reach incompetence and futile. Thankyou all and all the best.

[Keith_Beddoe]

@andyt147 

Its sounds like you may be a business user as you mention lost work.

BT Business contracts have much faster repair options, including repair within five hours if needed.

https://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/11758/~/what-levels-of-support-do-bt-offer-f...

If you are a residential user, then BT Halo may be an option, as that provides a 4G hub in the event of a broadband fault.

If you have been disconnected in error, then BT do pay a small amount as compensation.

[licquorice]

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@andyt147 wrote:

Thankyou for all your replies and advice, I am now of the feeling I'm basically up the creek without a paddle, the work that I've now lost far outweighs paying the remainder of the contract they have failed to uphold, but as I suspected another provider is still at the mercy of open reach incompetence and futile. Thankyou all and all the best.

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If you are concerned about losing incoming phone calls, you can ask customer services to divert your line to your mobile.

[andyt147]

Thankyou Keith_Beddoe for your reply, as for business user I'm self-employed so my landline being dead negates all advertising and customers with that contact number, the dead broadband incurs costs using mobile networks and the halo option suggests they are aware of  'engineers'  fixing things that worked perfectly fine, the small amount of compensation that you rightly say is supposedly there I suspect is a futile endeavor.

[licquorice]

Being self employed and reliant on your phone, you would be much better with a proper business contract with a much better SLA than a consumer grade contract.