End of contract charge!!

[Tazbolton]

Can someone tell me why now at the end of my contract I have to pay BT £31 to stop my broadband (not something I'm willing to do)

Moved home with my BT package a year ago and since loving my package had to be downgraded to standard as this area has no infinity haha and you can't even call it standard I've basically been paying £50pm for an average of 3.2mbs download speed!! Absolutely furious with it to begin with as you can imagine so now that I've gone full term, I've switched providers to try and get out of these prehistoric internet speeds but now I have to pay £31? NO!

[Tazbolton]

"Since moving my package" ^^

[Keith_Beddoe]

Did you move to a provider that does not use the Openreach network? 

[Tazbolton]

Moved to virgin media

[Keith_Beddoe · Accepted solution]

Then the cease charge, would apply, see http://www.bt.com/ceasecharge

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband-cease-charge/?s_cid=con_FURL_ceasecharges

[Tazbolton]

Read it and it's just dirty, ridiculous, greedy.... End of contract should mean end of contract! Already had a year of £50 a month for something that takes 5 minutes to open up a website, I rang up a few weeks after i moved home to see if they could help with the signal - they said they would send someone but if they found the fault to be with the socket or had been damaged outside somehow then I'd have to pay £160! --- 

[Tazbolton]

Solution definitely not found - daylight robbery, I'll never consider being a BT customer again or giving out recommendations (apart from warning everyone to stay well clear!)

[Ectophile]

They charge it because they can get away with it, because Ofcom is such a weak and feeble regulator.

The charge is actually levied by Openreach for daring to leave their network.  BT is just passing it on to you because they don't want to pay it.  It started as a token £6, but Openreach hiked it up when they realised that nobody was going to stop them.

[Keith_Beddoe]

It's the same for all providers who use Openreach as it's Openreach that raise the charge. It would be the same for Sky, Talktalk, EE etc. If you had read the T&Cs before cancelling, you would have been aware.

[Tazbolton]

Agreed @Ectophile...

BT should pay it, they've made a fortune off me from a service that was at best, good enough to open a site in 15 seconds!

Being aware of the charge and T&C's or not, the fact is my contract is up and even if I didn't want to start a new contract with BT or any other provider the charge would still take effect... I'm sorry but it's "effin" ridiculous