30-day notice period when moving house seems impractical

[apalerwuss]

Hello!

So I'm fully aware of BT's 30-day notice period when cancelling, but it is simply not possible to know 30 days in advance exactly when you might be moving house. If you're renting, it probably is possible, but when selling/buying you often don't have a precise move date until days before.

In my case, we exchanged contracts on the Monday with a completion date (i.e. moving date) five days later on the Friday. Up until the date we actually exchanged contracts, it was still feasible that we might not be able to exchange contracts until a month later for various reasons -- there were four different parties in the chain, each with their own set of priorities that we had to juggle to agree on an actual moving date.

I had a fair idea that I would likely be moving some time between late September and late October, but if I write to give my notice period on September 1, and we end up not moving until late October, then I'm without internet for a full month. In an age where internet is as essential a utility as electricity or gas, I find it unreasonable that a customer should be put in this position.

I feel like it's unreasonable to just take a whole month's payment from a customer when there isn't much else they could have done -- short of leaving themselves without internet (and thus the ability to work) for a while.

So I dunno -- although it's in the contract (and I guess that's probably that), anyone think there is any chance that BT might waive this contractual obligation in certain circumstances?

[imjolly]

have you tried phoning the 'Moving House' number and see what you can negotiate

https://www.bt.com/exp/moving-home

[apalerwuss]

No no, not yet -- I obviously intend to call them to tell them I'm leaving, but figured I'd put the question (more of a moan, I guess...) into the community to see if anyone had any thoughts on this. Or whether this was something someone else had encountered, and how they got around it.

Anyway, I appreciate there probably isn't much the community can do to help me here, but if nothing else this thread might serve as some use to other BT customers in a similar situation.

[gg30340]

BT state it is a mimimum two weeks notice not 30 days as you have stated.  

That is in order to comply with the law.

If you are taking over a line at the new address this to allow the "old" house owner to be contacted and respond in order to stop slamming by ISPs.

[apalerwuss]

It's 30 days: https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/manage-account/thinking-of-leaving-bt-.

There is a one exception, which I think is what you're referring to, which is where you need to give 14 days when switching to a new provider if the new provider initiates this on your behalf. However, I don't believe that applies when moving to a new property. When moving to a new house, you just choose your provider. I don't think they have anything to do with the ISP at your old house.

[gg30340]

Have a careful read through this particularly the part "Tell us about your move"

 https://www.bt.com/exp/moving-home

Edit: I may have incorrectly assumed you were moving home and retaining your BT contract. 

Can you confirm are you doing that or cancelling your BT service all together.

[licquorice]

I think you are following the wrong procedure for moving house.

[garybs29]

The 30 days notice specifically refers to cancellations, it's not very clear from the OP though if they're actually wanting to cancel the services or move them to a new address

[apalerwuss]

Yes, I realize I didn't make that clear. I am moving to a new provider at the new house, so cancelling BT. My issue is that it has not been possible to give 30 days notice of this, owing to the fact that I didn't have a concrete moving date until 5 days before...

[licquorice]

Again, you haven't made clear if the new provider is an Alt Net or uses Openreach infrastructure.

If the latter, you don't cancel your BT service, you just place an order with the new provider and they cancel your BT service.