Amending a contract after bereavement

[JamesGame66]

At the start of this year (2024) I had to assume the payment of my fathers contract for BB and Phone after his sudden death, it was only in the last month that I realised that the contract he had signed up for was well in excess for his surviving wife who is housebound, medically compromised and needs 24/7 care at home. I tried to express this to BT on a call this week and was told that the contract could not be varied until the end of the contract term, this being another 18 months.

After probably hundreds of calls to various organisations after my loss the only one that has made me truly angry was the one with BT who were so unhelpful and borderline aggressive.

Before I proceed to Ofcom can anyone give any advice on the legality of the contract terms continuing and payment being demanded when I was not the person who signed the contract.

Can I just terminate the contract and find an alternative provider?

[Keith_Beddoe]

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers and will not be able to deal with any issues relating to your account.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators, who may offer to help, when everything else has been tried.

[gg30340]

As you have already phoned BT and been given what would appear to be wrong advice I have notified the moderators of the forum about your problem. Once they have read this they may be able to help. They will advise you by posting on this thread.

[DanielS]

Hi @JamesGame66,

I am so sorry for the experience that you've been through during an already difficult time.

It sounds like the account was changed into your name, instead of being closed, which would mean that the account now belongs to you. Any contract terms then fall upon you. I want to help you with this as it doesn't look to have been made clear to you. I'll do all I can to help you.

I will send you a private message so you can reply back to my team.

Thank you

DanielS

[Sinead5110]

Hi James, I’m going through the same thing! Father died with the most expensive contract (totally unecessary speed for him). I spoke to the bereavement team and was told i could easily swap the plan into my name and then decrease the plan to something more realistic. But when i then spoke to the person who could change the plan i was told that i’d have to cancel the contract and take on a new one. It’s such a hassle, and I have to send back the router hub, only to be sent another. If you managed anything different with BT I’d love to know. 

[gg30340]

@Sinead5110 

Get back in touch with the Bereavement Dept and tell them you want to change the contract to your name and failing that you want to cancel the contract. You can then take out a new contract in your name and get any "new" customer discounts.