BT buying out Sky Contract time scales advice please

[stitch666]

Hi everyone.

I had a visit from a BT representative today who said I was in a buy out area for people with other service providers.  This came at a good time as had been considering switching to BT however was in contract with Sky until Jan 22.

I have signed up and the rep said I have to email my final skill bill within 6 days otherwise I won't get it credited to my BT bill.

When she left someone from BT phoned me to go through the contract.  When we got to the end he said my activation date will be 02.12.22 and that I have to call Sky straight away to cancel.  However, I need Sky to remain active until 02.12.22 so there is no break in service and that means that my final bill probably won't be generated within the next 6 days to send to the Switch team.  I asked him about this and he didn't know the answer, he recommended emailing the Switch team.  I have done this but not heard back.  If I am going to lose out on the buy ou money then I will obviously be cancelling the order.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this process.  

Thanks

Stitch

[NeilO]

Hi, @stitch666 welcome to the community and thanks for posting. I'm really sorry that's not correct, you actually have 2 months from the date your BT service is connected to send us a copy of your final bill from Sky.

Thanks

Neil

[stitch666]

Hi Neil, I notice you say ‘us’ there. Are you part of the switching team? They seem hard to get hold of and haven’t answered any of my correspondence.  I have a bit of paper here from the switching team that says if I don’t give them my final sky bill by Wednesday 23rd November then I won’t get the buy out credit. 

I am now unsure how to proceed. I think if I don’t formally hear from the switch team today then I will cancel my BT order as I can’t take the risk, and obviously this doesn’t bode well for future administration from BT.

edit: I’ve been in contact with Sky and they won’t get me a bill by Wednesday so going to cancel my BT order.

[NeilO · Accepted solution]

@stitch666 I'm a moderator in the community and work for BT. I checked with the door-to-door sales team and looked up the switching process and I can confirm that the terms of the offer give you 2 months to send the final bill to the switching email address after the BT service starts. 

You can take this as BT's official answer and if there are any further problems let me know and I will be able to help.

Thanks

Neil

[stitch666]

Thanks Neil. I just checked out the Who is Who section and saw you.

I’m actually on the phone to BT now who have confirmed the 2 months but are saying that my account isn’t flagged as a buy out account and they don’t know why.  This is all turning into a bit of a headache to be honest with long lasting phone calls whilst working etc.

[NeilO]

Hi, @stitch666 I'll send you a private message so you can get in touch with the moderation team and we'll be happy to help.

Thanks

Neil

[stitch666]

Right, seems to be sorted.  Let me update this thread in case people are in a similar position.

Neil got back to me (above) and very helpfully let me know it was 2 months to send the bill to BT switching team.

At the same time as that message from Neil I spoke with some at BT who was very helpful too.  She said she has never heard of a 6 day time limit and that it is usually 2 months after the service has switched.  She additionally said that my account was not flagged as a buy out account.  After some time she got back to me and said it won’t show as a buy out account until I actually switch provider and then will become a buy out account when I send my final bill.

So it appears the 2 months time limit is in fact correct.  I have no idea why the door person told me 6 days, and gave me paperwork that says 6 days as that has added a lot of additional stress to this process with misinformation. 

Let’s hope the rest of this process goes smoothly.

Thanks to you Neil for your replies.

[NeilO]

Hi @stitch666 That's great I'm glad it's sorted. I'm sorry I don't know why you were told 6 days either as that's totally wrong. It takes a minimum of two weeks to transfer providers in all circumstances anyway and we need to give time for the final bill to be produced after the transfer takes place. 

If you send me over your order details we'll be able to get this fed back to the door-to-door salesperson to make sure they're not telling other customers they have 6 days to send the final bill.

Thanks

Neil

[stitch666]

Thanks Neil.  I replied to your private message. I think you can find the order no. On my account as it will be the only activity on there.

[NeilO]

Hi @stitch666 Thanks for doing that, we'll get this fed back as I appreciate the confusion and worry it's caused.

Thanks

Neil