Cease order and switch order same day during cooling off period.

[tomfan]

Hi all,

I always thought I had to do both: cancel current service and order from another provider until recently.

Due to some reasons, I had to cancel BT boardband service in cooling off period. But at the same time, I placed an order to another provider. (I now know the correct way is just only to place an order to the new provider.)

That made both cease order and switch order at the same time.

Three days later, the cease order is automatically cancelled, but the switch order has not been placed succesfully.

That means the switch is out of the cooling off period.

OTS(One touch switch) does include cooling off period. But, does it count the first request message? switch day? or accept day?

Thank in advance,

Tom

[Rach_H]

Hi @tomfan 

Welcome to the Community!

We want your broadband switch to be as straightforward as possible, so I'm sorry to hear you didn't have all the information you needed when you started. I'd recommend giving our team a call, and just so they can double check this date for you.

Rach

[tomfan]

Thank Rach for your reply and recommandation.

My primary concern is to terminate the contract within the cooling off period to avoid the huge exit fee. Smooth transaction is not so important.

I have chatted with BT bill team and termination team. They refused to place another cease order. Their advise is going on with switch order and then openreach would not have to switch off the circuit and reconnect again later, and also promised that if there were exit fee, bill team would wipe it off. It seems to be only choice for me at this stage.

I informed the new provider that the cease order had been cancelled yesterday and this morning the provider just informed me that switch order had been placed successuflly but the activation date is delayed five days.

I just hope there won't be anything unusual.

Rach, thanks again for your reply

[iniltous]

Who was your previous provider ? , were you renewing with BT , joining BT from someone else ( but staying on Openreach ) , or it was a brand new service ( and BT were your initial choice ) ? , if you were renewing with BT and cancel , the terms of your previous contract are reinstated, same as if you were joining BT from someone else remaining on OR ) , the other ISP terms would be reinstated…if you were effectively a brand new customer ( that includes joining BT and leaving  another network like Virgin for example ) then your cancellation ( of the brand new service ) may introduce a delay while that order and cancellation are processed, so a new provider using Openreach can’t take over something that doesn’t exist and can’t order a new service while the cancel order is ‘in flight’ .

If you have cancelled your BT service before it started and within the cooling off period, you obviously shouldn’t be charged any termination fee ( unless it was applicable from your previous terms and conditions ) the rest ( joining someone else ) isn’t really BT’s concern .

The OTS ( one touch switching ) is an added complication, but in this case should have no bearing on the possibility of being charged ( even if you are , it obviously can be challenged ) .

[tomfan]

Thank iniltous for reply.

I am sorry I didn't describe the full story.

I had been in Virgin Media cable network for two contract terms before joinng  BT. I had to do both cancelling Virgin media and ordering brand new service from BT. That's why I later terminate BT line and order new service from Plusnet at the same time.

While requesting termination, it was in 13th day of BT service. In order to have less down time, I ordered new line from Plusnet immediately. I didn't know OTS include cooling off period.

Yes, if there is charges it can be challenged as the termination was accepted and the cancellation of termnation was not my action. It is just things could be much simpler if I had spent more time studying before that.

Thank you for your comments.

[tomfan]

Dear everyone,

Happy New Year,

Let me have an update to my incident for Cease order and switch order same day during cooling off period.

After I have switched to new provider for few days, I have received a final bill from BT that I have to pay £341.71 charge for ending your contract early.

On 8th Nov, when receiving the final bill, I contacted bill customer service via chat The agent understand this and said the charge would be waved off withing five days.

On 13th Nov, I saw nothing had changed in the final bill, I contacted billing customer service again. Another agent replied me that the bill would be updated within 48 hours, and nothing would be charged, told me to cancel the direct debit. The next morning, I found that the amount due had been changed to £0. I thought this issue really had been sorted. This is only one I see something has been done.

However, on 9th Dec, I received an email from BT that I had overdue bill. I also found the following message on the billing section on my BT account.

"If we don’t receive payment from you before 21 Jan 2025 we’ll pass your bill to a debt collection agency and you may need to pay extra charges."

I contacted billing customer service again. Another agent reply that would be taken care of within 24hours.  I waited for two weeks to see if there anything had changed.

On 23rd Dec, I found that the bill was still overdue and the word debt collection agency was still there. I contacted billing customer service again. Another agent reply me it would be handled within 7 days.

Today after 10 days, I still found the overdue bill there.

Will I see debt collection agency in front of my door in two weeks?

Every billing agent verified that I cancelled the order within cooling off period, would sorted it out within reasonable time and seek manager for help.

I am frustrated!

[Keith_Beddoe]

Welcome to this customer to customer help forum for BT Residential phone and broadband customers.

The only BT employees on this forum are the moderators, who no longer have account access.

[Katie_B]

Hello @tomfan. 

Thanks so much for keeping us updated. 

When you have a moment please check your community inbox with some next steps to follow.

Katie