Landline cancellation too late for house move

[PCL217]

My elderly mother has sold her house and will be moving in with me. It was only a week between exchange and completion, which happens later this week.

I have been going through all the utilities and cancelling them for her. Everything's been OK other than her BT landline.

I do not have BT myself and was unaware of the 30 days notice period, although I wouldn't have cancelled until the contracts had been exchanged anyway.

When I found out about the 30 days notice I assumed they would cancel her landline service and bill her for an additional 30 days line rental. However, I have now called BT twice and spoken to two different call centre agents, and it seems she has to continue with the service for 30 days, even though she will no longer live there and the new owners will have moved in!

The first agent didn't think it was a problem saying they wouldn't be able to access her account. I assume he was thinking of broadband or mobile, because all you have to do is plug a phone into the socket for landline access. He went away and came back, saying they would add a complaint against the landline and that she wouldn't be charged for any calls made after she'd moved.

This seemed ridiculous to me and I was not convinced that 30 days later my mother wouldn't be presented with a bill for the new owners calls. If they make calls, who is going to pay for them because they won't have a contract with BT. I phoned again and got pretty much the same story from another agent, this time being told it probably wouldn't be a problem as not many people use landlines these days!

Has anyone else been in this situation or have any advice?

Thanks!

[imjolly]

Try the message now option and see if billing can help you. https://www.bt.com/help/contact-bt/account-and-billing/broadband

[Christopher_G]

Hi @PCL217 

Welcome to the community.

Have you managed to speak to someone in the billing team, as @imjolly suggested? Hopefully, they can help get this sorted for you.

Chris

[PCL217]

Thanks for the welcome!

Unfortunately the Message Now button doesn't seem to do anything for me. I've tried with both Edge and Chrome, ensured pop-ups are enabled but no luck. I also tried via my mobile and that didn't work either. I will try again later.

I'm reluctant to phone again as having already called 3 times with the same outcome. I did find an email address for complaints, so I have sent one off, not that I am expecting a reply before the sale is complete but at least it is something I can refer to if/when my mum is billed for the new owners calls!

[PCL217]

I wondered if the Message Now issue was down to using Norton VPN (sometimes Tesco doesn't like it), so I checked and found it was already off. I switched it on and Message Now started working! My ISP is Virgin Media so perhaps they inhibit the service if you are using a competitors' network.

There is no getting away from the 30 days cancellation notice and the landline will remain active after the sale has completed. When looking at the account, no complaint had been added, which (from the discussions yesterday) was supposed to indicate that any calls after the completion date would not be charged to mum.

I'm told a note has been added to the account and that when the 30 days expire, if there are any call charges after the completion date, I can phone up again and get them refunded.

I feel more confident than I did yesterday, but it still seems ridiculous. I will report back after the notice period expires and the final bill is received.

[Christopher_G]

Thanks for coming back to us, @PCL217.

It's good that you've had that confirmation, but I totally appreciate that this isn't a great experience. If you have any problems after the notice period ends, please let me know.

Chris

[PCL217]

The email complaint that I sent (to the address found in the complaints code of practice document) has yielded a good result. I got a call this morning and they are closing the account on the 31st March. Now there's only a window of a couple of days where the new owners could use the line.

[Christopher_G]

Thanks for coming back to update us, @PCL217.

I'm glad to hear that the situation has improved. Be sure to let us know if you have any problems between the new residents moving in and the disconnection date.

Chris