Trying to Cancel my account for the last 3 weeks

[carlosmg]

I have been actively trying to cancel my BT account for the last 3 weeks.

I still have a contract until December, but I moved over a month ago and I cannot use BT where I live now. 

I have been trying to cancel my BT account but I always get some excuse from the person I speak with. They have canceled my broadband but they kept my landline so I still have an account with BT and I will get billed again soon. How is this even possible? They blame Openreach because they don't cancel my landline. However, how is that even my fault? BT should deal with it, not me. BT should take my cancelation and cancel my account, then they should deal with issues with Openreach. 

I have obviously canceled my direct debit. What does it happen when BT tries again to charge me? How much would they charge me since the broadband is canceled? Why would BT even try to bill me again when I called to cancel my account on the 14th and my contract started on a 28th (that's 2 weeks before the cut-off day).

I really think customer service needs some training on how to deal with these situations. I am not blaming them, I blame BT for not informing and giving them the tools to deal with these. BT should be the ones dealing with Openreach, not me, since they use Openreach in order to offer me a service, and not the other way around.

So please, can you cancel already my BT account? And take into consideration that I called to cancel this on the 14th of September. 

[iniltous]

If you are in ‘contract’ until December, you presumably know that early termination charges will apply , obviously if you have cancelled your direct debit , that charge will not be able to be taken ( once the final bill  is produced ), cancelling your DD may end up affecting you credit rating if you have a unpaid debt against your name.

The status of the Openreach line is never ‘cancelled’ , service at the address can be ‘stopped’ or ceased , it’s of no consequence to you if the line continues to work (  incoming calls and a ‘soft’ dialtone that only allows calls to 999 or customer services) , it can make it easier for someone moving into your old address , to get their own service ‘started’ by leaving the existing ‘line’ this way,  it doesn’t affect what you are charged.

Obviously, if you say you want to cancel your contract with BT on a particular date , even if it’s before the end of the minimum term , understanding that a months notice is required to cancel , so calling on the 14th , means that your regular payment is in place until around  the 14th of the following month anyway  ,  should be actioned, and  a full and final bill should ( eventually )  be produced ( that you need to pay )  but it’s a little unclear what you are expecting to happen ,

If you cancel before December you will owe money , regardless of that being monthly payments or a final bill including ETC , final bills can be complicated to produce, as the billing date , and contract dates may not align , being billed after your ‘relationship’  has ended isn’t unusual, obviously any overpayment would also normally be made to you by a reverse DD ( another reason not to simply cancel the DD).

I think  you may be being a little premature in expecting everything to be in place instantly, at a minimum your ‘request’ to be considered an ‘ex’ customer , irrespective of the amount you will be required to pay , should have been noted, that final amount may still be being calculated , delaying your final  BT bill.

[carlosmg]

I am sorry iniltous, but I don't think I explained my self properly.

I called to terminate my contract on the 14th of September and my account has not been fully cancelled yet. What is the reason for my account not being cancelled? They cancelled my broadband, but not the landline. A BT operator told me that this is Openreach fault and that I need to wait for them to stop my service at that address.

I understand about the month's notice. I called on the 14th of September to terminate my contract, and on the 28th of September I paid for another month. I only cancelled the direct debit recently. Since I have done everything right on my side, there is no reason for another bill to be issued on the 28th of October. I understand I have to pay the termination fees, but that should not come on the direct debit and I can do that payment once the bill is calculated. Why would that termination charge be added to the DD? That's one payment. Anyway, if that was the case, wouldn't a call to BT in order to pay the final bill sort this out?

You say billing is complicated, but I disagree. On the first call, a very polite lady told me exactly how much I would have to pay if I terminate my contract on that day. Exactly amount down to the penny. And that took her half a minute to check.

[garybs29]

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@carlosmgwrote:

I called to terminate my contract on the 14th of September and my account has not been fully cancelled yet.

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I wouldn't expect it to be, if you placed a cancellation instead of a wlt it's 30 days notice so it won't cancel or those are up, you're basically going to potentially cause yourself issues by cancelling the direct debit

[iniltous]

As said , I think you are potentially premature in assuming a problem , I don’t know why your broadband is cancelled first then your phone , as far as OR are concerned they are two services not one ( even if BT combine both into one bill ) ,  only one order can be actioned at a time , it’s not a fault , it’s simply the way the wholesale system has to function , given that hundreds of ‘Telcos’ interact with this system , if more that one order could be active , someone could inadvertently ask ( for example ) Talk Talk and Sky to take over the same line ,and chaos ensues,  once the first order is on the wholesale system , others cannot place an order until that first order is completed, but this doesn’t affect the consumer, it’s taking place in the background , between the Telco and OR/BTwholesale.
If BT have already said what your final bill is going to be including ETC , ( and TBH , there is plenty of people who get a final bill , then get a new recalculated final bill ) what’s the problem if in the background OR are doing it in two stages ? .

If BT have ‘accepted’ that the 14th October ( and it’s only 6th October now ) is your ‘end’ date , and you don’t have conventional rental charges added to broadband or line rental for after that date , and what you you accept you owe , is paid to BT , including the ETC for quitting early , then what’s the issue ?,

Obviously if some ‘rental’ charge is inadvertently shown for after 14th October, you can query it then , but it’s only the 6th of October today 

[carlosmg]

As I said, I called to terminate my account on the 14th of September, and on the 28th of September I paid for another month, therefore covering the 30 days notice.

You wouldn't expect my account to be cancelled? So then why has my broadband been cancelled already? Now that you said that, why have they cancelled my broadband already if I paid for another month? So I am not getting the service I paid for. I guess I should ask for that money back.

As you can see on the screenshots below, they have cancelled my broadband even though I have been charged for it. So now you understand why I am confused about all this process. 

[carlosmg]

Please, see my post above this one where I put screenshots of the charges I have got and the fact that they already cancelled my broadband.

My issue is that I have a BT operator calling be weekly explaining to me why my account cannot yet be terminated because of an ongoing issue with OpenReach. I am still expecting his call this Friday to update me on this. Why would he have to call me then if BT has until the 14th to fix this issue? Likewise, why did BT cancel my broadband already? Do you understand why I am confused? Why wouldn't BT give me a final bill already if they knew since the 14th of September that I wanted to cancel?

[iniltous]

Final bills , not just with BT , not just with phone/broadband, but any ‘utility’ are extremely complicated, and inevitably contain a mixture of credits and debits , even if the final amount is known, it’s entirely possible that you could be charged for service you don’t have, ( because of the way bills are produced in advance ) then be credited back for any overpayment ( for the days charged for , but you were not a customer )  ..and this can take several weeks to accomplish before the bill is settled for good, cancelling the payment method (DD) isn’t advised as any credit for overpayment is made using reverse DD , so any refund , if it is necessary, would be delayed, and obviously if you still owe something it cannot be ‘taken’ , potentially affecting your credit score.

Although it’s not a guarantee that nothing is untoward will happen, at the moment you are stressing over issues that may never occur, you may think it’s unacceptable that potentially you pay for something you don’t have , and a little while later get that money returned , but it’s the way it is, final bills are fluid , but all company’s  will err on the side that benefits them , potentially taking more than is due and returning some , rather than undercharging you , then chasing you for any uncharged for service….it’s simply the way it is.

A major company like BT  is not going to renege on  a genuine refund , consumers ( unfortunately ) may think that a few ££’s owed to a ‘corporation’ won’t be missed so make no effort to pay up, so all companies follow this process, if you pay more than strictly necessary,  you do ( eventually ) get it back.

[carlosmg]

Thanks for the heads up about the DD. As I said, a BT operator will call me on Friday again to update me on the situation, so I will ask him about reinstalling the DD. I don't want trouble and I will pay and ask later for the money back (do we even have another option?) if that comes to be the case.

[carlosmg]

The day has come and BT hasn't cancelled my account. A new bill arrived. How can this happen? 

Can somebody from BT help me?