What is the process for leaving BT

[Left2024]

Hi,

Our BT Services finished on the 10/June this year moving to a fibre provider as BT can only offer copper services and BT say that they have no plans for offering us Fibre broadband until 2026.

We are out of contract and the Fibre is provided over the Openreach poles.

However we have just had to pay a bill for BT services until the 7th/July else we would have received a £7.50 late payment charge - even though we have had numerous emails telling us which BT services are stopping from the middle of May.

To further complicate matters BT did not cancel our land line, which successfully ported to a VOIP provider on the 10th/June but on the 13th “upgraded it” to a £28 weekend call plan from a 700 minute anytime plan.

We have contacted BT’s support a number of times to try and find out what our final bill should be and why they have changed the call plan for a phone number which is no longer handled by BT.

However we have been giving different answers and in one case treated very rudely by an operator who told me I was looking at the wrong bill and talking over me rather than listening to me.

On two occasions I was put on hold for almost an hour, before the calls were dropped, while the “technical” team tried to cancel the order placed on the 13th as I was told that this was preventing the final bill being issued, but in both cases the problem was not resolved.

When we called BT on the 13th to ask why the order has placed the operator raised a complaint, however we are unable to even view this through the “My BT” portal - it returns a blank grey page.

Has anyone else had similar problems and how can I get a final bill issued (and hopefully a refund for services that BT have not provided)?

[Keith_Beddoe]

deleted by poster.

[NigelB72]

It depends on who your moving to. BT told me there was a 3-6 month wait for Openreach fibre installations but a rival that also uses Openreach completed a full installation within 10 days. They also notified BT who closed my account down and sent my final bill. Oh and the threats of high charges for cancelling early resulted in a cancellation charge of around £30 ... 

[Left2024]

Thank you for your response - the new Fibre connection was installed in less than 5 days and the first support person I spoke to at BT have told me that the contractor had marked the work as complete for the transfer of the phone number on the 10/June but BT had not completed the work.

[gg30340]

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@Keith_Beddoe wrote:

A forum member will not be able to help with this, but you may like to wait and see if you get any suggestions.

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What a very helpful answer!!!

Sometimes it is better to say nothing!

[gg30340]

As it would appear that you have already contacted the BT Customer Service numerous times and received poor service from them 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.

[NigelB72]

@Left2024 that sounds like someone working on behalf of Openreach either didn't finish their job before marking it as complete. Ours was done in 2 stages. 1st stage was Openreach pulling the fibre through to outside the house and ISP techy doing the internal bit a couple of days later. It was pretty seemless to be fair 

[iniltous]

Although it’s not particularly clear , I suspect the OP has left the Openreach network and BT completely , chosing to use an FTTP Alt Net that leeches into the Openreach infrastructure via PIA ( using the telegraph pole ) , the problem appears to be a combination of who served notice to BT , the OP or the Alt Net if the Alt Net is also the VoIP provider ( normally it’s the consumer if leaving for an Alt Net and not simply migrating to another providers over the Openreach network ) but the OP’s case appears more complicated in that they have also ported their telephone number although it’s not clear if that’s to the Alt Net providing the FTTP or a third party VoIP provider, if it’s a third party VoIP provider, if they requested the number port , it’s 30 days after that the BT service should stop .
In essence it should be pretty simple , the FTTP provider cannot serve notice for the network, if they requested the phone number to be ported the FTTC would be ceased as a consequence of that port request , but ultimately after BT were told to cease FTTC by the consumer or to port the number by the VoIP provider, it’s 30 days notice ……so to give any real opinion more details are needed,
Who gave notice to BT , the consumer or the VOIP provider, and when was that ,
Was there any errors in doing this , like date changes from the Alt Net where the original date given was changes and BT/Openreach were expected to use the new date or new dates .

Its quite often the case when ‘complaints’ are posted , and the error seems pretty obviously down to BT that after a few pertinent questions it’s not as simple as the OP woukd suggest , perhaps the OP can supply further details.

[JohnC2]

Hi @Left2024, sorry your BT account has not been closed and you've been unable to get this issue resolved when you called.

I've sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with the Mod team and we'll be happy to help you get this resolved.

Cheers

John

[Left2024]

My broadband is now on Fibre which is totally separate to the legacy line coming into the house and the move of the phone number went as expected on the day agreed between BT and the new provider.

I spoke to BT prior to the switch over and was told that everything would be handled between them and the new phone provider and BT confirmed this by email at the end of May.

"We're sorry to hear you're thinking of moving your phone line and broadband to another provider.

If you'd like to chat about the move or have any questions, call us on 0800 085 1756 before 2PM on 06-Jun-2024.

If we don't hear from you, your services will automatically move on 10-Jun-2024

...

If you have any other services connected to your broadband, we'll stop them when it's taken over."

The problems all seem to be around BT not cancelling the phone line correctly within their systems although the operator I spoke to could see that the work has been completed (and they have attempted to do this twice without success) and starting a new Call plan for the phone (which is no longer with BT) which has prevented me being issued with a final bill.