leaving BT

[me1athome]

Anyone else incredibly frustrated at how hard BT makes it to leave. Firstly, try to find out when your contract ends - it's tucked away in your bill although even that is far from clear. Deliberate? Try the chat and you'll see that, if you're 'thinking of leaving' you have to phone in, and when you do, you're advised that you'll have to wait for maybe 20 minutes to get an answer. Deliberate?

If BT thinks making it this difficult to get info about leaving is going to make me stay, they have so misjudged the situation.

[imjolly]

if you are leaving BT and moving to another ISP you should not phone BT to tell them your are leaving you should just place your order with your new ISP who will notify BT - as per OFCOM - one touch switch

[Kimberlin]

@me1athome 

Actually, it can be incredibly easy to leave BT depending on the services you require. I left BT earlier this year using One Touch Switching and it was all done and dusted in five working days without any verbal interaction between myself or the ISP I switched to. I’m on FTTP and I don’t use a landline, so zero complications.

As for ease of finding out when your current contract ends, I’m with you completely, it’s there when you look for it but it isn’t made entirely obvious. It would be undeniably helpful if your contract end date was printed in large font at the header of each bill, but of course no utility company is going to make life that easy for a customer because it isn’t in their best business interest to be that transparent.

The only reason I’m no longer with BT is because I cannot be bothered to talk to what passes for their Retentions department and ‘negotiate’ a lower price on a new contract. Its just far easier for me personally, to flip ISP and get a Reward Card for minimal inconvenience.

[me1athome]

Do you know how this work with the apparent fact that I have to wait for my contract to end, and then give them 30 days notice? This doesn't strike me as fair - if I'm on a 24 month contract, surely it should last 24 months and not 25?!

[Kimberlin]

I waited for my contract to end and then the very next day I initiated the switch via OTS. If you use OTS you don’t have to give 30 days notice once out of contract, well I didn’t and I wasn’t charged any exit fees.

Whatever you do, don’t cancel your direct debit and make sure you return your kit and keep proof of postage if you carry a switch through.

[iniltous]

Leaving BT is no harder that leaving any other ISP , for the majority who are switching to a different provider even if the new provider is an an alternative network or Virgin , you contact the new provider and they do everything else , you don’t contact the losing provider yourself, how you can’t describe this as ‘hard’ is ridiculous.

Separately if you don’t know when your minimum term expires that’s not your providers fault , but it’s not difficult or complicated to find this out if you can’t remember when you became a customer and the length of minimum term you took…..if you leave inside a minimum term then clearly early termination fees apply ( that’s exactly the same as everyone else) , most people arrange to leave close to the end of the minimum term that way the early termination charges (or the days on an out of contract price , if the migration is a few days after the minimum term expires )  are likely to be relatively insignificant 

[TimSmedley]

Hi.  If you are using the My BT iPhone app, then selecting Your Products in the tool bar at the bottom of the screen and then Broadband displays "Your next contract period ends on xx/xx/xxxx".

Tim

[me1athome]

thank you for your advice