Cancellation charge when out of contract

[Maverik]

Recently watching any catch up or streaming service via the EE Youview box has become impossible. Several times a night and sometimes an hour we are looking at the spinning spiral and then get the 'Something has gone wrong' message and have to reboot and inevitably the box does not know where we left off. Prime is particularly bad and only last five minutes maximum. Dozens of Open Reach/BT engineer visits cannot improve the broadband but I wondered if a new box might help.
I phoned the help line and was told by a very rude man that the reason I was having problems was because I had 16 devices hardwired to the hub! I haven't - there are only four sockets on the hub and I do not have a switch. The 'guide' insisted he was right and annoyingly kept saying 'Fact!' when challenged. He even sent me a diagram but later, on examination, this showed all devices that had ever been attached and not just the four that were currently attached. He would not budge so I asked about getting a new box. He said I would have to pay an extra £25 a month to get that. I declined and hung up in frustration.
After discussion with my partner we decided we would ditch the EE YouView box and either get a new smart TV or buy a new Humax/Manhattan box. So I phoned Sales to cancel. I was told that I should not have the YouView box anyway as my broadband was not fast enough....despite BT having persuaded me to have it. Their excuse was that was 12 years ago and things have changed - but not the box and they were happy to keep charging me for a service they would not agree to supply. They were not willing to send me a new box or renew my contract and  said we were out of contract by many years.
So I asked to cancel the whole thing. They agreed this was the best plan. I was told the box would stop working that day and I would be reimbursed for the remaining part of the billing month on my next bill.
When the next bill arrived it was not shown as a reimbursement but the cost was halved so fair enough but the projected bill for next month was back to the normal monthly rate and there was a note about a cancellation fee.
I phoned to query.
I was told that even though I was out of contract I still had to give 30 days notice and as I hadn't there would be a cancellation charge - this was not pointed out to me when I spoke to Sales - it was Sales who said the service would stop immediately. I said but them I assume the service will continue to work until the end of that thirty days but was told no - the service stops now but you have to pay for thirty more days. I was told this was standard practice and had always been the case.
Is that correct? Surely if you give notice and pay for the next month the service should continue to work until the end of that notice period?

In summary I have been paying for a service for year that BT/EE admit they cannot make work because our broadband is too slow and then I have to pay  for 30 days cancellation even though they have turned off the box.

[TimCurtis]

@Maverik 

I can't answer your query regarding the charges but I will say that the box is yours to keep as long as you had it before 13/12/2019.

Also the box will continue to work as a normal Freeview recorder - like the Humax/Manhattan devices - and you can still use the app to remotely set recordings.

BT are correct to say that 30 days notice is required but it seems generally that their customer service "guides" are not properly trained and/or are incentivised to get the most out of their customers.

BT's customer service is not great these days whereas in the very recent past it was , in my view , quite decent after they brought it back to the UK.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Maverik 

If you have to give 30 days’ notice, they have to give 30 days’ service. That’s the law.

Phone up again and ask to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about.

[rbz5416]

What download speed are you actually getting?

Although that may be academic now if you're cancelling.

[rbz5416]

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@Midnight_Voicewrote:

Phone up again and ask to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about.

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May as well ask to speak to the Pope...

[Midnight_Voice]

@rbz5416 

Quite. Only @DarrenDev  seemed to be able to speak ex cathedra ⛪️

[Christopher_G]

Hi @Maverik 

I'm really sorry to hear of your experience. I recommend speaking with our Customer Care team so that they can look into what has happened on your account following our complaints code of practice.

Hopefully they can get to the phone calls that you've had and make sure the correct processes are followed going forward.

Chris

[Maverik]

We get a maximum of 14mbps - though usually more like 12 - but with very frequent usually short drop outs. Despite what BT say this is perfectly adequate to watch Netflix or BBC iPlayer. But recently Amazon Prime became unwatchable

[Maverik]

Following further phone calls, BT have now confirmed that we do not have to send the box back and it does still work even though when cancelling I was told that  with immediate effect the box would stop working. I was also told that the cancellation charges would be reimbursed as they accepted that I was misinformed. We have had an email saying thank you for sending the box back - even though we didn't.....

Customer service and sales appear to be completely without a clue when informing customers but it is actually a win for me as we now still have the box and it works exactly as before but we are paying £7 less a month....just wish I had done that years ago

[Michael_D]

Thanks for coming back with an update @Maverik 

I'm glad to hear that the team have been able to give you the correct information now and get it resolved for you.

Michael