BT cancelled service and contract without notice and unable to reinstate

[Pootanga]

I would welcome your advice on the situation below, specifically if the compensation offered by BT is industry/ legal standard.

17/07 – Email informing that digital voice will start the next day
25/07 – email that digital voice will start 28^th July
28/07 – email your broadband is ready to go switch on hub ( we already had a hub and not received another or requested an alternative)
28/07 email telling us plug phone into hub( we don’t have a digital phone and was never asked to get on or that we ever requested this service
05/08 email same as above
05/08 @22.12 received an email informing us BT are cancelling phone broadband and TV ad we will be charged for £470.80 for cancelling contract early
06/06 @ 07.41 email telling us to return x2 extender discs or we will be charged and addition al £60
06/06 – Phone line no service, Broadband no service, TV No service.
Mobile contract with BT has increased by £5 per month due to us no longer having abroad band contract

Multiple phone conversations to reinstate the service, BT admitted it was their fault and unsure how it happened.
BT unable to reinstate the service that we had due full fibre capacity in their network, the only service they could offer was a copper based line that would not have the upload speed to support the property requirements. ( their words)
BT have offered to waiver the £470.80 bill ( this is not our bill, (BT cancelled the contract)
BT have offered x3 month worth of bills as compensation £265.70

Please could advise if this level of compensation is acceptable, it doesn’t feel like it to me.

• I did not request digital phone
• BT cancelled my contract without notice
• I will have been without service for 27 days before the new provider installation
• Spent over 4 hours on the phone trying to resolve always me chasing
• The whole inconvenience of having no service and identifying and setting up a new supplier
• I have never defaulted on monthly payment

Thank you for your support

[R0b]

It sounds like there has been a breach of contract by BT so whatever compensation would depend largely on what the terms state around their liability. As a starting point, I believe BT have signed up to the automatic compensation code set up by Ofcom. So if you have reported the loss of service and it has not been fixed within 2 working days, then you would be entitled to £9.33 for each day until it can be fixed.

So in your case, I would be calculating those days up until the point you have notified BT that you have intended to go with another supplier, and arguably you could apply the same calculation up until the service by the new provider has been switched on (if it hasn't already). For example, if we calculate the date your service was supposed to start on 28/07 up to today's date as 18/07, that would amount to £195.93 (21 days x £9.33).

As for waiving the bill for termination of contract, you are right and that should be the absolute minimum they should do because they are in material breach of contract. They cannot by law benefit from their own breach by charging you the cancellation fees when it was themselves who caused it.

As for your mobile contract, do you still want to continue with that or terminate it? You could argue that you took the contract as a whole package on the basis that you would receive a discount with the phone when taken with broadband and TV so you want to cancel. Alternatively, you could offset the £5 additional charge by asking BT to compensate you for that amount over the term of the contract as a lump sum. Most phone contracts are usually 24 months so that's an additional £120 you could claim for.

You cannot by law claim for inconvenience alone as it is not a recognised standalone claim for breach of contract. You could however make an argument for loss of enjoyment of your broadband and TV but from a legal standpoint you wouldn't get a great deal of compensation if you asked the court to decide, probably about £100 maybe £200 at a push but anything more is highly unlikely.

Then I guess, any additional compensation for the stress in having to deal with this and the demands to return equipment and claim you are in breach of contract and owe them a debt could potentially constitute harassment but given the short period of time that may be a difficult one to argue legally, although you could certain mention it to BT and see what they say, they may give you an additional £100, £200 or so as a goodwill gesture.

All in all, I don't think it would be an unreasonable ask to round the compensation up to £500 and call it a day so long as you explain the reasons why you feel you deserve the £500 by breaking it down and don't just say that you want it and certainly mentioning the material breach of contract might help too.

Of course if you really wanted to, you could try your luck at taking BT to court for £500 or whatever sum of money you want to achieve but there's no guarantee. For such a small sum, it's possible they will just pay you to go away especially when they have admitted that the cancellation of their service was their own doing so it's not likely to be commercially viable for them to continue defending a claim throwing most solicitor costs at it - but there are some companies who do that and will fight to the very end... just depends on how commercially astute and pragmatic their in-house lawyers are.

[PallasAthena]

17/07 – Email informing that digital voice will start the next day
25/07 – email that digital voice will start 28th July
28/07 – email your broadband is ready to go switch on hub ( we already had a hub and not received another or requested an alternative)
28/07 email telling us plug phone into hub( we don’t have a digital phone and was never asked to get on or that we ever requested this service
05/08 email same as above

I doubt your claim can include being switched to Digital Voice without you having asked for it because this switch isn't something you can request or opt out of. It's imposed by BT as part of their national plan to close down the traditional "copper wires" that connect landlines to BT exchanges and replace with an internet-based system which BT have branded 'Digital Voice'. The change is in the middle of being done at the moment, BT are doing it area by area over several years. You should have received notification from BT well in advance of the changeover day in your area.

BT say switching to Digital Voice won't change your phone number or the call costs.

Sounds like BT may have screwed up the changeover to Digital Voice for your phone line.

Digital Voice and the landline phone switch-off: what it means for you - Which?

Most landline phones are already digital phones so won't need replacing, but of course you won't be able to test yours until you get the broadband connection working again.

[Pootanga]

Great advice thank you Rob and Pallasathena. I will update on the outcome in the near future. regards

[echat11]

It might be an idea to send them a Subject Access Request. That might help regarding supplementing the facts you already have.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

[redstar]

Activation is not guaranteed in th t and c.

[Huxie]

BELTBAND is a spammer and has been reported.

[redstar]

Check the T and C's activation is not guaranteed I am sorry but it is not.You can plug an ordinary phone into the hub ..check your order confirmation and t and C's.