Hello, i've recently put an order in for Post Office broadband extra and phone, i received a letter from BT today confirming this and saying there will be a £62 disconnect fee. Is this usual ? i've been with BT for around 15 years so not less than a year.
Cheers !

I think you were/are mid term of a BT calls contract, if you had 'free weekend' or 'free evening & weekend' calls you may have been on a auto renewing contract, BT advise you when you are close to the aniversary of the renewal date, if you dont want to renew you have to let them know, dont contact them then the contract is automatically renewed for another 12 months, and you have to pay them for breaking the contract if you want to move to another calls provider

Thanks for the info, didn't know it was renewed every 12 months.

So are you saying that unless you advise BT that you don't want to renew your contract with them, they just assume that you want to? I'd challenge this as I'm sure that must be dubious at best!
Why aren't all the mobile phone companies doing this if it's legal to do so?

Unless you use a MAC to move ISPs there will be a cease fee for the Broadband.

However why not call BT and ask them to justify the charge. Then you will now for sure what you are being charged for and therefore be in a better position to challenge the charge(s).

I was using Pipex for broadband, the offer for both with the Post office is pretty good hence the move. I'll give them a ring later to find out what the charge is for.

It may be dubious, but BT have been doing this for quite a while now, as far as mobile companys go, they tend to tie you into a contract for 12,18,24 month (or whatever) usually for a 'free' or discounted handset, after the minimum term you are no longer getting anything out of them, with BT you are getting a benefit, money off the 'standard' non rolling contract line rental fee...about £2.50 ish/month, dunno if this is why mobile phone companys dont do rolling contracts and BT do.
I'm not saying I agree with BT policy on this, just what the policy is

Yep, BT get their money by being sneaky. One day they might learn that treating customers fairly is a good way to keep their business above water.

Of course BT will argue that they sent you a warning letter and you chose not to cancel so bad luck to you and thank you very much for the £62 disconnect fee. A nice way to be treated after 15 years. Customers will be queuing to go back to BT with service like that.

What happens if you didn't receive the letter? BT will say they sent one and you say you didn't get it.
Who wins the day in court??

I'd have thought it'd be better for them to call and offer another deal as the contract comes to an end. At least that way there can be no grey area.

What next though? BT sending a letter to all their customers telling them that unless they call in to say 'no', they will be put on a 3 year contract?!!

Lets face it, the landline is a dying breed. Many people have a landline for one purpose only - to get broadband.

So true never use my landline phone too expensive. They should do a ADSL enabled line with no telephony.

The best way to know when its due to end, is phone them and ask. I did so I knew 3 months before it was due to finish and made a note of it in case I didn't receive the letter.

I did however receive the letter but the bit I didn't like is that if you cancel when you receive the letter, it ends immediately and you get charged for the final month

You have to phone as close to the end date as possible (I phoned the day before) and it was done with no problems.

The most likely reason for not receiving the letter is Royal Mail who lose millions of letters every year

Agreed.
You can get such a service in other countries, it's called naked DSL.

They tried to offer me a 12 months renewable contract for my broadand back in mid July. I told them I dont like the idea of a renewable contract. So after a few mins they offered me my option 2 broadband at the same fee as option 1 a month for 12 months so I tane that.
I have been told by 1 or 2 others that the Post Office are good.
If the Post Office had been offering this service over 3 years ago I may have gone with them and not BT.

Darren

Have you seen the cost?