I used to get my phoneline from Bt, but recently changed to sky for my line rental, i failed to pay the final bt bill due toa disagreement on it, Now bt are threatning to disconect my line,

I havebeen told even though i pay sky line rental that bt are legal owners so they can cut me off.....after they have cutme off and i pay the bill does anyone know how much it will be to get reconected?

I'm not sure how much it will cost to get you reconnected as it can vary.

But what I can tell you is that if you have signed a contract to Sky then you are legally obliged to pay your monthly subscription for the entire term of the contract, even if BT have disconnected your line .

Hi you need to get in touch with Ofcom.
explain there is a dispute on youre bill which is now resulting in this action.
they will put you in touch with someone a lot higher than you will get through just normal customer services.
And will have the power to either explain to you or sort out any errors on the bill.

dont think bt (retail)can disconnect you....if you owed money to them and they had the power they would have stopped you moving to sky before paying bt's final bill
ofcom said this is a barrier to competition so now anyone
can get service from one provider, run up bills then just move to another provider until their credit score indicates
the person as a bad risk.
ofcom would say if a provider has a problem getting an
ex customer to settle a final bill they can always resort
to debt recovery

BT Retail cannot disconnect you if you are using another line rental provider.

BT Retail are not in the position to place a stop/cease order when you are with another provider.

If you don't pay the bill, after the normal escalation process which I presume you have attempted to follow, they will pass the debt to a debt collection agency.

and? pay up, or suffer the consequences.

Dispute it to stop them from disconecting and pay the bill.

you must have missed the bit saying "i failed to pay the final bill due to a disagreement...who would pay a bill what's wrong.

Has a side note, after a lot of phoning on my behalf, bt have finally come to the conclusion that the bill is wrong, and have told me they will refund the money if i take a new contract out and go back to being with bt for broadband....

if i don't take the new contract out then they will bill me the full WRONG amount and disconnect me.....

Surely if they say the bill is wrong then i shouldn't have to be bullied to get the money took off.

If BT have accepted the bill is wrong then they should
issue a new final bill, they shouldnt make this new final bill a condition of a new minimum term contract, anyway if
you have already migrated to Sky for line rental then Sky
would hold to to term on your contract with them .
BT retail cannot disconnect you from another company all they can do is chase you for what they think they are owed
and notify credit rating agencys.
Have sky confirmed you as a customer or have you just enquired about service from them ??

Sounds, from your wording, they have held you to term for a contract and you are disputing the remaining term of the contract ie they say you cancelled 6 months into an 18 month contract and they are charging you the remaining 12 months on the contract?

If that is the case BT Retail will refund the 'held to term' charges if you go back to them.

As I said previously though, if you have switched your line rental to another provider then BT Retail cannot issue a stop order to BT Wholesale to have your service ceased. BT Wholesale will simply not accept the order as BT Retail are not their customer for your line, Sky are.

I have switched my line rental to sky. and no my contract with bt had run out, so it's not a contract problem...Bt are just trying to pull a fast one, ithink...

On what basis are they maintaining incorrect charges? What is the charge for?

If you are having problems using the normal escalation process try emailing cceo@bt.com.

As I said previously though, they cannot disconnect your service with another provider.

It was for line rental up until december i left them back in october and for six months broadband i left them for broadband in june.

Luckily i spoke to someone from Bt today, who basically said,

" I have no idea why the bill reads like that, it's all wrong, sorry about that sir the proper bill is £49, does that sound right to you?"

i payed via card and everything is fine now..THank god for the lady at Bt who actually knew her job and was very helpful.