Plusnet to Virgin - £30 Line cancellation charge ?

I am switching to Virgin Media from Plusnet, having discovered that the Virgin cabinet is just a few feet from my house, and the BT Openreach Fibre cabinet is more like 1/4 mile away, and I've been told some of my cable is aluminium, so the speeds have not been as high as I hoped.

I have been with Plusnet significantly longer than the minimum contract term of 18 months.

Now they tell me that they are charging me a £30 line cancellation fee - something to do with BT charging them to disconnect the line.

Is this correct? I can't find any reference to this charge on the Plusnet web guidance regarding cancelling phone or broadband.

Yes, it's correct. BT charge for disconnecting the line at the exchange. Some ISPs pass it on and some don't. I believe it has been in PlusNet's T&Cs for quite some time and is not related to the term of the contract.

I'm afraid it is.

See "Cessation fee" in Table 1.6.

Also see this page, with all the details.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 20-Nov-14 12:02:44)

Hmmmm.

The BT Wholesale charge seems to be £5.37 and Openreach £0. I'm sure it used to be £29 + Vat but can't find any trace of that.

according to this https://www.btwholesale.com/shared/document/Pricing_... which is dated August 2014 according to https://www.btwholesale.com/pages/static/Library/Pri... it is £24.74 excl VAT

Keep the phone line with plusnet and go for virgin media broadband stand alone instead! So, you won't be charged then! Job done! Remember the phone line price will increasing to £16.99 with virgin media later this month 24th November.

Edited by adslmax (Thu 20-Nov-14 13:17:52)

I believe it was the broadband cancellation that levied the charge rather than the phone line.

EDIT : Here they have details of the cessation charge. States:

It's a charge applied by BT Wholesale (the suppliers of our broadband network) to cover the cost of the work required to remove broadband from a telephone line.

EDIT2: It also states:

Cessation charges don't apply if:
•You use a MAC key to switch to another provider (this is called a migration)
•You're a customer without a contract on any of the following products:
•Plusnet Essentials
•Unlimited
•Unlimited Fibre
•Unlimited Fibre Extra

Edited by ian72 (Thu 20-Nov-14 13:27:30)

Try this one.

The ADSLx entry gives zero on Market A, £31.12 on Market B
The FTTC entry gives zero on Market A, £5.37 on Market B. I think the OP will be on Market B but that's not certain.

Weird.

I can see my member account if cancel FTTC it will cost nothing:

05/09/2013 - Cessation charge £0.00(upon cancellation)

That was in Sept 2013 the prices have changed since then.