In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Admin let me think...

Closing down the account
Ensuring people have paid their final bill
Calculating any excess usage charges
Shifting the email account to the 90 day access system
Recovery of hardware

But all that is irrelevant to you, as I thought it was about BT charging you beyond the notice period, or them not having accepted that you had previously given notice.

Seems the thread has turned into a lets reform the notice period system, which at 14 days with BT is lower than a good many other services.

It's not irrelevant to me and in fact I would like to know what my notice period money is used for. I would like a detailed breakdown of it all. Maybe if I saw the actual cost of it I would change my mind and be more than happy to pay BT for a much longer notice period! I doubt I will ever find out because the administration duties are unlikely to be disclosed to me!

Going on what you have said it apparently costs BT very little to close down my broadband service:

Closing down the account? Not applicable. My BT account is still in operation because I have a phone line. The actual closing down of my broadband service appears to be a few clicks of a button on BT's computer system!

Ensuring people have paid their final bill? My bank paid every single broadband payment on time and in fact BT erroneously extracted two additional full month broadband payments.

Calculating any excess usage charges? Not applicable to my broadband service.

Shifting the email account to the 90 day access system? Not necessary but whatever.

Recovery of hardware? The Home Hub 2 broke and has been disposed of. However I bought my own Home Hub 3 and they can recover it if they want it.

I agree that this discussion has taken a few turns. I wanted to know if I should continue to ask BT to resolve the excess charges problem. I was just looking for an answer and it was others on here who initiated the notice aspect of this discussion.

>I wanted to know if I should continue to ask BT to resolve the excess charges problem
Yes

But if BT are disputing or delaying, then the alternate methods are the way to go as I have highlighted, several times.

I dunno where you are getting these Ofcom quotes from as you always fail to show their provenance by not providing links and I cba to search for them for your express pleasure. But these quotes contradict those you posted earlier:

E. Minimum Notice Period (MiNP)

A description of the charge

A1.99 Even where there is no MCP, suppliers usually require consumers to provide formal notification of an intention to terminate a contract where regular payments are made directly to the supplier.

A1.100 The Minimum Notice Period (�MiNP�) is often either 30 days or one calendar month, and consumers are required to make payments up to the end of that period even if they wish to terminate the contract (and the service) earlier.

One also puzzles why you are quoting 2 Section "E. Minimum Notice Periods"? Sounds like one or both are drafts or you have just made them up.

I will not bother to read the rest of your quote as I have grave doubts as to its provenance and you have given me no idea of their context..

As has been said here repeatedly Ofcom Codes of Practice are just guidance and many are voluntary codes that do not have the force of law.

No!

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 26-Mar-13 16:11:25)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I dunno where you are getting these Ofcom quotes from as you always fail to show their provenance by not providing links and I cba to search for them for your express pleasure. But these quotes contradict those you posted earlier:

E. Minimum Notice Period (MiNP)

A description of the charge

A1.99 Even where there is no MCP, suppliers usually require consumers to provide formal notification of an intention to terminate a contract where regular payments are made directly to the supplier.

A1.100 The Minimum Notice Period (�MiNP�) is often either 30 days or one calendar month, and consumers are required to make payments up to the end of that period even if they wish to terminate the contract (and the service) earlier.

One also puzzles why you are quoting 2 Section "E. Minimum Notice Periods"? Sounds like one or both are drafts or you have just made them up.

I will not bother to read the rest of your quote as I have grave doubts as to its provenance and you have given me no idea of their context..

As has been said here repeatedly Ofcom Codes of Practice are just guidance and many are voluntary codes that do not have the force of law.

No!

This shouldn't be about your opinion it should be about what is applicable in law and you pretended to know the law regarding BT's legals but you were wrong.

You still haven't provided legals showing that a MAC request cannot be considered formal notification of an intention to terminate. You conveniently ignored that request. You were unable to backup your opinion in accordance with the law or a consideration or ruling in accordance with the law.

You like to prove people wrong so why haven't you provided your legal evidence?

That quote discusses formal notification of an intention to terminate. The customer provides formal notification of an intention to terminate when requesting a MAC. End of.

The quote I posted is from the latest document regarding MiNP made available by Ofcom.

Go nuts:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultati...

I called BT and spoke to a very apologetic guy who has processed a refund of my money backdated to the date I migrated out which as you no doubt know by now is the 21st January 2013. The issue will be resolved next month when I receive my next bill. Finally!

I also received confirmation that I am in a new contract as of the 6th of May for the phone line and unlimited calls package. I will be calling the BT options team tomorrow to find out if they will be able to resolve that issue. There is the possibility that nothing can be done about the new contract as BT are allegedly allowed to re-contract the phone line and calls package when a customer terminates his broadband service.

"Whether a term is unfair is a matter ultimately for the courts to decide. But, there is only limited case law to assist CPs and consumers in this area, and no guidance which directly addresses terms in contracts for communications services. So, Ofcom considers that it is in the interests of all parties for us to set out our views as to the likely application of the Regulations to certain such terms."

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

"Whether a term is unfair is a matter ultimately for the courts to decide. But, there is only limited case law to assist CPs and consumers in this area, and no guidance which directly addresses terms in contracts for communications services. So, Ofcom considers that it is in the interests of all parties for us to set out our views as to the likely application of the Regulations to certain such terms."

I know. It's great isn't it.

Ofcom did all that work for us consumers!

As far as the application of the law is concerned Ofcom have ruled which is as close as we can get to an understanding of it without actually asking a court to rule on it.

In reply to a post by jreckon:

The more I think about it the more I realise that BT's legals with regards to notice is unfair.

You appear to go along with the notion that companies should be allows to enforce a notice period even when it extends beyond the service termination date.

Why accept it?

If you sign a contract to lease a flat for a year, and move out after 7 months, what do you think should happen to the five months rent you haven't used?

If you buy a ticket to a show and are sick two hours before and can't go, do you expect them to refund the price of the ticket?

There is no Law about MACs.

You and your "legals"! You fail to appreciate the distinction between legislation enacted by Act of Parliament and Civil Law which includes Contract Law which is determined by Case Law. Your contract with anybody sets out the rules under which your relationship is conducted and is enforceable in Court.

Do you honestly believe that all the ISPs which are major firms and their lawyers have got away for years with imposing notice periods of anything from 7 to 30 days or even more, usually covering some time after the contracted service has ceased, in defiance of the regulators and other authorities?

Perhaps, Don Quixote, you will be the 1st to prevent them doing this .