In reply to a post by MHC:

They certainly can - if you sign an agreement to take service for 12 months BT are agreeing to provide it for the same period and can terminate at the 12 month break point.

How much contractual experience - especially in the field of telecomms, do you have? Probably a lot less than I do.

Really, all they agree to is to supply a service for a set price for the set period of time, IMO the customer should always be given a choice of ARC or just min term then a rolling monthly contract, Car insurance is another area of ARC's and they will if you let em abuse the fact that they can access your bank account, as very rarely will they be offering the cheapest quote next time round, but with insurance the customer has to contact them and tell them they don't want ARC , which IMO is wrong, ARC's in my book are just a way they of getting extra revenue, yes there are a lot of clueless people out there who are easy meat for the likes of bt ect next maybe will be the abolition of any min contract about 12mths

I have reams of contractual experience. Those in telecoms are nothing special, Big head!

Or are telecoms contracts written in a lingo other than English?

When a renewable contract ends and you choose not to renew, you auto go on to the standard contract, e.g.:

If you do not wish to renew, all you need to do is let us know before the renewal date. If you choose not to renew your contract with us, you will then start to pay the standard monthly price for the Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan, currently £16.90 per month including line rental if you pay by Direct Debit or monthly payment plan.

There is no provision for unilateral termination by BT.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 13-Sep-11 19:10:10)

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

I have reams of contractual experience. Those in telecoms are nothing special, Big head!

When a renewable contract ends and you choose not to renew, you auto go on to the standard contract, e.g.:

If you do not wish to renew, all you need to do is let us know before the renewal date. If you choose not to renew your contract with us, you will then start to pay the standard monthly price for the Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan, currently £16.90 per month including line rental if you pay by Direct Debit or monthly payment plan.

There is no provision for unilateral termination by BT.

Not to mention of course if they did terminate service, then that would be shooting themselves in the foot, and unless there was some real problem i very much doubt they would cut anyone off because they do not renew, when they as said will just revert to charging the standard price which in most cases will be higher, no a viable business idea that's for sure

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

BT are entitled to terminate the customer's service with 28 days notice at any time.

Your evidence for this statement? Show me where this is stated in any case.

I was reading a contract over the weekend that had the classic clause to terminate it:

'The company can terminate if it is uneconomic to continue.'

This was a national well known High Street organisation'

Good there is no good reason for auto renewing contracts. A minimum period is fair to allow providers to recoup up front costs but there is no valid reason for a contract to be renewed for a set period other than to deliberately lock people in who don't manage to cancel in the very short window where they have to cancel.

Congratulations Ofcom, finally something worthwhile that will protect less savvy consumers from rouge companies.

They are not banning Roll Over Contracts as such just those where you are automatically rolled over ie you have to opt out.

Contracts can roll over as long as it does not roll over automatically ie you have to Opt in

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Your evidence for this statement? Show me where this is stated in any case.

"21.Once we have provided the service, you may tell us to stop providing it at any time by giving us 14 days' written notice, either by email to any email address we may have given you or by letter to the address on your last BT bill or any other address we have given you, for that purpose. We can stop providing the service by giving you 28 days' written notice."

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc...

Edited by Oliver341 (Wed 14-Sep-11 14:54:07)

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by MHC:

They certainly can - if you sign an agreement to take service for 12 months BT are agreeing to provide it for the same period and can terminate at the 12 month break point.

BT are entitled to terminate the customer's service with 28 days notice at any time.

indeed I am struggling to see whats wrong with this ban. Well it removes freedom for the seller to choose what they sell, but in all honesty rolling contracts I think are pretty bad. Commiting for say 12 months and then automtically going onto a monthly should be fine, at that point the customer has already been loyal and the seller should show some faith in both their own prodouct and the customer. If the seller needs to be locking in customers then it means they dont have much faith in their own product.

I personally think the BT line rental renewing contract is not a bad thing. Each year it can be renewed to get evening/weekend calls package for free for another 12 months. If you don't renew then you go onto a 1 month rolling contract that doesn't include free evening and weekend calls.

As long as you receive the notice that the auto renewal is coming up and can contact them to cancel it then I don't see the problem. If you remove the auto renew then each year you want to keep the free calls you have to contact to opt back in. Most people will probably keep renewing so this means more work for BT and the consumer to renew contracts than is currently involved for people not wanting to renew.

The ones I disagree with are those where there is no choice. You either go on another 12 month or more contract or your cancel your service. That is to me wrong as once you have served the minimum term for a product that is a standard provision you should not have to be tied back in for a longer period.

Contracts are generally to cover special offers and initial sign ups (top cover any startup costs). If neither of those are the case then you shouldn't be tied in for longer than 1 month.