Eclipse charging me for switching to Sky

Hope somebody can offer some advice please.

I'm feeling the financial pinch right now like everybody else, so I've decided to switch from Eclipse to Sky Broadband to save £15 per month.

At present I have :

Line rental - BT
Calls - Eclipse
Broadband - Eclipse

I'm moving everything to Sky, and the representative told me I have nothing to do, everything will just move over later this month. Great, I though..

So, today I call Eclipse out of courtesy to check there are no loose-ends to tie up and to say thank you for years of trouble-free service (a 45-minute 0845 call!). Only to be told they would be charging me a £30 cancellation fee!

Not best pleased with this (or with Sky, but I'll take it up with them later), since I was calling to say thanks. Can anybody advise on the best course of action here? I think I may have reasonable grounds to exit on breach of contract on their part, since their online terms and conditions have obviously changed since I joined (2005) as they're dated 2011.

Any thoughts?

Check the current Ts&Cs for a cancellation charge. If it's there then you need to pay it. The time to exit without penalty is before the Ts&Cs change, not 6 years afterwards.

The Eclipse person is confused. Possibly through lack of knowledge, or possibly through something you said. Particularly if you used either of the words "Cease" or "Cancel".

Your move to Sky LLU involves an ADSL Cease on your current Openreach ADSL circuit. If this cease is triggered by Eclipse you get two problems.

First, Eclipse will be charged £29 by Openreach, so they will charge you, and second if that occurs before the Sky order has gone to Openreach then the Sky order will be rejected, leaving you with no broadband.

If it is triggered by Sky ordering the move then Openreach will not normally raise a charge on Eclipse, and a charge from Eclipse to you would be challengeable.

You should really have obtained a MAC from Eclipse at the start and tried to submit it to Sky.

Only you know what you said to Eclipse, so what is needed to be done now.

Have a read of the very confusing Openreach policy quoted in this post.