mac4mac.co.uk

My company has recently changed status from Sole Trader to Limited Company so I contacted BT to have our telephone and business broadband accounts transferred to our new company name.

We have now been hit with a bill for £562.38 as an "early termination fee" despite the fact that our telephone and broadband has continued seamlessly in the changeover from Sole Trader to Limited Company. We are in the same building and our 'phone and broadband connections have not changed. All that's changed is our name.

Can BT do this?

Probably. The company did cease trading as one incarnation and become a start up even if nothing operational changed. Check the contract you have with BT. That's where it will be stated. I can see both sides.

A good case for renationalisation. Bt have so much money and such a control over the system

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I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.
Bill Hicks

'If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people'
Tony Benn

l l

If they insist on charging us they will, in the long term, lose a customer because as a matter of principle I will move our 'phone and broadband to someone other than BT as soon as I can do it without further penalty.

After all, to all intents and purposes BT have done nothing to warrant the charge they are demanding. Should I approach Ofcom?

I certainly would.

It couldn't hurt, as long as you have appealed to BT in writing and given them a reasonable chance to review the charge.

If they're using the fact that the old company has changed as a reason to cancel the old contract, by the same token then surely the "old" company is the one that's liable for the charge, NOT the "new" company entity. The one that owes them money is the old company!

A legal loophole, perhaps, but maybe try playing them at their own game? I'm sure they'd rather keep you as a customer and cancel the charge, rather than lose you altogether. Call them and ask to be put through to their cancellations department.

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* Steve *

* Witty statement goes here *

I would have thought that since the new company are taking over the services of the old company then the new company would be the ones liable to the charge. They are the one who is instigating the change which causes the charge.

An old company, even if being wound up, is still liable to settle any unpaid bills that it may have, unless of course it's gone bankrupt and even then some bills have to be paid - HMRC for example. Either way it seems like BT have got you. Pay from the old company, or pay from the new one.

The bill was generated because of "early termination" so the charges could be because you were in a contracted period so it's been taken from the amount BT would have received for the rest of the contract.

Having said that, the bill is stupidly huge.

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I'm never wrong, I'm just less right on occasions.

Good luck with it Julian.

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I'm never wrong, I'm just less right on occasions.