BT Call Charges - Local call?

BT cancellation charge?

• I want to get opinions on this matter... I received a phone call yesterday from SRJ debt recovery telling me I had outstanding debts with BT :S...I haven't had a BT line for two years. I phoned BT and asked them what it was about and they told me I had a £40 bill to pay for some existing charges and a £72 cancellation fee. Three years ago in my second year of university I moved in to accommodation that allowed me to get my own BT line which I did. I took out a 12 month contract, knowing that I'd still have to pay for it even if I wasn't staying in the same accommodation after the summer, when I went in to my third year of University. (University term is 8 months) Anyway come summer time I phoned up to cancel the line and they told me the cancellation charge which was more expensive than just keeping the line and paying for it. By this time I found out I was staying in the same accommodation the next year so I could keep the line. I phoned BT again and asked if they could suspend the contract for the 4 months over the summer (I was in the states) They told me they couldn't but they could block calls from the line to stop people using it (the university rents accommodation during the summer) After coming back from the states and returning to university for my third year I phoned BT back to unblock the calls and they did. Everything was fine. At the end of my third year I found out I wasn't able to stay in the same accommodation for my final year of university. I phoned BT and had them cancel the line. They told me I'd have one more bill to pay because I was cancelling in between months so I would still have to pay the amount I've used for the month which was fine. 20 months had passed since I installed the BT line in my second year of university up until this point so I was out of contract by 8 months. I told them I was moving abroad for 4 months which I did. I went to the states. I was told I had no other charges other than paying outstanding bills. I cancelled in May and as expected on the 10th of June (my bill due date) £38 came out of my account to pay fro my final bill. Now two years since I cancelled my BT line they are trying to charge me £112....What the?

• Answer:

  if they are chasing you for a debt, they need to prove it is genuine Ask for the details, (printed details) 2 years later, seems a long time to be leaving the debt un-chased. that said, upto recently BT had a habit of using 12 month "Renewable" contracts, not 12 month minimum ones. That is, they rolled into a new 12 month fixed length at the end of each 12 month period, not a minimum of 12 and them 30 days cancellation. Make sure that you did not have one of those (BT was quite sneaky about those - they offered a discount and called it a 12 month contract but not as you expected). Still, if you had what you expected was a final bill (and it said closed) then you can reasonable argue that the debt is an accounting error - especially after this long time (and it does happen).