Be broadband cancellation issue

[mjl1986]

Hi,

 

My problem is with Be's hidden contract charges if you leave early, Basically I want to cancel after being with Be for 4 months and they want the rest of a 12 month contract which I disagree with because of how bad my internet has been.

 

I've been with Be for 4 months now and for the 1st month everything worked fine, but for the other 3 everything was terrible, It started with random drops in connection, which I didn't think anything of, then I got ridiculously slow speeds as well as random drops, then the internet just kept disconnecting every 5 minutes. I tried to seek help from Be but it just seemed as though they wasn't really bothered too much, All I really got from them was the general responses like try a new router, change your dsl wire.. etc, so after paying for 3 months of service I hardly recieved I decided I wanted to cancel, So I informed Be of this decision and this is when I found out that firstly I was on a 12 month contract and secondly that I had to pay for the rest of that contract.

 

I disagree with having to pay for the rest of the contract because as far as i'm concerned Be have failed to provide an adaquete service to me.

 

Also upon hearing that I wanted to cancel, Be attempted to fix my connection again and didn't respond to my cancellation request until after I told them that I don't want it fixed, I want it cancelled, Their response was that the standard T&C apply since I was refusing help to fix the connection problem, Now if only Be was that fast in the first place, maybe I wouldn't be trying to cancel.

 

When I signed up to Be, I only agreed to T&C online, I didn't actually sign anything on paper.. does this matter at all when it comes to broadband contracts?

[locutus]

The website will have a digital signature... you will have had to tick a box and click "I accept" it's just as binding as a signature.

 

Broadband providers will let you out of the contract IF they agree they cannot supply the broadband, so you will have to let them try to fix it.

[mjl1986]

so theres not alot I can do?

 

What about BE's failure to actually provide a suitable level of service for 3 months (the speed issues are still ongoing), surely this is breaching the contract for what they was promising?

 

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:685 / 168

 

this is what its like, this is actually quite good for recently..

[locutus]

so theres not alot I can do?

 

What about BE's failure to actually provide a suitable level of service for 3 months (the speed issues are still ongoing), surely this is breaching the contract for what they was promising?

 

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:685 / 168

 

this is what its like, this is actually quite good for recently..

 

Key words, suitable level. ALL broadband suppliers T&C state something about no guaranteed service levels, and "up to 8 meg" or whatever speed it goes "up to"... the actual speed will never be that peak number unless you live just about inside the telephone exchange.

 

I personally have about the same speeds as you, and thats because I live over 5k away from the telephone exchange. Sorry for turning your thread into a rant, but it's another case of rip-off britain! France, Germany, the US, Japan and Korea have had 100 meg broadband for a while now... you know when it comes over here it'll be over double what any of them are paying!

[Melstin]

"Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:685 / 168"

 

When the router disconnects many times because of line problems, it reconnects at a lower speed in an attempt to find a reliable connection.

 

In your case, after many disconnections your router is fixed at a pedestrian168 kbs download speed even though it might be connected at 5Mb. This is a BT Openreach problem, but you have to tell your ISP to instruct BT to increase the speed on your line, because they have the contract with BT, not you.

 

Once the line speed is up again, unless there is a fault somewhere else that is, leave the router on 24/7 for at least 10 days, so that it can settle down to whatever speed your line can support.

 

Leaving your ISP will not fix a faulty line!!

[legalpickle]

As the other posters have said, if it's a faulty line there's nothing you can do besides for rectify the line.

 

I also had hell with BE. I sued them for over £2k and settled at just over £1k - this is going back 6 months. I am probably the most unlucky person possible when it comes to ISP's.

 

Bottom line you need to figure out if it's a faulty line or BE. If it's the latter, leaving will solve it, and I can try to advise you on suing them. If it's the former, then leaving won't solve it, so you have to work it out somehow.

 

My experience with BE, was that when things worked fine, they worked and all was hunky dory, but if you had one problem you'd go through hell.

 

Have they put more staff in their Bulgarian callcentre yet? I had waiting times of over an hour - 2hrs 30mins was my max - at one time trying to get through to them.