I want to cancel my broadband and pay off my debt.

Question

Recently I was shocked to discover that my direct debit had been altered to £73.50 a month! I was informed, upon contacting your billing people, that this was due to a number of phone calls I had made.  I have since discovered that the internet phone which was provided with the Option 3 Broadband package is no longer being produced and, therefore, my free evening and weekend calls no longer apply.  No warning was given or any information about this passed to me!  I have been informed that the onus was on ME to find this out!  I entered a contract and the terms of that contract were made clear to me and that contract has been broken as far as I am concerned. 
Ever since I made the terrible mistake of signing up for BT Broadband, I have been treated appallingly and it is my wish to cancel my Broadband and no longer have anything to do with British Telecom or its services.  From day one my speeds were absolutely ridiculously slow and I had to go through the indignity of calling an Indian call centre who's staff would give the constant run around with the usual "Switch it on and off again" stupidity.  We are talking speeds of less than 1meg which was not what I was paying for.  I was even, on a few occasions where I said there was something wrong with the line, called a liar and had the phone slammed down on me.  Throughout this time I was charged £65 a month which was way over the agreed amount but I accepted this as I was told this was the charge for installation.
This £65 bill went on for longer than I care to remember (And certainly much longer than was necessary to pay off the installation charge!) so I contacted one of your staff who agreed that I was paying way more than I should have been and so the charge was reduced to £40 a month.  I was told that it would always be £40 a month and was assured that that was set in stone and would not change.  Once again your staff have lied to me. 
I spoke to one of your staff recently, after they had contacted me enquiring about my cancellation of the direct debit (I had no choice as we have no income and are awaiting news on benefits and have a chronically ill baby son so any money we do manage to scrape together goes on train fairs to Great Ormond Street for his treatment.  I also have a chronic kidney condition which is potentially fatal and have had to give up on my own medical treatment, essentially condemning myself to death, as I can no longer afford to get to my own appointments.  I include this information to illustrate just how terrible our financial situation has become.) explaining that I wished to cancel my BT Broadband and phone package as I  am moving home and simply cannot afford to have a landline and internet package anymore.  I was advised that I should wait until I had further information on my move, as the moving in date had not been set yet, and call again where I would be able to cancel my package and come to an arrangement to pay off my debt (Which would be around the £140 mark - your staff are unable to give me a fixed sum as of yet) in instalments.
I called today to cancel my package on the date of 24th May 2012 (Our moving date) and arrange said instalment plan only to be told that I am unable to come to an arrangement to pay the debt if I dare to leave British Telecom and that they will have no option but to contact a debt collection agency to claim the amount in full unless I renew my contract(!).  It is my understanding that, as I am not in contract with BT anymore, I can cancel my broadband package any time I please and it is also my right to arrange a payment plan without being bullied and cajoled into staying as a BT customer when I have absolutely no desire to do business with this company EVER again.

Answer 1

Hi I suggest you contact the forum mods they should be able to get your problem sorted for you this is a link to them
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4951
they normally reply by email or phone directly to you within 3 working days
They are a UK based BT specialist team who have a good record at getting problems solved
This is a customer to customer self help forum the only BT presence here are the forum moderators
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