BT Broadband - Unathorised signup

I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?

A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with him)
signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.

He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue. He
was away for a week when the sign up took place.

Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?

Thanks




Dave Miller

On 6-Feb-2007, "Dave Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with him)
> signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
> He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue. He
> was away for a week when the sign up took place.
>
> Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?

First of all tell us what BT's response has been, how did the
relation set up payment, and has it been installed?
If payment was by an Direct Debit, what
account was used, the BT customers or the relations?
Normally when entering into a contract there is a requirement
to verify who you are entering into a contract with, the onus
being on BT to verify that they are actually talking to the
account holder.
With a few details it might be possible to establish if this
is a Civil case or a Criminal case, as it would be if the relative
authorised payment from the BT subscribers bank account,
to obtain pecunary advantage, without payment from their own
funds.

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 18:38:12 -0000, "Dave Miller"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?
>
>A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with him)
>signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
>He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue. He
>was away for a week when the sign up took place.
>
>Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?
>
>Thanks
>

He should cancel the broadband and get the relation to pay the penalty

jim

"Dave Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?
>
> A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with
> him)
> signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
> He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue.
> He
> was away for a week when the sign up took place.
>
> Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?

Have you read the T&C's?
Ending your agreement for the service
14. If you want to end your agreement, you may do so by giving us 30 days'
notice.

"Dave Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?
>
> A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with
> him)
> signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
> He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue.
> He
> was away for a week when the sign up took place.
>
> Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?
>
> Thanks
>

A bit of a tall story. What probably happened was that the person signed up
and some interfering person suggested signing up to what he was with. Then
the "let's think of an excuse" started. As you can't supply simple
information it suggests the above or something very similar happened.
Why would your "friend" ask you to post on here or even tell you anything
about it?
Is it really you as most people say "a friend".

On Tue, 6 Feb 2007 18:38:12 -0000, in uk.telecom.broadband , "Dave
Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?
>
>A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with him)
>signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
>Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?

Presumably he's the account holder and he can show he was on holiday
at the time. If he can show that BT took inappropriate authorisation,
then he should be able to cancel.
--
Mark McIntyre

"Dave Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I wonder if anyone would care to comment on the following?
>
> A friend of mine was away when a relation (who has decided to stay with
> him)
> signed up to BT Broadband without the actual account holder knowledge.
>
> He is unhappy about the fact and does not want the service to continue.
> He
> was away for a week when the sign up took place.
>
> Can he get BT to cancel the service without penalty?
>
> Thanks
>
>

To be honest it will be difficult for your friend to proceed without taking
legal action against his relation. You could report it as a fraudulent
account but then BT might contact the police during the cancellation. Ofcom
can cease the BB if you ask them and then that just leaves the fees which
you could dispute through otello.

"Mal" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:45c8e7e7$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> A bit of a tall story. What probably happened was that the person signed
up
> and some interfering person suggested signing up to what he was with.
Then
> the "let's think of an excuse" started. As you can't supply simple
> information it suggests the above or something very similar happened.
> Why would your "friend" ask you to post on here or even tell you anything
> about it?
> Is it really you as most people say "a friend".

Please don't jump to conclusions as you are completly wrong. The account
holder is an OAP and he is very worried about what has gone on. The
relation apparently just said the account holder had given permission and
the onlly other requirement was to quote the customer number, which was
found on recent bill/statement that was hanging around the house somewhere.
The payment has been set up to be taken by Direct Debit from the account
already in use by the account holder for paying the telephone bill. The
chap concerned is leaving his daughter to contact the phone company later on
this week as he is partially deaf and not good at dealing with such issues.
The company have not yet been contacted about the issue.

Just thought I would ask the question in here, to see if anyone else has
been put in similar circumstances or if you know how it will be dealt with.

>> A bit of a tall story. What probably happened was that the person signed
> up
>> and some interfering person suggested signing up to what he was with.
> Then
>> the "let's think of an excuse" started. As you can't supply simple
>> information it suggests the above or something very similar happened.
>> Why would your "friend" ask you to post on here or even tell you anything
>> about it?
>> Is it really you as most people say "a friend".
>
> Please don't jump to conclusions as you are completly wrong. The
> account
> holder is an OAP and he is very worried about what has gone on. The
> relation apparently just said the account holder had given permission and
> the onlly other requirement was to quote the customer number, which was
> found on recent bill/statement that was hanging around the house
> somewhere.
> The payment has been set up to be taken by Direct Debit from the account
> already in use by the account holder for paying the telephone bill. The
> chap concerned is leaving his daughter to contact the phone company later
> on
> this week as he is partially deaf and not good at dealing with such
> issues.
> The company have not yet been contacted about the issue.
>
> Just thought I would ask the question in here, to see if anyone else has
> been put in similar circumstances or if you know how it will be dealt
> with.

I was about to write the same to Mal when I read your post.

OK, there are a couple of routes that can be tried. The first is to go
through to BT's customer services line and ask to speak to a supervisors.
Explain the situation to them and ask that the account is cancelled. It may
be that they decline to speak to you as you're not the account holder - some
form of written or verbal authorisation might be needed here.

If you get someone who's vaguely human at the other end, they'll take a
pragmatic view and cancel the service. If not, ask to be put through to the
complaints supervisor on duty and repeat the process.

Your alternative is to make a formal complaint to BT that there has been
fraudulent use of the service. This has a number of implications, not least
that BT might themselves inform the police while they're cancelling the
service. If your friend does not want their relative to be dropped in the
doo-doo, then this needs to be thought through very carefully.

Finally, talk to your friend's relative and point out the second scenario -
they might be willing to cough up for any financial penalty that might be
incurred as a result of cancelling, assuming that we have now gone beyond
the 14 days' cooling-off period during which time you're allowed to cancel a
contract. Can't remember the exact figure, but it's the Distance Selling
Regulations.

"Dave Miller" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Mal" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:45c8e7e7$(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> A bit of a tall story. What probably happened was that the person signed
> up
>> and some interfering person suggested signing up to what he was with.
> Then
>> the "let's think of an excuse" started. As you can't supply simple
>> information it suggests the above or something very similar happened.
>> Why would your "friend" ask you to post on here or even tell you anything
>> about it?
>> Is it really you as most people say "a friend".
>
> Please don't jump to conclusions as you are completly wrong. The
> account
> holder is an OAP and he is very worried about what has gone on. The
> relation apparently just said the account holder had given permission and
> the onlly other requirement was to quote the customer number, which was
> found on recent bill/statement that was hanging around the house
> somewhere.
> The payment has been set up to be taken by Direct Debit from the account
> already in use by the account holder for paying the telephone bill. The
> chap concerned is leaving his daughter to contact the phone company later
> on
> this week as he is partially deaf and not good at dealing with such
> issues.
> The company have not yet been contacted about the issue.
>
> Just thought I would ask the question in here, to see if anyone else has
> been put in similar circumstances or if you know how it will be dealt
> with.

Never mind BT, the person has committed fraud.
I'd explain to BT and then tell the relation you will be contacting the
police. How do you know they haven't signed up to other things especially if
they had a utility bill lying about?

Steven.