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back to article Brit telcos will waive early termination fees for military personnel

British military personnel will no longer face swingeing cancellation fees on broadband packages if they are posted abroad. BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media have all committed to waiving the fees for serving military personnel who are either posted abroad or to an area of the UK not covered by their existing telly, …

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  1. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Go

    Quick, call them and get out!

    "TalkTalk was the first ISP to recognise how tricky this can be and offer free disconnections for service personnel moving overseas, and we're delighted that the rest of the industry has followed suit," chimed in chief exec Dido Harding.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Roland6 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Quick, call them and get out!

      Why wasn't BT offering this as standard decades back?

      In practically all dealings I've had with military personnel the agreement has contained a clause relating either to the sudden posting away from home or the premature ending of a posting resulting in the personnel returning home earlier than expected.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Clockworkseer
        Reply Icon

        Re: Quick, call them and get out!

        At least back in 2007/2008 they were, although it was never really advertised as such. I imagine there used to be a lot of "managers discretion"

        0 0 Reply
  2. wolfetone Silver badge

    Imagine if Elvis Costello was writing Oliver's Army today.

    "But there's no danger

    It's a professional career

    You can cancel your Broadband contract

    With just a word in Mr. Churchill's ear"

    4 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is a win-win for the telco's

    Get posted to Stanley (Falklands) and if you can get out of your contracts easily, the more likley you are to sign up with them when you return.

    It is that simple thing called 'Customer Service', something that the various call centres in India can't script so it becomes very hard. It ain't rocket science to treat your customers fairly you know but so few companies even begin to get more than 1 out of 5 that I deal with.

    I'm sure the commentards here could come up with a very long list of those that are a PITA to deal with.

    Perhaps some naming and shaming is the order of the day?

    It would make interesting reading I'm sure.

    6 0 Reply
    1. TRT Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: It is a win-win for the telco's

      Not to mention the call charges to the South Atlantic...

      0 0 Reply
  4. phuzz Silver badge
    Joke

    "Armed Forces personnel play a vital role protecting our country, whether serving overseas or stationed away from home in other parts of the UK.

    Also, they're trained to kill people, and they have access to rather a lot of weaponry, so quite frankly, we're scared of them" intoned chief exec Gavil Peter-Fred

    5 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "so quite frankly, we're scared of them"

    Why is it that TalkTalk of all people proposed it?

    Their usual form with customer service leaves one with a nagging suspicion that this is the direct result of their lousy practices coming to the attention of someone in the armed services with a bit of clout.

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "so quite frankly, we're scared of them"

      I think you mean "someone in the armed services who has lot of hand-to-hand fighting experience and can lose their temper with crappy customer service"

      1 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quite frankly I'm surprised this has not been the norm since day one.

    1 1 Reply
    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
      Reply Icon

      "Quite frankly I'm surprised this has not been the norm since day one."

      Quite. I mean, however could Charles II possibly have overlooked it?

      0 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you move house..

    If you move house to a place Openreach doesn't offer BT services, I didn't think BT could hold you to contract (or didn't hold you to contract), this is just seems a slight variation of that. Nothing to get that excited about really.

    BT+others have probably only done it because they took legal advice and decided it would likely be classed as an unfair clause anyway if someone contested it.

    0 0 Reply
  8. John Geddes

    Benbecula=abroad?

    Not yet!

    0 0 Reply
  9. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    chief exec Dido Harding.

    What? is she STILL there?

    1 0 Reply

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