A touch of unnecessary meanness

One of the other envelopes awaiting me when I got home from holiday was a big one from BT. 

As readers will know by now, I asked BT to disconnect my landline and stop my Home Broadband service, both effective from 30th October. In fact I hadn't used BT's Home Broadband since 1st September. But I didn't actually unplug their Hub 5 Wi-Fi router and associated wiring until early October. I almost put it in the bin! But something made me put it in the attic instead, even though I could never see myself using it again - not unless my adoption of 4G for all connection to the Internet proved to be a very bad mistake. 

I had of course forgotten that my five-year-old router was actually BT's property, and not mine. That envelope from BT contained a big white plastic sack, with instructions to post the router back to them. Or else they would charge me for keeping it. 

My first reaction was, how mean. What use was a five-year-old item of equipment to BT? Surely my Hub 5 router couldn't still be current kit? Wasn't this, in fact, a way of punishing people like me, who'd had the temerity to forsake BT Broadband? 

The line they were taking was that - as part of their green stance - they wanted the router back so that they could recycle it 'safely'. Or else give it a new home. 

Hmm. The 'new home' bit would make made sense if it were new equipment that I'd hardly used. But my router was old hat. I couldn't see how it could still have any current retail value in the UK. So charging me for not giving it back seemed rather unreasonable! I looked it all up on BT's website: they'd sting me for £43. That's not peanuts. 

Thank goodness I hadn't junked it, and could still return it!  

It did occur to me that although my old-tech router had negligible residual value in the UK, it might however be worth something in a third-world market. Perhaps BT had one or more foreign subsidiaries, and the router might then find its way to Africa or Asia, where it would be resold as part of a local Broadband package. BT in the UK would surely make some money on that. And if I couldn't return it, then instead they'd rake in £43 from me. Win-win for them. 

I suppose that's the way of business, but it still seemed like a disproportionate punishment for not returning a dusty plastic box with outmoded electronics inside.

Well, thankfully, I could comply - and avoid that £43 charge. BT were at least going to pay the postage. 

I popped the router and its wiring into the sack. The sack was of course much too big, and there was no requirement to fold it over and make a more compact package that might have survived the rigours of delivery. I could have left it as it was, and the router would have been bashed around while in transit, arriving broken. I'd have done nothing wrong. But I did in fact make a compact package, and took it to the local Post Office. I made sure that I got proof of postage, which I carefully filed away. 

I suppose I've been done a favour. It's one less thing to turf out of my attic when I come to fully clear it. 

There's now no going back on my decision to shut down my landline and do without Home Broadband. BT's physical wire from their local green cabinet remains in place, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it disappear in due course. One day I will come back home and find a card saying that an engineer called and took it away. 

So my only link now with BT is their Mobile Internet via 4G (and eventually 5G) on my mobile phone. I am going to be paying £20 a month for 40GB of data, plus unlimited calls and texts. That contract expires in a few months' time. Then, if I wish, I can choose another SIM-only contract with somebody else. BT need to tread carefully if they don't want to lose me altogether. I can, after all, shift to EE (BT's semi-independent subsidiary) and get exactly the same 4G service. Or I could favour a rival. BT need to woo me. But no doubt they will move heaven and earth to annoy me further.