£7.50 Bt Alarm Call Charge !!
jimmy_f
Posts: 18
Forumite
in Phones & TV
Hello,
My mother was diagnosed with dementia about 1 year ago and although she looks after herself well in her own home she falls victim to various scams asking for money etc. We are on the case as much as possible but there always seems to be something.
We are having to filter out mail to remove these sorts of things before we redirect normal post to her. It was while doing this that we noticed that she had very high phone bills and this, we found out, was because she had been calling and arranging alarm calls via BT at £ 7.54 each time. She has no use for this service and is purely using it because it is there and she has got into the habit. Because of her condition (loss of memory) she has sometimes asked for two in one day. Her last bill was £275.00 and about £200 of this was due to this service.
Firstly are the company legally obliged to tell you how much the service will cost before you go ahead and book it and also is there a way ,using power of attorney which we have, of blocking this number so that my Mother cannot get through?
I did a test call to the 100 alarm call service and they made no mention of the cost until I myself asked, surely this is not above board.
If anyone has any ifo we would be really grateful. Thanks
James
PS There is no way of reasoning with Mum in a situation like this.
My mother was diagnosed with dementia about 1 year ago and although she looks after herself well in her own home she falls victim to various scams asking for money etc. We are on the case as much as possible but there always seems to be something.
We are having to filter out mail to remove these sorts of things before we redirect normal post to her. It was while doing this that we noticed that she had very high phone bills and this, we found out, was because she had been calling and arranging alarm calls via BT at £ 7.54 each time. She has no use for this service and is purely using it because it is there and she has got into the habit. Because of her condition (loss of memory) she has sometimes asked for two in one day. Her last bill was £275.00 and about £200 of this was due to this service.
Firstly are the company legally obliged to tell you how much the service will cost before you go ahead and book it and also is there a way ,using power of attorney which we have, of blocking this number so that my Mother cannot get through?
I did a test call to the 100 alarm call service and they made no mention of the cost until I myself asked, surely this is not above board.
If anyone has any ifo we would be really grateful. Thanks
James
PS There is no way of reasoning with Mum in a situation like this.
0
Comments
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A very sad situation and you're to be commended for attempting to 'protect' her.
In this case, the only thing I can think of is to install a Commtel Phone Guard, suitably programmed to only allow through calls she may need to make.
They used to be cheaply available on ebay (I got mine for under £5 incl. delivery) but I can't find any on there at the moment.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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Surely there's a case for BT to waive these charges? If not, I would contact Oftel, theres' no way, if the situation is explained fully, that your mother should be paying for these calls...is there?Call me Carmine....
HAVE YOU SEEN QUENTIN'S CASHBACK CARD??0 -
Does this not count as a kind of Premium Rate service that you can block as the account holder under your POA?No free lunch, and no free laptop0
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BT wouldn't want people thinking they're ripping off mentally ill people. Yes, BT are right to charge but they will write it off if you ask them politely enough and explain the full circumstances and what you've done to stop the problem.
BT like most large companies don't like people to think they're being nasty.0 -
Im really sorry to hear about your mothers health problems. I have checked and if you contact the Age and Disability team at https://www.btplc.com/age_disability they should be able to offer you a service whereby the outgoing 100 alarm calls will be barred. That should prevent the bills being so high. Let me know how you get on with it.
Dave“Official Company Representative
I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"0 -
BT_company_representative wrote: »Im really sorry to hear about your mothers health problems. I have checked and if you contact the Age and Disability team at www.btplc.com/age_disability they should be able to offer you a service whereby the outgoing 100 alarm calls will be barred. That should prevent the bills being so high. Let me know how you get on with it.
Dave
The link doesn't work for meProud to be a MoneySaver!0 -
Me neither. I get a strange message:Directory Listing Denied
This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
“Official Company Representative
I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"0 -
BT_company_representative wrote: »
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/www.bt.com/age_disability
Which, of course, doesn't work either.
BTW, if you extract the link from what you posted and type www.bt.com/age_disability into your browser, you get diverted to http://www.btplc.com/inclusion/ - which is an incomplete (abandoned?) page.
However, I was able to track down a webmail form thereon and a phone number - but as that's the dreaded 0800 800 150, I'd advise readers not to bother with that.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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