£7.50 Bt Alarm Call Charge !!

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.
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Comments

  • Heinz
    Heinz Posts: 11,191
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Forumite
    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.
  • Heinz
    Heinz Posts: 11,191
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Forumite
    Update - found one on ebay now - see HERE.

    And another - HERE.
    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.
  • 1carminestocky
    1carminestocky Posts: 5,256
    Cashback Cashier
    Forumite
    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??
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,008
    Name Dropper First Post First Anniversary
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    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 laptop ;)
  • Jemma-T
    Jemma-T Posts: 1,546 Forumite
    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.
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    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"
  • 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 me :confused:
    :p Proud to be a MoneySaver! :p
  • Heinz
    Heinz Posts: 11,191
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Forumite
    Me neither. I get a strange message:
    Directory Listing Denied

    This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.
    OTOH, there appear to be a few more Commtel Phone Guards appearing on ebay 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.
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    Hi. Sorry about that. The correct link is
    www.bt.com/age_disability

    David
    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"
  • Heinz
    Heinz Posts: 11,191
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    Forumite
    Hi. Sorry about that. The correct link is
    www.bt.com/age_disability

    David
    Oh dear, you don't appear to be doing very well David (you were Sean, and then Craig this morning and Dave in last post on this thread, are there 4 of you?). That hyperlink (hover over it and you'll see) is to:

    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.
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