BT online overcharge - please help, anyone had this problem?

monkeytennis14

Evening everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me out here please with this recent situation I'm experiencing with the mighty BT.

At the end of June I decided to move from Pipex to BT on their Unlimited Evening and Weekend call plan which was priced at £10.95 per month. I called them up and did this over the phone and the changeover date was set at 8th July, however, when I looked back at the figures I worked out that it would be better for us to go on their Anytime Plan at £15.45 per month.

I called BT back the next day and they said that because the order was being processed currently that they couldn't do anything with it at that moment (end of June) but that I could do it all online and upgrade my monthly call plan myself on the 8th July by which time I would have been sent all my account details etc.

This I duly did on 8th July and thought nothing more of it until I received a mail from BT Residential Services stating that the plan I was on was the Anytime plan but at a cost of £17.70 per month... I informed them this was incorrect and BT amended the cost back to the agreed £15.45 per month. I then decided to check my online account and bill after receiving a mail on 14th July saying that my first online bill was ready.

I was gobsmacked to find my first bill on 14th July at a staggering £187.68! So I called BT's helpdesk / customer services to find out what this was (a cancellation fee) and after explaining that I had been told by BT's own staff that I could upgrade the service myself it was agreed that the 'one off charge' on this bill of £172.47 would be taken off my bill. This took a massive 32 minutes to explain to the customer services advisor who informed me he would take this charge off my bill within the next 3-4 hours, however, I wasn't convinced here and after checking my online bill on the 15th July found it had not been taken off. So I wrote another brief mail back to the customer services person I originally wrote to regarding the first incorrect billing amount to receive this reply from BT below:

"Thank you for your e-mail dated 14th July 2008, regarding your BT telephone bill and the Caller Display service. I am very sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced with BT, relating to the charges for upgrading your calling plan.

With regards to our earlier conversation I can assure you that the amount of £172.47 has been removed from your BT telephone account, as you where held to term for regrading your BT telephone plan in error. This now leaves an outstanding balance for the amount of £15.21, including VAT.

This amount will be deducted from your account by Direct Debit within 7 working days. I can also confirm that as the Caller Display service was not ordered correctly on your BT account, I have now ordered this service for you and this will become active from tomorrow, 16th July 2008.

If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me again via e-mail. Thank you for contacting BT."

Yesterday morning I was checking my online bank account to find that instead of the £15.21 being taken from my account BT had taken the £187.68 that they were not supposed to take!

I have written 2 firm mails to them that I am not happy in any way with their service, receiving this reply from BT:

"Thank you for your e-mail dated 2/8/08 about Refund.

I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you in accordance with the refund under you account. I have checked your account and would like to inform you that there is an ongoing fault with our online system which is affecting a lot of our customers. This has been escalated to a business improvement team who will hopefully have it fixed as soon as possible.

I would like to inform you that the request of refund of £172.47 was made under your account on 14/07/08 and it will be adjusted into your next bill.

I really appreciate your support and co-operation with BT."

Now, in my eyes BT have more than sufficient time to sort this out on my account and to rectify it, however, through whatever inabilities they have there they have not done so. Has anyone else experienced these sort of problems and does anyone have any ideas on how to get my money back (I don't want them to crdit my account, I want what they overcharged me and took from my bank account back). I don't have any compulsion to stay with BT either...

If anyone can give any sort of pointers it would really help me please.

Many thanks

Monkeytennis14

BexTech

Maybe they can credit it back to your account and then they credit can then be paid back into your bank?

You can get Caller Display for free, see: https://www.bt.com/btprivacy (Since 1 July 2005).

Edinburghlass_2

Email the CEO for a quick response and someone will deal with your complaint.

[EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]

monkeytennis14

thanks for the help Edinburghlass and Bextech - BT have replied to me now that they would credit my bank account back... but I like the idea of mailing the CEO... will try tonight!

cheers

:T

dashforth

If BT had not agreed to credit your bank account you could have initiated the credit yourself under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

monkeytennis14

thanks for everyone's help here, I've been away for the past couple of days but have just checked my bank account and as expected BT have still not credited me the amount outstanding (after promising it would be in there by Friday 8th Aug at the very latest) and my bank (Barclays) have promised to credit me the amount too under the Direct Debit Guarantee

thanks once more

monkeytennis14

just to update - I have now e-mailed Ian Livingston as per Edinburghlass's mail... let's se what happens

monkeytennis14

Just received a reply from Ian Livingston, short but sweet below:

I am sorry about the problems you have had. I will ask one of our high level service team to resolve matters quickly.

Ian Livingston

Let's see what happens now...

monkeytennis14

Hi All

I've now settled this situation with BT - they refunded me the £187.68 to my bank account and as a good will gesture have also credited my BT account to the tune of the same amount thanks to a very attentive (UK based) customer services guy.

So, thanks once more to Edinburghlass and Bextech, the mail to Ian Livingston certainly worked and does seem to be a case of persistence and speaking to the organ grinder and not the monkey.

Hope everyone else who has problems with BT gets them sorted out ok

Cheers