Best Minutes's rates using 0911 code - HELP!!

Heinz

MaggieMoon wrote:

Thank you too! Such kind people out there. Sorry still to be thiick - but .... when I get to the site - what exactly do I do then? Am I looking for confirmation that BT has made mistake?? But I will go there now and have a look! Cheers

Maggie

I assume you have an itemised bill - showing the length of each call to the 091192 number in question and an associated charge for each (so, apart from the massive total, that's how you know roughly what BT have charged you per minute for calls to that number).

Ideally, calculate what the cost of each individual call should have been - and also the totals you have been charged for all those calls on their own (i.e. separate them out from other call charges if they're mixed up together on the bill) and the total you should have been charged.

Have that sort of information ready when you call to dispute the bill.

091192 numbers are definitely 'Type of Call p32' on Page 29 in BT's 'Specialised Numbers' price list so you should have no difficulty proving your case that they should be (Page 38) charged at 13p per minute including VAT.

MaggieMoon_3

Hello there - just spent hours on phone with a bt guy (this was before I saw the latest posting) who could not find where it says 13p a mintue! He maintains that it si not true, BT are entitled to charge me this huge rate - it is a premium no and that is what I owe them - 700 instead of about 75 pounds!! He will not be budged! You know this 13p rate (which does vary up to about 20p depending on the phone number provider) how do they - in this case Bestminutes get any money from BT then? If BT really do charge 13p a minute - how does this square up with Bestminutes making any money?

Anyway - apart from writing - I am at my wits end on how to convice them that they have vastly overcharged me - and they have - HAVENT THEY???? Am i dreaming all this????

Thanks

Maggie

Heinz

If you made the calls on a BT line (i.e. if the calls appear on your BT bill), BT must charge you their published rates. For the 091192 prefix you mention, 13p incl. VAT is their published rate.

Time to up the stakes.

BT's Chief Executive said on BBC Breakfast the other day that he was happy to (and regularly did) receive e-mails directly from customers.

If so, his e-mail address will be the obvious [email="ben.verwaayen@bt.com"]ben.verwaayen@bt.com[/email]

Draft it FULLY before e-mailing. Include all the facts, the reference numbers, the names of all the BT people you have spoken to and their exact words .... and then ...... go for it.

Best of luck.

MaggieMoon_3

Dear Heinz - thank you so much for your valuable input - I am so grateful for allthis info. I was about to do as yousaid and email above - but guess what????? BT have backed down .... I have spoken to someone else this morning ..... who was much more helpful - and they are now going to put it all right. An error WAS made ( they are very surprised that I know about the codes and where to find them ....!!!! not even the people I have been 'talking' to knew about them(???) Obviously they do not read this page! Anyway - because of all the help and info I have had from this site - I am much wiser and not any poorer! So - I can carry on using BestMinutes (not that they actually ever got back to me .... I rang and rang - emailed and emailed ... but they did not want to know either - unless they knew that the error could not poss be theirs ...??)) Anyway - it is all sorted now - and so a HUGE THANKYOU TO ALL WHO HAVE HELPED ME.

Maggie

Heinz

I never use Bestminutes myself so I've no axe to grind but, to be fair to them, they merely 'hang' their service on the end of the 091192 number and take a cut of what users pay their own service provider (in your case BT) for the cost of that initial call.

The only way Bestminutes has any influence on what users pay for the call is their choice of access code - which defines the cost to the caller depending on what their service provider charges.

I'm not sure I made a lot of sense there but I hope you catch the drift.

Anyway, glad it's sorted.

fbrj

MaggieMoon - I read your thread with interest, particularly as I have had reason to call Qatar recently (using Bestminutes) - I checked my BT bill almost immediately on line (it takes a day or two to show) and was relieved that it was OK! (ie 13p/min.)....

06 FEB 14:31 0911 9228585 00:15:41 1.736

[£1.736 +VAT for 15.68mins = 13p/min]

I was going to give you my bill detail as ammunition. Anyway - glad that it is not now necessary!

MaggieMoon_3

Thank you both - fbrj and Heinz again. It was a horrid experience and I was really worried. Still cannot get to the bottom of what happened - but yes - I will have my bill sorted. Phew! Thank you very much. I have now applied to go on line with my bill and will defo look at it every day!

Thank you

Maggie