BT privacy at home query

mahharg

I was overcharged £7.50 but couldn't afford to let them keep my hard earned cash for a month. I contacted my bank and asked for an immediate refund of the direct debit under the direct debit guarantee because an error has been made (overcharged). The money was instantly credited to my bank. I then emailed BT to complain and state what I have done and they could either produce a correct bill or add the outstanding to the next bill. I also stated that I would in no way pay any extra charges in relation to this because of their error. Why should us customers on tight budgets have to wait until the next bill to receive our cash back when the company has made an error. You have to react quick though, I contacted my bank on the day the direct debit showed up but because companies issue bills (or should) around 14 days in advance. This is ample time to check if there is any errors.


Bt's terms and conditions

It includes:

"BT Telephony Services price terms

BT calling features

33.
BT Privacy is a combination of caller display and a listing with the telephone preference service. You will need to activate BT Privacy which is included for customers who make at least six inclusive or chargeable calls (excludes calls made with BT Broadband Talk) with BT every three months. For other customers the charges for caller display are set out in the.

35.
BT Answer 1571 standard service is included for BT Telephony customers who make some chargeable or inclusive calls with BT (excludes calls made with BT Broadband Talk). The following charging rules apply:

• If you are billed monthly you must make at least two chargeable or inclusive calls with BT within that month otherwise we will charge you £0.98 a month for the BT Answer 1571 standard service.
• If you are billed every three months you must make at least six chargeable or inclusive calls with BT within those three months otherwise we will charge you £2.94 every three months for the BT Answer 1571 standard service.

If you do not access your BT Answer 1571 mailbox at least once every 90 days it will be switched off and any saved messages will be lost."


Be aware though people that section 26 of these T's & C's state:
"If you take the Unlimited Weekend Plan you must make at least 1 chargeable call per month with BT." I don't know what will happen if you don't.


Additionally I remeber when I re-signed for Primus after moving home I was given an overide number to use my primus account whilst waiting for it to be activated. This could be the way around the 1280 fiasco should primus stop it.

sparky7

I also failed to make the 6 calls in the quarter (Didn't realise you had to!) and got charged 7.50 for caller id and 2.50 for 1571. I rang them up and spoke to the billing department, told them I wasn't made aware of the charge by the advisor who enabled privacy at home on my account and wished to complain. They apologised and credited the account immediately.

Heinz

sparky7 wrote: »

I also failed to make the 6 calls in the quarter (Didn't realise you had to!) and got charged 7.50 for caller id and 2.50 for 1571.

Apart from the need to make 2 chargeable OR INCLUSIVE calls per month (6 per quarter if you're billed quarterly) to qualify for free Caller Display and/or basic 1571, don't forget, if you're on the Unlimited Weekend Plan, the need to make one CHARGEABLE call per month to qualify for inclusive weekend calls.

hra_2

BT_company_representative wrote: »

"At least two calls per month on monthly billing or six calls per quarter must be made. Excludes calls to 0800 number ranges, 1471 and 1571. 1471 Call Return (press 3) is included...".

Could anyone please please give me a link to this or at least tell me the name of the document and where to find it if it's an internal one?

BT have for the third time charged me for Caller Display despite the fact that I've made more than 6 calls this quarter. They are all 1471 Call Return Fees. I've just had someone on the phone insisting that 1471 Call Return does not count because it is a "service charge". This despite the fact that they are termed "Calls" on my bill, are charged, and there is nothing in the Ts&Cs to exclude them, and I was refunded twice before.

The last time round, the BT member of staff who agreed my refund seemed to be quoting some wording very similar to the above. It is unbelieveable to have to be arguing my case again and that not all staff have access to this information.

This time BT have also said the previous refunds were wrong... :mad:

hra_2

I have had a further email from BT Customer Support with yet another "explanation" why my calls did not count:

"... these calls are not considered as Direct dialled calls; in order to avail the Caller Display facility free of charge you have been billed for the calls which have been dialled directly from your phone equipment and should not be a call made by returning through the message."

which is not really helpful because it is the Call Return Fees which are at issue, not the ensuing call. Call Return is in fact dialled direct using my equipment. Plus there isn't anything in the Ts&Cs about this anway.

I also pm-ed BT company representative over the weekend to follow up my question as to where their version of the Caller Display conditions came from - hopefully this will not be a difficult question to answer and will really help me and perhaps others.

BT_company_representative wrote: »

"At least two calls per month on monthly billing or six calls per quarter must be made. Excludes calls to 0800 number ranges, 1471 and 1571. 1471 Call Return (press 3) is included. The calls are either chargeable or those that would be made as part of an inclusive calls package."

hra_2

Just a quick post to say that BT Company Representative has sorted it all out! They confirmed the information they posted is correct - 1471 Call Return Fees do count - and have arranged that I will get a refund. Many many thanks.:T

cocktail

can anyone please tell me, if i route all my calls through AOL talk and make 2 calls per month with 1280 prefix, should i be getting the caller id charge of £2.50.
i have been making the 2 calls a month with the prefix 1280 for more than a year but they do not appear on the bt bill at all and i have been getting the £2.50 charge for the last 3 months. i never used to get charged this amount before.

OldGreyFox

cocktail wrote: »

can anyone please tell me, if i route all my calls through AOL talk and make 2 calls per month with 1280 prefix, should i be getting the caller id charge of £2.50.
i have been making the 2 calls a month with the prefix 1280 for more than a year but they do not appear on the bt bill at all and i have been getting the £2.50 charge for the last 3 months. i never used to get charged this amount before.

The traditional technique to dial the pre-fix 1280, which allows you to re-route calls back through BT,no longer works from AOL and some other suppliers. For more info see the 1280 problems discussion.

shopndrop

Heinz wrote: »

Apart from the need to make 2 chargeable OR INCLUSIVE calls per month (6 per quarter if you're billed quarterly) to qualify for free Caller Display

Sorry to seem so thick but what does it mean by INCLUSIVE calls per month? We have the anytime package with BT but I always make sure that we make 2 chargeable calls to mobile phones per month to get the free caller display. Does this mean that we don't need to make chargeable calls?

Heinz

You don't need to make any chargeable calls to qualify for free Caller Display, inclusive calls will do (in your case, all 01, 02 or 03 calls and most 0845 and 0870 calls are inclusive in your Unlimited Anytime Plan).