BT Oap Bashing

Nellyblue

First time post (well second really I lost the first lot of text I put in.)
My dear mum (70 years young) has admitted to me that she's having trouble with her quarterly BT bill for phone and broadband use, well she would it's for £230. She does make about £70 worth of calls but she has "rental charges" of £128 on the bill. I got online to see if I could sort it and have found out she's paid more than £400 over the previous 2 quarters, seems she's raided her building society account to pay it. I spoke to a BT advisor who after seeming perplexed said that she's been on a "value pack" since 1997 and has been paying phone rental of £3.74 a month since 1999 (£448 for a phone?), Oh and she's paying £15 a month for caller display and ringback and they're free now. After fiddling with the bill he reduced her future quarterly charges. I asked why she'd been charged for something which is free and he said it's the customers responsibility to check. Later, after becoming more angry I filled in the online complaint form to ask for the money back that she'd been charged and to ask BT to look at how they deal with longstanding customers. I was called by a polite but soulless woman who repeated the "it's the customers responsibility " mantra but offered as a goodwill gesture to remove charges of £77 from the bill, I asked for more but was refused. I have complained (online) again but haven't been contacted ,this was yesterday.
What now? Calling them again fills me with dread, I feel so angry.
Last thought, yes everyone should check their bills, it is their responsibility, but, how long do you think it would have taken BT to contact my mum if she'd been undercharged?

Heinz

Did you also check what BT broadband she's paying for? If she's on anything other than BT Total Broadband Option 1, she's probably paying for something she doesn't need.

Did you cancel the rented phone so that charge doesn't continue?

If she's making £70 worth of calls via BT per quarter, she should probably change to BT's £5.95/month Unlimited Anytime Plan to eliminate most call charges. She'd then pay less than £18 per quarter for most of her calls.

The chargeable version of Caller Display certainly isn't £15 per month. More like £2.50

Nellyblue

Thanks for the pointers, I've cancelled the rental and the tariffs you've mentioned seem to be what she's been offered now. However I really don't see the point of continuing with such a callous company and I'm looking into alternative providers. By the way does anybody ever get money back from BT? Do they ever admit they got it wrong? Is there any point trying to get something out of BT?

Jemma-T

You maybe need to take more care of your relative and watch their bills -and this would not of happened perhaps.

I had something similar with a 92 year old relative with BT (trying to charge them £200+ for fixing an internal phone extension even though I expressly asked them not to -they just turned up). It took a bit of time and they still sent threatening letters to a confused 92 year even though they said they wouldn't etc etc. Anyway, it was eventually sorted after several calls and once I got the name of someone who did care they sorted it.

get back on the phone, keep it polite and try and keep calm. If you're dreading speaking to them -don't. Leave things as they are and start taking more interest in what your Mother is agreeing to. She's obviously saying "Yes" to anything offerred by anyone who might have some sort of authority. Never a good thing.

At the end of the day BT is not an authority and has absolutely no duty of care. Or not very much but it's almost nothing and if OFCOM have their way they'll have no responsibility at all.

Nellyblue

Sorry to hear that you had a similar maltreatment situation, but glad to hear you got it sorted. I do understand what you're saying, more care is needed in keeping an eye on mum. However with an increasing population of older people I wonder who is going to help others, (probably us in a few years?), or whether companies are going to humanise their treatment of the people who keep them in (massive) profit.
As for keeping an eye out for relatives it reminds me of the common police messages to (usually) women when crime is occurring, i.e. "don't go out, alone or at night" as though the victim is to blame for the crime.
But you're right, companies are there to rake it in, not to take care of their customers and right again, who is going to rein them in? Lesson learned I suppose.

BT_company_representative

Hello Nellyblue,

I am glad to hear that some items on the future bills will be lower or free. I will be happy to check over the account to make sure that your mother is on the right package for her.

As Heinz said it may be also be worth looking into setting up and Unlimited Anytime Plan if she makes a lot of daytime calls, as it sounds like she is currently on one of the other options.

Drop me a PM if you would like me to look into this.

All the best,

Stephanie
BT Support

Buzby

As much as I'd like to blame BT, I cannot see this as being their sole problem. As noted earlier, it is up to friends and relative to assist wherever possible to ensure that the services are appropriate. It is a difficult line to trad, especially if done insensitively.

Currently, BT have the temerity (I'm a current low-user customer) to send me a letter boasing I going to have 'greater control' of my bills. What they don't say is that my current spend is going to go through the roof - a more salient piece of info - because of the ending of the BT 'Low User' tariff. Gigin me unlinited free calls off-peak and at weekends if I agree to a rolling 12 month contract is disingenuous, in addition they'll move me from paying 4 times per year (quarterly) to 12 times, whilst doubling mt charges.

I'll be going elsewhere. However if I ignored their info, they would have every justification to charge me the 'default' rate, but after 40 years as a customer, I've had enough. Hopefully they'll realise customers should be looked after, not treated as a cash resource.

Jemma-T

Nobody's going to help us when we get older. BT or any of the other former state-controlled businesses have no duty of care ie they don't need to babysit the public.

It's sad that we've lost this but you'll have to speak with Margaret Thatcher about this but maybe with an eye on the local elections we have ourselves to blame. If our next government is Tory then even more millions of 'old people' can expect to be thrown to the dogs.

Problem is -and it's a strange problem- "OAP" is a ridiculous term now as it easily applies to the fraudster former RBS head honcho and middle-aged Fred Goodwin and a 45 year old policemen who's 'done his time'. I have several relatives over 80 and I don't consider them old at all. They have years to go.

Best thing you can do for elderly relatives (if you're worried about them or not), is make sure they never sign or allow anyone in their house selling any service (put a sign of the front door too -inside too if needed). Phone BT and tell them you don't want ANY sales calls, go x-directory, sign up for TPS etc etc.

www.tpsonline.org.uk

Nellyblue

Thanks for the response I'll get the details for you to take a look.

Nellyblue

Seems like you've had quite a bit of (negative) experience and I'll take on board your points, thanks Jemma-T

Rich44_2

Sent you a PM with how to deal with this and contact details.

As for some of the other comments well i'd like to know how you can take more interest in someones affairs when they're miles away and/or don't want you delving through their stuff and often by the time they ask for help it's too late as in this case.

The older generation don't tend to make a fuss about such things they ASSUME that a decent reputable company will look after them and that their bills must be correct, it's only relatively recently that we've become more adept at challenging these things!!