BT Direct Debit Help

MeJane

I've been with BT for ten years. Up till January i had two direct debits,one for my phone line charges and the other for my dial-up internet service. I then changed to Broadband, i was told i would not have to change my direct debit. I have now noticed that one direct debit is paying for my broadband and phone line but the other is still paying BT my old dial-up charge. I cancelled this but BT say they have no record of any payment from the second direct debit and that i would have to get the money back from the bank. I've worked out they owe me around £80.
Am i in the wrong for not cancelling my direct debit even though they didn't tell me to. Is there any chance of getting any money back?

KimYeovil

No, it is THEM who are in the wrong. You behaved correctly. The correct procedure is to allow the company to stop any Direct Debits so that they can retrieve any final bills normally. You could be liable to a surcharge if you cancelled the Direct Debits yourself.

As long as you cancelled the dial-up there should be no problem getting your money back - but, as in many such situations, this sentence has to end with the modifier -
eventually .

KimYeovil

(By the way, did you separately and explicitly tell the left arm that you wanted to cancel the dial-up?)

MeJane

I told BT i wanted to switch to Broadband, when i asked if i should change my direct debit they said no. After my Broadband was up and running I then noticed i was still paying for Dial-up as well as Broadband on two separate direct debits. I cancelled the direct debit that was paying them for Dial-up and now i have one direct debit which is how it should have been in the first place!

Does that make any sense??

BT_company_representative

Hi MeJane,

Dial up is paid separately to broadband. So by taking BT Broadband it wont automatically cancel your dial subscription. Many people actually like to have both services on their line, don't ask me why though!

If you had direct debit set up for you line then when you asked do you have to change this you would have been told no because the existing direct debit would cover the broadband as well.

So you have a subscription for dial up with BT Yahoo, if you want to cancel this you have to do it through BT Yahoo themselves. I can get you on to these guys if you want?

Cheers

Craig
BT Support

MeJane

Hi Craig
I have checked my online bill there is no mention of Dial-up charges, but my bank statement is showing Bt are still taking payment for it. I told them when i switched to Broadband that i wanted to change from Dial-up to Broadband i assumed this was done. My computer is not set up for dial-up so it would be pointless having it.
Later when i told BT about the direct debit paying for Dial-up they said they had no record of that direct debit (ref:GB) even though the money was still being taken out of my account.
Can they check my account before i got Broadband to check the direct debits i had in place? I've certainly been paying too much as one direct debit was paying 12.50 for my phone line and 15.99 for Broadband, then another direct debit was paying 15.99 for dial-up.
Hope you can help me further.