Help With Correct Procedure For BT To Terminate A BT Mobile Contract

middenmess

Hi to the MSE forum posters.

I posted my 'problem' with BT on the Consumer Forums and have been advised by one of the posters,Buzby,to seek assistance here,so aplogies for length of post but here goes....

Changed my BT phone contract in Dec.2008 to BT's 'One Bill' which give me 'One Bill' for Business line,broadband and mobile phone.

First bill came in with no mobile phone included on it and charges for new equipment which should have been included in the new package for free plus promised 10% discount was also missing.

This prompted prolonged phone calls and emails to sort out but eventually more or less OK except for putting the mobile account on the 'One Bill'

Received monthly invoices for mobile whilst this was being 'sorted'.

Received reminder letter from BT around 12th April saying that payment of £21 hadn't been received and

''Unless we receive payment,we will have no alternative but to restrict your service.Reconnection will only take place once full payment has been received''--No date mentioned here as to when the payment had to be made by.

End result was I was 2 months late in paying one of these bills which I paid via Internet banking to BT on 5th May,09. Total involved was around £30.

I was not using the mobile at this time as I was using up old 'Pay as you go' credits on my wife's phone but took only the BT mobile phone with me when I went away on 11th May to an isolated location for a few days where a mobile was essential for both my business and in case of problems with wife's disabilities.

So I was overjoyed to find that the mobile was not in operation when I needed it when I arrived in the middle of nowhere location for a few days away.

As the use of a mobile whilst I was away from home was paramount, I had no alternative but to obtain another mobile at an unnecessary expense and inconvenience

On my return home on May 18th there was no correspondence from BT about being 'cut off' so I telephoned BT to find out what was going on.

The phone was still 'cut off' at this time.

Whomever I was connected to confirmed that the account was paid and up to date and should have been in full service.
He then transferred me to the BT billing section.

This gentleman suggested that it might well have to do with the money being received but incorrectly credited somewhere.
I explained that there would never have been an issue if all the mobile phone account had been correctly set up together with my BT landline and broadband into the 'One Bill Account' in the first place--'One Bill' to me means just that, 'One Bill' ,but to BT it apparently means 'Two Bills'.

This billing person said that they could sort it out quite easily so I left it at that.

They did 'easily sort it out' as two days later I received a final bill which included a 'Termination Fee' !!!

Several emails later with the third party [from whom I'd been sold the BT service and whom I'd asked to intervene with BT to sort out this mess] BT announced to them that the service had been reconnected on or around the 9th June.

BT didn't bother to inform me that the phone was 'back on'.

On 11th June I received a full credit note against the invoice for the Termination Fees.

Emails between me and BT right up to today but getting nowhere--[these included BT saying that they'd arranged to include the mobile onto the One Bill account but still receiving separate invoices from them! and me saying there is no contract because you terminated it!]

So in a nutshell...

BT cut me off apparently on May 5th May [Only found out the actual date in one of BT's emails to me this week!]
The account was paid and up to date on May 5th..
I needed a phone that worked so I bought another one.
Phoned BT Billing [on 18th May on my return] who said they'd sort it out.
2 days later I received a final bill including the termination fee.
BT 'resolved it' 23 days later on 9th June apparently but didn't deem it necessary to tell me about it.
11th June I received a credit note.

So the way I see it,

BT formally [but unlawfully?] terminated the contract by sending a final bill with termination fee some 2 weeks after terminating the contract on 5th May.

A Credit note was received against Termination fees but I do not believe that it's possible to un terminate a terminated contract, especially after 23 days with no communication to me, the customer,then there is no contract in force.

~

In the latest email from BT received this week I've been told ..

'The reason why I delayed raising a credit until 10.06.09 was because there was an invoice dated 01.05.09 for £10.64 due on the 31.05.09 (invoice number xxxxxxxx), which I wanted to wait to see if it was cleared. by the 10.06.09, this wasn't cleared, so I decided to raise a credit of £xxx.xx, which was for the termination invoice £xxx.xx and for the £10.64 which we did not receive payment for.'

Meaning that BT were waiting for me to pay for a period of time on a contract that they had already terminated and for a connection that had been cut off and was not available!

The writer continues...........'If it is the case where you feel you did not agree to the reconnection, then I can reverse the credit note and the termination fees would then stand.'

This would then be a termination which was un terminated which was then re terminated!

The flow of emails have up to now been on a friendly !!! business level but this has now been going on since May and I'm getting nowhere so I need to know where I stand with this,so I'm looking for advice as I believe their actions to be an unlawful recission of contract as they don't appear to have followed the correct procedures or am I completely in the wrong here?

redux

middenmess wrote: »

The flow of emails have up to now been on a friendly !!! business level but this has now been going on since May and I'm getting nowhere so I need to know where I stand with this,so I'm looking for advice as I believe their actions to be an unlawful recission of contract as they don't appear to have followed the correct procedures or am I completely in the wrong here?

As far as I can tell from what you've written, it has been going on longer than since May, when you say you were 2 months in arrears. Internet banking does not transfer funds instantly, so they didn't have the money on the May 5th date you suggest. It might have been better to discuss it with them then and ask to pay by debit card, which gets authorisation straight away and therefore shows up on the account sooner

I can't see how you can claim damages for alleged rescission of a contract that you say you were receiving bills for, albeit not listed all on the same account as expected, and then broke by being in arrears.

I can't tell from working through this what you actually want - a contract that works, or to be disconnected. Why not decide what you want, and then negotiate.

middenmess

redux wrote: »

As far as I can tell from what you've written, it has been going on longer than since May, when you say you were 2 months in arrears. Internet banking does not transfer funds instantly, so they didn't have the money on the May 5th date you suggest. It might have been better to discuss it with them then and ask to pay by debit card, which gets authorisation straight away and therefore shows up on the account sooner

I can't see how you can claim damages for alleged rescission of a contract that you say you were receiving bills for, albeit not listed all on the same account as expected, and then broke by being in arrears.

I can't tell from working through this what you actually want - a contract that works, or to be disconnected. Why not decide what you want, and then negotiate.

Hi redux,thanks for your reply.

I had phoned BT several times to get the mobile account put onto the one bill as it should have been done when the account was set up but replies varied from ''that's not possible'' to I'll get that done,no problem'

I admit that I'm at least 50% at fault for not paying attention and paying the mobile bills late but was always waiting on them being put as promised onto the one bill.

Since the email correspondence with BT started in May at least 3 of the people who have replied have 'put' the mobile account onto the one bill but the invoices for the [terminated] mobile for June and July have arrived separately with only the landline and the broadband on the one bill.

I'm not seeking damages but am in situation whereby I received no notice at all that BT had terminated the contract and was only made aware of this when I received the Final Invoice issued on May 19th-2 weeks after the fact.

As I wrote previously BT's reminder letter said..

''Unless we receive payment,we will have no alternative but to restrict your service.Reconnection will only take place once full payment has been received''

In my book 'restrict' has never meant 'terminate' and 'Reconnection will only take place once full payment has been received' should have in any case meant that the phone should have been in service when the funds sent on 5th May cleared on 8th May but BT terminated on that day instead of 'reconnecting' and didn't put the service back on until 9th June.

For a communications company BT do not appear to have communicated enough in this case and there must be a set procedure and time scale that has to be followed when an account is terminated or can an account be terminated and notice of such be sent 2 weeks after the event?

What an unneccessary mess!

BT_company_representative

Hi middenmess,

Sorry to hear of all the problems that you have been having regarding the billing of your BT Mobile. This has obviously been going on for a while and I would like to get it sorted for you. What appears to have happened regarding the cancellation of your BT Mobile contract may have been in error on BT's behalf. BT may have tried to move your BT Mobile contract onto the Onebill but in doing this cancelled the contract completely in error.

Sadly this is all speculation at the minute as I would need to check your account to see exactly what happened. If you want to PM the details to me I will look into the account to see what happened and also see about getting the BT Mobile transferred onto the Onebill.



Conan
BT Support.