BT - This kind of trickery makes me really MAD!!

temin

I have been rung up twice by someone from BT in the last few weeks. They asked me if I knew that I could make free local phone calls at week-ends andwhen I said yes, they then said that in order to reward me for my loyalty, BT would like to extend that to free weekday evening calls at no extra cost to me if that was OK. No mention of any contracts.
When I asked if this tied me into a 12 month contract, they admitted that it did at which point I refused..
Now I think this is completely dishonest and deceitful - if I had not asked, they would have signed me up for a 12 month contract without me realising it.
It just makes me angry that well established, national companies that we trust are taking advantage of us.
Someone in a hurry or who was unaware of this sort of ploy would have been conned into signing up.
Surely you should need some paperwork to sign in order to sign up to any binding contracts?
.

DVardysShadow

temin wrote: »

...
When I asked if this tied me into a 12 month contract, they admitted that it did at which point I refused..
Now I think this is completely dishonest and deceitful - if I had not asked, they would have signed me up for a 12 month contract without me realising it.

Well done you for being firm

It just makes me angry that well established, national companies that we trust are taking advantage of us.
Someone in a hurry or who was unaware of this sort of ploy would have been conned into signing up.

We are all too used to being pushed about and unfortunately there are all too many people who have very little idea of how a contract works and what their rights are that a totally different system is being imposed on us by these companies, simply because they can get away with it in the majority of cases.

Surely you should need some paperwork to sign in order to sign up to any binding contracts?

It helps a lot. But if there is not any, it does actually provide good grounds for denial for anyone willing to stand up to the bullying of these companies.

ACDeag

temin wrote: »

I have been rung up twice by someone from BT in the last few weeks. They asked me if I knew that I could make free local phone calls at week-ends andwhen I said yes, they then said that in order to reward me for my loyalty, BT would like to extend that to free weekday evening calls at no extra cost to me if that was OK. No mention of any contracts.
When I asked if this tied me into a 12 month contract, they admitted that it did at which point I refused..
Now I think this is completely dishonest and deceitful - if I had not asked, they would have signed me up for a 12 month contract without me realising it.
It just makes me angry that well established, national companies that we trust are taking advantage of us.
Someone in a hurry or who was unaware of this sort of ploy would have been conned into signing up.
Surely you should need some paperwork to sign in order to sign up to any binding contracts?
.

Technically if they did not mention a 12 month contract then it would not have applied, as it can only apply if you are made aware of it. I would admit that proving to BT 6 months down the road that you were not told would be difficult. Knowing how BT works I bet that if you had said yes then you would have been read a script in which they would say you were agreeing to a 12 month contract.

temin

I would admit that proving to BT 6 months down the road that you were not told would be difficult.

Precisely, ACDeag, 6 months down the line if I wanted to change my phone provider to Talk Talk for example, BT would hold me to the contract and I would probably find it very difficult to remember the date I was called and the exact content of the call, let alone prove that I wasn't told about a 12 month contract!

Do they not have an obligation to follow it up with some paperwork?
.

ACDeag

temin wrote: »

Precisely, ACDeag, 6 months down the line if I wanted to change my phone provider to Talk Talk for example, BT would hold me to the contract and I would probably find it very difficult to remember the date I was called and the exact content of the call, let alone prove that I wasn't told about a 12 month contract!

Do they not have an obligation to follow it up with some paperwork?
.

An oral contract is as good as a written one (except for land transactions), so no, however if they rely on the written docs to tell you something they do not mention on the phone then yes.

narika

temin wrote: »

It just makes me angry that well established, national companies that we trust are taking advantage of us.
.

I dont trust them....Im sure lot of voices on here do agree with me. If there was another company out there I would defo shift to them....the place where i live, i have no other option to get a BT line to get my broadband.
BT are just a pack of lies to fob customers off. I cant judge if its an deliberate attempt by the CS work for BT or BT trains their staff in such a way that they can deceitfully add contracts to customers and when you do report BT knows how to surpress it.

Certainly BT has no reputation to what they promise, in my opinion. Had BT been a small company then that would have been banned by trading standards by now for their mis-selling.....

Heinz

I think we're talking about agency personnel, on commission, calling on behalf of BT here.

If your living depended on how many you could sell per day, you'd take liberties with the script too.

DVardysShadow

Heinz wrote: »

I think we're talking about agency personnel, on commission, calling on behalf of BT here.

If your living depended on how many you could sell per day, you'd take liberties with the script too.

And liberties with the reputation of your client.

syko29793

DVardysShadow wrote: »

And liberties with the reputation of your client.

Its a sales call by a sales advisor. they are not going to tell you full details until they have you hooked. Thats how sales work.Tell you the best stuff to get you interested and then tell you the terms.

zippstar_2

disgraceful but typical of BT imo

Jemma-T

zippstar wrote: »

disgraceful but typical of BT imo

Typical of any private company.

Put your phone number on the TPS list and also ask BT to NEVER phone you unless it's very specific regarding an account problem.

I've never (and I mean NEVER) had BT call me about anything in over 15 years. They simply mark your account as a 'do not contact'.