I hate bt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Avoid avoid avoid

OnTheUp_2-2

I wish Bt did not exist. They have the most appalling customer service and the people you speak to fob you off and then put the phone down and pretend they have fixed everything when they have not. Below is a transcript of an argument I had with BT.. makes you think it will all be sorted right?? WRONG I have just gone online and they have not adjusted my bill for November and have in fact SIGNED me up for another of their deals at £11.25 a month 12 month contract WITHOUT informing me WITHOUT my permission, is this legal????????????

And to top that off even if they got it all right it means come end november I will have to pay £50 +another £33 for 3 months service in advance??

Well they can forget it, as far as I am concerned I am no longer in contract to them and will go else where. i choose to pay by direct debit because I like to pay monthly. I am so livid

GoToAssist (12:46):
Your advisor has arrived.

GoToAssist (12:46):
Advisor Nicola has requested system information from customer Customer has sent system information to advisor .

Nicola (12:46):
Hi Lucy how can I help?

lucy (12:47):
Hiya, I have received a letter saying I have failed to make a payment even though over the last year i have paid by direct debit?? When I have looked at my bill it is not right anyway!

lucy (12:48):
How is it 26.24 ?

lucy(12:50):
The plan is down as being 15.45 when I have rung several times saying I did not want to be on this plan?? How many times does someone have to contact bt before they actually listen? My bill should be 12.50 a month.

Nicola (12:51):
I can see that your account was changed to be paid by cash or cheque on the 30/07/09. I can see that we have produced a bill since the direct debit was cancelled dated the 27/08/09 that has not been paid. This bill includes rental charges of £ 50.85 + the payment processing fee and 39p of call charges. I can see from the bill you where also credits of £25.00 of payments you made on yoru account

lucy (12:54):
The d/d was cancelled because bt had made a mistake and needed to refund me 25, that money would not have been used up unless the dd was cancelled and then reinstated which should have been done your end. I also confirmed via live chat and two phonecalls that at the end of my contract i wished to revert to the basic line rental. i was told that I could only do this at the end of the contract so on 26/08/09 I called and did this. i then received a letter some days later saying that you had enrolled me onto a new contract and I was tied in for 12 months. I called AGAIN and stated I had already stated that I did not wish to go into a new contract and the person promised to sort everything out. clearly he didnt bother.

Nicola (12:55):
I can confirm that you where on a special offer on the evening and weekend plan where you got this at no extra cost and you where only billed the basic telephone line rental, I can see that this special offer has ended and you no longer recieve the discount special offer. I can reapply this offer to your account today if you wish?

lucy (12:56):
NO Nichola. I do not want the special offer. I want you to put as agreed back in August, onto your STANDARD BASIC line rental please. I would also like you to remove the 4.50 payment charge as it is not my error with the d/d. and set back up a dd for 12.50 a month.

lucy (12:57):
and then I would like a new bill with the correct amounts

Nicola (12:57):
I can confirm that you changed calling plans on the 27/08/09 to the basic line rentla although as this bill was produced on the same day we did not have the chance to add this to your bill.

lucy (12:58):
well the reminder has not been adjusted? I was forced by bt to wait until that date therefore it should stand
I had informed you previous to this that they did not want to be on anything other than your basic line rental

lucy (12:59):
so please can you confirm what I have asked that a new, correct bill will be generated

Nicola (13:01):
What I will be able to do is hold back this bill until your new bill is produced on the 27/11/2009 as an amended bill will not be sent out. On your next bill you will be refunded what you where charged for on the evening and weekend plan and recharged the new amount of basic line rental. I understand that you where advised to change on this date and it is unfortunatle that this was the same date your bill was produced.

lucy (13:02):
no thats not acceptable. I am not paying for something I have not agreed so it can be refunded back
its bt's mistake not mine.

Nicola (13:04):
You will not have to pay this will what I will do is hold back this bill until your next one is produced so you are billed the correct line rental. So when your next bill is produced you will be billed line rental for basic line from the 27/08/09 to the 26 Nov 09. and then again for three months line rental in advance from November.

lucy (13:04):
and the 4.50 charge removed and the dd set up as before

lucy (13:05):
so that my bill will be 50 basic plus call charges

Nicola (13:06):
yes I will remove the £4.50 charge for you. You can set up the direct debit with me now ok
Can I take your account number and sort code please.

lucy(13:07):
yes its acc number

Nicola (13:08):
Ok It is currnetly asking me to pay the outstanding balance on the account first so would it be ok for you to reset the direct debit once you have recieved your Novamber Bill?

lucy (13:09):
if i do that then included with that bill will be another 4.50 charge?

Nicola (13:09):
I will send a request to our billing department to ensure you are not billed anther £4.50 charge on the Nov bill

lucy (13:10):
ok and so I can discard this late payment letter and i will not be charged 7.50?

Nicola (13:11):
yes that is correct I will ensure that you are not billed any extra charges on your next bill.

lucy 13:11):

samuela66

Hi Lucy,

I hate them to, but sadly they are the only peeps I can get a landline from where I live, Its only been a month in my new place but I have allready had to complain about my first bill:rolleyes:, I asked for weekends free calls only but then found I was being charged for weekends and evenings, this took a LONG call to sort out, the girl on the line said she had sorted it after AGES, but then called me back an hour later to say that once something has been applied to an account they cant remove it , so I would be getting evenings and weekends free and my bill will be credited with a years worth of charges next time (I find this very hard to believe) and am sure when I get my bill next time I will be wasting more of my life on the phone to them, they must go through staff like nobodys business as no one really seems to know what they are doing, I asked a chap about paperless billing, his response was you will only save 25p a month and then when I looked on line it is £1.25, quite a difference and rather in my pocket than theirs.

Good luck you are going to need it.....
x

OnTheUp_2-2

Poor you, if I can give you any advice with Bt, do everything in writing as when you call it goes to india and it appears everything stays in India. They will spend half an hour tellling you what they are going to do and then put their phone down and have acuppa, completely disregard your discussion.

Also you then have evidence. cleverly I make complaints online and request a reply via email.. suprise suprise they call me! why? so that you have no evidence of the call or what was discussed and agreed.

Disgraceful company, are you def sure that you cannot go with anyone else? i would not accept what they have said about the call plan. if that is not the call plan you agreed then I would push. Put your compalint in writing, say that is not what you ordered and that is not what you want. If they fail to rectify it then take your comapint to the Omudsman

Sneezy

You may want to edit you OP to remove your name and the advisors name!

OnTheUp_2-2

cheers snezzy not bothered about myself, but dont fancy a lawsuit lol

libra10

Similar thing happened to me. Was on their Plan 2 (not sure what name they give it these days), then received enormous bill. Phoned and complained, they droned on about credits being applied to our account.

They (very generously, they thought) said they would give us another year of Plan 2 with no extra charge. Next quarterly bill arrived, and you've guessed, we were charged.

I was angry, and after navigating the BT menu, refusing to do their survey, spoke to Joseph, who I gave earache!

Joseph promised faithfully to sort problems, and my bill would be reduced by correct amount. I told Joseph this same action had been promised three months previously, with no result.

Joseph gave me a reference number, the quarterly DD was taken with correct reduced amount. Joseph was pleasant and efficient.

I was impressed!

However, considering that BT prides itself on communication, it makes it very difficult!

poppysocks1

Similar too - I checked online that I have FREE BT privacy at home and FREE BT1571 - however they still charge me £2.50 a month for this....... no mention of having to make 2 chargeable calls per month anywhere in the account, and was told if i remove the 1571 service i wont get charged £2.50 - anyway BT were supposed to call back, they havent and I just cant face dealing with them in the eves after work.

I know £2.50 is not a lot, but I dont use the phone and resent paying this each month esp when they confirmed it was free....

Really wish I could get away from them.

Markie11

poppysocks1 wrote: »

Similar too - I checked online that I have FREE BT privacy at home and FREE BT1571 - however they still charge me £2.50 a month for this....... no mention of having to make 2 chargeable calls per month anywhere in the account, and was told if i remove the 1571 service i wont get charged £2.50 - anyway BT were supposed to call back, they havent and I just cant face dealing with them in the eves after work.

I know £2.50 is not a lot, but I dont use the phone and resent paying this each month esp when they confirmed it was free....

Really wish I could get away from them.

I've had numerous issues with BT over the last year or so. My line rental is with them where as my calls and broadband are with Tiscali. I only really need line rental to access to the internet, and very rarely use the phone to make calls (unless it's to BT to complain!).

I continually receive literature through the post from them to move my calls back, even though I've asked them to remove me from the mail list. I received a number of Broadband sales calls from them, and each time I request they remove me from the list. To add, I'm x-directory so they should not be ringing me.

The latest issue relates to the previous comment with regards to BT Privacy but also relates to the original comment with billing. Since my calls were moved over to Tiscali quite a few years ago, I was aware of the charges if you didn't make any BT calls, so I had it removed. So quarterly bills have been and gone over this period but in July's bill a BT Privacy charge of £7.50 was charged to my account. I rang up immediately to have this removed but told a similar response of I can't refund you now but it will appear on your next bill. It seems to me as though they swapped a majority of customers from one product to another in July and not everything worked correctly. I bet I'm not the only one who had this issue and I told them so in an email back in September, for which I've not had a response yet.

BT have very poor customer relations.

OnTheUp_2-2

Ok so I have had a long day and have alot on my mind and no matter how many times I read this email, I have brain fog. So thought i'd get you guys to see what you make.. I think.. that this person is going back on their word about refunding the overcharge for august and has ignored my point about being charged 3 months ahead...


WHAT I WROTE

Below is a copy of the transcript re my last complaint. I have checked online and nothing has been adjusted. Furthermore you reckon that at the end of this month I will pay the outstanding + 3 months line rental in advanced!! I am on the direct debit scheme and have no intention of doing such? I have also seen that you have changed my calling plan without my permission YET AGAIN. It appears you have signed me up for another 12 month contract on a special tariff WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. I am so disgusted with your company and your disgusting sneaky customer service. I am NOT in contract to you I DO NOT want you to call me like you always do even when I request a reply in writing and I DO NOT want an automated response


THEIR REPLY

Thank you for your email dated 20/11/09 regarding your rental charges.

I understand that you did not receive the credit for your calling plan on your recent bill.

I have checked your account and noticed that you had Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan at no extra cost special offer on your account. This special offer was activated on your account on 27/08/08 and the contract expires on 26/08/09. As you have agreed for the special offer, you will receive the credit of £2.95 incl. VAT every month under the 'Promotional Discounts' section of your bill. This is a 12 months contract and the discount is applied for 12 months.


The service charges for Unlimited Evening and Weekend plan are £15.45 incl. VAT every month. The service charge includes the line rental of £12.50 and the call element fee of £2.95 per month. However, as you have agreed for 12 months renewable contract for the special offer, you will receive a discount of £2.95 for the call element fee under the 'Credit: Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan Deal' section of your bill and you will pay only the line rental of £12.50 incl VAT every month. I noticed from your previous bill dated you have been given the credit of £2.95 incl. VAT every month till 26/08/09 and the calling plan special offer was cancelled on 27/08/09. Therefore, I am afraid, you have not received the credit for £2.95 incl. VAT for the special offer on your recent bill dated 27/08/09.

Also, I noticed that your calling plan contract is not renewed for another 12 months as you have requested to cancel your contract before the contract was renewed. As you have cancelled the renewal of the contract on 27/08/09 and the bill was generated on the same day, you have been charged for the normal rental charges of £15.45 incl. VAT for Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan without any credit amount.

However, I wish to confirm that as you have changed your calling plan to the basic line rental plan without any contract, the advance rental charges raised for Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan will be re-calculated and refunded on your next bill dated 27/11/09. I can confirm that you will be charged only for the Unlimited Weekend Plan (basic line rental plan) in future.

Thank you for your patience and co-operation in this matter. Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

OnTheUp_2-2

oh and I had the whole bt privacy thing happen for a year without my knowledge that I was being charged, I forced them to give me a full refund

minted007

BT and other big firms seem to think that they can ride rough shod over the public, and they do. They change your billing/plan without your consent, they add charges which are not fair. They are all sales driven to the point that they up your bill tie you to contracts that are not easy to get out of, as they roll over seemingly without warning, and initiate extra charges at the drop of a hat. It really does seem that the only way to fight back is to not give the offending company your custom.