BT failed to protect my personal data, acct, address and phone number and access

wildthing46

Copy of email sent to BT Wales website:

I have just sent my complaint into Xray BBC Wales for investigation, I have screen prints of 3 dialogues on your online complaint system. I have made 3-4 calls in a year, and have not had any success in BT protecting my personal data, and now I have a crime number for the most recent issue which I have warned BT about since moving into a brand new house on my own, my own tenancy agreement, my own line, my own broadband account, and yet somehow my ex who is very violent has gained access to my acct details and my home number. I explicitly asked from the beginning when they put a line into my new house not to give or link anything to him and they promised me time and time again he would not. Yet his name appeared on MY bill at MY new address where he has NEVER lived!

The police came out tonight and told me they have verbally warned him about contacting ME and he has told them that he has the same problem WITH MY new number issued 15 mths ago being linked to his acct and I have been assured by your advisors online and on the phone that this is not so, that there is no link and never has been.

I want this all investigated, and I am contacting a solicitor tomorrow! Please find attached a copy bill screen print off my bt phoneline account online displaying my name and tel no. and acct number on the top LH side, and scroll down and his name appears above my address where he has never lived. Then scroll down and you will see the online conversations over the last month with me feeling scared that he may access the number with his name being on the account. and i asked for him to be removed and a note put on both accts so that he could not gain access, he was arrested and removed from our last property for beating me and as usual he got away with it! I moved out before he moved back in.

He phoned this number this morning and I have been in touch with your nuisance call bureau and they have put a trace on the line and they are tracing his calls as he withheld his number. The lady online this afternoon wants to change my number and open new accts, how can I be sure he cannot get hold of this information again? What is going on with data protection in a large company like BT??????? How did he get on there in the first place after my continuous requests!

Kimitatsu

You need to make a complaint to the information commissioners office link here:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/

This will enable you to have a complaint against the company registered and compensation assigned where appropriate.

Other than that there is little you can do apart from change your number and have the account assigned as a highly senistive case which will require extra security checks to discuss it.

Take care

amcraig

How odd - I've just come off the phone from BT trying to deal with a very similar issue and thought I'd look on here to see if there was any advice. Basically, husband left in Oct 2008. At the time I phoned BT and asked for the account to be transferred into my name. "No problem" said BT "that's it done for you now". Then when my ex took out a new account a few weeks later it was obvious he was still linked to the account in some way because the address on the account changed and my direct debit was cancelled. Again, after a few phone calls I was assured it was sorted and the account was in my name. Now, he's moved again and guess what - there he is on my bill with his new address. The lady in the call centre tried hard to sort it out but her systems wouldn't let her just transfer the account to me (so goodness know what they actually did when I originally called).

I am hopping mad about it (probably irrationally so) because the offered solution was that I get in touch with my ex and get his permission so I can take over the account that I've been paying for the past year and a bit. :mad:

I can maybe see how there has been a mix up in my case but if you've taken out a completely new account then the error is inexcuseable. IMHO there are serious problems with the set up of their electronic systems. Anyway, no solutions to the problem - just wanted to offer my sympathies. I'm off to write a good old fashioned letter as fed up going round in circles at the call centre.

BT_company_representative

Hi wildthing46,

I am really sorry to read about what has happened and I completely understand why you are so annoyed. Would you email me to btcare@bt.com with a contact number and I will give you a call to get this sorted out. Mark the subject field FAO Donna and if you could include your forum username and the best time to reach you I would be very grateful.

Many Thanks
Donna
BT Support

BT_company_representative

Hi amcraig,
Sorry to hear of your problems. Email your acccount details to btcare@bt.com and include your full name and address. Would you also include your forum username and copy & paste the post above or include a link to the thread so I can identify you.

Many Thanks
Donna
BT Support

Jemma-T

To the BT Reps -no offence but make sure you're running your comments (here and email) in front of your supervisor/team leader.

We're dealing with possible breaches of the law so keep yourself (that you and BT) right.

wildthing46

Hi everyone and thanks

I have been informed by BT that in Oct of this year my ex's broadband account was migrated onto a new system and due to a system error it was put on MY profile, my tel acct. profile. A bt bband bill was sent out to my ex with my name now as the acct holder, and the ex made several calls to bt and this resulted in him getting my number, they maintain they wouldn't have given it to him, but how else did he get it? When his acct was migrated how did my name become the acct name on his broadband acct? They say he had to have my acct number to get into my information, he was showing up for months on my tel acct and I tried to get to the bottom of this and then he gets onto my profile......and then he gets my number and tells the police he did not know it was my number. He did not know?????:mad: .....the query he generated to BT was because my name was on his bill and his acct was now linked to me. So They have now closed down both my tel and bband acct and put hazard notes password protected on them and I have new number.

but what can I do about him.........he has gone out of his way for the second time now and this is the second time I have had to change my number here in a year, the police have given him a verbal warning again but haven't taken it seriously as he maintains he did not know it was my number and was merely tryhing to find out whose number it was....LIAR!! AND THEY BELIEVED HIM!!!! They were different officers who did not read up on the case history and didn't care!:mad:

obviously i don't want it to happen again but i want him dealt with more severely.......by the way he is an IT teacher and a whizz with databases.

DVardysShadow

I would say that those suffering from these issues should take a deep breath and refer them to the Information Commissioners Office.

The reason for taking a deep breath is to refocus the complaint. The ICO is not directly concerned with violent ex's but with breaches of data protection principles and the complaint has to be framed in those terms. Please folks, do take the complaints forward - it looks to me like BT has a systematic issue over separated the details of separated couples - and do mention the risk of violence - but make the focus the data protection issue.

wildthing46

Still struggling with this.......asked BT to send final bill after closing both accts (tel. and Broadband ) and asked for copies of last 6 mths for both accts as I know I have been charged for my ex's bt broadband on my old tel acct. and I cannot and willnot pay final acct as I know I have been charged for his broadband....have not lived at his address for 18 mths and since they mistakingly dropped his broadband acct onto my tel. acct in Oct of 2009 ( I left his address in Aug 2008) I have been charged for broadband on my broadband acct which is seperate from my tel acct and also charged for broadband on my tel. acct. So I will be taking this much further.....I have asked on 4 occasions through Dec 09 for copies of bills inc. Xmas Eve 09 and still have not received any correspondence, I suspect they are sending my bills to his address as this is what has been happening all along and this is why he got my tel. no. in the first place.

I rang over the Xmas period concerning my new acct. which is supposed to be password protected with a hazard warning and both times went through to a call centre in a foreign country and both times no password was asked for and I was given information of how much was owed on new acct.

I am not happy at all, so I will be corresponding with the necessary complaints agency now!!!:mad: