BT - Monopoly?

AntMcD

Please can we start some form of movement to bring BT to account for the way it disregards our consumer rights and gets away with it. I have been pretty much solidly on the phone to BT from 9.45am this morning to 5pm.

I shan't bore everyone with details but they put a CEASE on our broadband line and did not inform our ADSL provider prior to the cease and also they neglected to contact us as their customer to give us fair warning that they were going to do this over an October invoice which we had paid.

As a small business in manufacturing it is hard enough to deal with the day to day difficulties we face in this economic climate to then have to spend an entire working day trying to resolve a mistake made by BT that has left our business without any email, internet communications.

Their own departments miss inform you consistently... I was told initially that there was no cease on any of our lines (we have multiple phone lines) I asked them 4 times.

Then after our ADSL provider insisting that BT had ceased our line I eventually chose another department within BT (if you can ever get through their dead end phone systems designed to slow down the caller traffic so they have less calls to field.)

I eventually was told their was a "billing issue" which was the problem so you guessed it... Another department, another number to call another phone system and hey presto lets go through all the same details all over again as each departments database does not apparently converge with the other as it does not have access to the same details.

I could go on but there is no point I know everyone has had to go through similar experiences with BT. In short we need to do something to hit BT and the like where it hurts as they are abusing our rights and are down right arrogant to believe that they are not accountable for their general day to day incompetence.

We are the consumer. We have the power to change these systems. I propose we tackle the one issue that allows these companies to get away with down right abuse of our rights across the board. Every day theses companies make billing mistakes to people like you and me

It simply is not right or proper that as a consumer you should swallow that paying by Direct Debit is a better way of paying bills. Yes it may save us money supposedly but it is only because BT charge you £10 for the privilege of paying your bill by cheque. We are the customer. Why should we accept these terms. It simply is not fair.

Say an electricity supplier, Gas, or phone company accidentally make a mistake with your bill ( you get a bill vastly too expensive and their is obviously a mistake on their behalf and THEY charge you too much and you have payed by Direct Debit. They have YOUR MONEY they make interest on Your Money and you have to fight to get it back and worse still prove to them they owe you money.

We need to start a national campaign / petition to make it law that these companies can not work into their terms of contract punitive charges to consumers and small businesses for opting out of paying by DIRECT DEBIT. It is scandalous that we have to bank role these companies with blind payments to utility companies that make rules which their respective watch dogs have no clout or inclination what so ever to do anything about.

It is time to unleash Martin Lewis on these cowboys as the majority of politicians are gagged by party politics and the the pursuit of the Daz Ultra whiter than white image to risk getting stuck into "real consumer issues" that affect millions of people every day.

Will you please help us Martin :money:????

P.S If you support any of this please add your posts along with this one so Martin can see this is a worthy cause to Champion. Wouldn't it be amazing to give these companies a dose of accountability like the politicians have had. Thanks for reading I hope it struck a chord!

isplumm

Funnily enough - I like BT ....

As a business you need to work out how much it cost you to fix issue & suggest that they compensate ....

Do you have an account with BT? Shouldn't you have been dealing with you ASDL company?

Mark

AntMcD

Well I am happy for you if you feel BT provide a good service. More than happy in fact if I was in the minority I would chalk it as bad luck but it simply is not the case.

RE ADSL: the ADSL provider can't do anything if BT don't inform them they are putting a cease on a line before they do it. BT have also got you over a barrel because it is the line that is ceased and therefore your ADSL provider can not do anything as the account for the phone line is not with them it is with you. Of course it makes it even worse because then i have to deal with ADSL provider and also BT who are my supplier of the phone line.

This is the second time BT have done this and you could say well just put your ADSL with them and then you only have to deal with BT, but in actual fact it makes no real difference as BT is not able to communicate between departments... BT SALES, AFTER CARE, their down right incompetent ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT then the real issue is the total incoherence between BT OPEN REACH & BT WHOLE SALE. In short it is a total shambles and the people who suffer are the poor soles who end up in purgatory being shoved from pillar to post in phone system with numbers for this which when you get to the end hang up on you and the necessity to have to phone between departments to sort a single issue which in actual fact was caused by BT not communicating with their CUSTOMER to resolve the mistake they had made in the first place.

Hey at the end of the day this is my experience but the point I am making is this.

These companies are huge and we as individually consumers mean nothing to them. As a collective we have the ability to force change. I believe that the payment terms companies such as BT impose on us is totally biased TOWARDS the favour of the supplier offering little protection against abuse as once these companies have your money which in some circumstances they have debited incorrectly you are a tiny fish in a very big sea. Good luck recouping the money you are owed. In addition BT'S COMPENSATION by the way is derisory when you cost how much time and loss of business you accrue due to being left without broadband and phone line from between 5 to 10 days as a business.

gordikin

BT are excellent for me...I've even stopped by a BT engineer working on a junction box and had my line restored within the hour when I had a problem, but then BT are both my line and my ADSL provider too....kind of makes sense I thought in the event a problem and getting a quick resolution.

Mankysteve

While it would be nice for each household to have choice of different companies with ther own hardware to your property, the cost involved of installing all new equipment would be horrendous. We're stuck with a monopoly sometimes bt can be great sometimes there rubbish.

4743hudsonj

So you propose taking away charges on paying by cheque (i assume you want to ay this way from your remark) which is soon to be phased out anyways.

Worthy campeign;);)

They can charge you what the damn well want. Its your power as a consumer (even a business one)to go elsewhere. Thats it. If everywhere else does it, well thats just supply and demand. If the service wasn't worth the premium then we wouldnt have it would we..... ergo it must be worth the money.

hollydays

BT Monopoly.
I think I have played that board game once or twenty.
Unfortunately i picked the card that said "Ring BT,get passed around five departments then cut off.Go back to the beginning and start again. Do not collect £200."

And "You have requested a refund of monies paid,but you are never going to get it.Give up."

Then there was " You accidentally discover your ex-directory number is being given out by BT to directory enquiries.Don't expect an apology".

Browntoa

did'nt think thay had a monopoly any more ??

vyle

I had no end of troubles with BT getting my internet working. Luckily, it's been sorted out now, but I'll be leaving as soon as my contract is up.

Pete*G_4

Browntoa wrote: »

did'nt think thay had a monopoly any more ??

Realistically, how many phone line providers are there? BT are the only people who will supply a line to my address, and so they do have a monopoly in my area.

Add to that, that majority of BBand providers, subscription tv providers etc all require a BT line...

sounds like a monopoly to me.

Browntoa

thats "universal obligation" not a monopoly...BT HAVE to supply anyone with a line , unlike the rivals


With Talk Talk , Sky and Post office etc you no longer need to have a BT line as they take over the whole thing paying Bt Openreach to do the repairs etc