Is BT Email communication valid?

babyboomer50

Regarding the change of free evening calls to 7 pm - 7 am, BT have sent out an email but no written letter to inform us of the change.

We signed up to paperless billing, not paperless changes to contracts, and bills come once a quarter so I log in to the BT account and check that the bill looks reasonable for the next quarterly direct debit.

There was no expectation that BT were going to communicate changes to the T's & C's of our calling plan by email, only that we were saving BT and ourselves money by not having bills delivered by post. The first we knew of the change was when my wife heard something on the TV and checked her email, by which time the 10 day response period was about up.

How can they expect a response within 10 days when customers aren't advised to check their emails every day or 2,just in case BT have some potentially legally binding information to tell us?

Mark_In_Hampshire

Emails have in the past been shown to be legally binding for the purpose of communicating contractual arrangements. If you have opted for paperless billing, I'd say it's perfectly reasonable for the change to be communicated via e-mail only. In fact an e-mail is more likely to arrive than a letter in the post, given our postal system, so it's to your benefit.

By the way the regulation dictates a period of 30 days for you to accept or reject the change, not 10 days as BT seem to think.

babyboomer50

Why does paperless billing imply email communication of changes to T&C?

Paperless billing at BT means that you do not receive a bill through the post but NEITHER do you receive a bill by email. Your bill is created on the BT website and you can view it or download it directly, so email communications and paperless billing are not the same thing at all.

Spam filters can gobble up lots of email including anything that looks like unsolicited email from a selling organisation, with headings including words such as "a good deal for you", "special offer" etc.

I agree that it is possible for email to be legally binding, but surely only if you have been told that contractual changes will be delivered this way and agreed to it.

JustPassingBy

babyboomer50 wrote: »

Spam filters can gobble up lots of email including anything that looks like unsolicited email from a selling organisation, with headings including words such as "a good deal for you", "special offer" etc.

If you are unwise enough to choose and use an email system which chews up your mail that can hardly be blamed on the sender of the mail.

I agree that it is possible for email to be legally binding, but surely only if you have been told that contractual changes will be delivered this way and agreed to it.

The T&C you have agreed to are at

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentFooterPopup.jsp?pagecontentfooter_popupid=13408

"Changing the terms" is relevant.

babyboomer50

Thank you for the link - BT's actual words follow. Why do they have to slip out contractual changes on the sly? If BT are going to use email to change tariffs, it should say so in the section that tells you what you have signed up to with paperless billing.

Paper-free Terms and Conditions

Paper-free billing means you'll receive your BT bill online. You'll stop receiving a paper bill through the post. When your bill is available we'll send you an email to let you know. You can then log in via the Your Account section on BT.com to view your bill and download and print it if you need to.
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