Why can't anyone at BT Help me!!

doobiesis_2

I am absolutely furious,

On Monday I rang up BT customers services and spoke to someone in India, she did not understand what I was trying to ask her and I didn't understand what she was trying to advise me. I have recently had BT Take out £46 from my bank account, not knowing it was coming out I didn't have sufficient funds to cover this, my DD was canceled and I was charged £39 for the privilege. Now, I found out this morning that my land line has now got restricted calls, when I call BT up to hear they've cut me off due to an unpaid bill. This is so infuriating as I've always had a set amount they take from me of £17 which should cover my quarterly bill as I do not make any calls hardly.

I hear that when I had the line installed I was charged £122 for this, when I rang on the day of installation (August 09) because the engineer hadn't turned up I was advised he didn't need to call and I would not be charged for the £122 installation fee. Since that date I've paid the amount of £17 with no troubles having a quarterly bill already.

My first question was why are they taking so much money from my bank without informing me, they successfully had taken £46 the previous month. She couldn't answer this. Then I asked her how do you inform your customers that you're taking more than agreed, she didn't know this. When o2 take money from my account, they email me 14 days previous to tell me how much the amount is, as I have paperless billing with them. I tried to go through to BT's head office but they just put you through to the India line and I'm not going to talk to someone who isn't understanding what I am asking or having to explain myself again and again.

I apparently owe them £79 as they've taken the rest out of my account, without informing me that it was higher than normal.

I would like them to speak to me and advise me of a few things, not just say they don't know, or they don't understand what I am saying.

Mark_In_Hampshire

BT do not need to inform you of the amounts to be taken in advance in any given timeframe. You agreed this when you agreed that payment method. They need to give you "up to 10 days" notification. They do however have to give you some notification even if it is only 30 seconds before the amount is debited.

You are liable for the bank charges, even though that's BT's apparent error. There is nothing in the so-called DD guarantee to cover consequential loss.

If you were told that there would be no install fee then you need to progress this with them. As you'd agreed to DD payment, they can simply take that out of your account. The DD was correct, but the bill was wrong.

You can agree a set fee with them of £17 per month however it used to be the case that a DD can be for a fixed amount/date. That doesn't exist any more, the supplier can change the amounts/dates at will.

Are you on online billing only e.g. no paper bill? Have you checked to see if the email notifying you of your bill was deleted as "spam?"

You are going to need to put all of this in writing, email or to their head office, setting out dates and events and what you disagree with. Phoning them isn't going to get you anywhere.

Paying by direct debit is either an expensive mistake waiting to happen or an expensive mistake which has happened.

doobiesis_2

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

BT do not need to inform you of the amounts to be taken in advance in any given timeframe. You agreed this when you agreed that payment method. They need to give you "up to 10 days" notification. They do however have to give you some notification even if it is only 30 seconds before the amount is debited.

You are liable for the bank charges, even though that's BT's apparent error. There is nothing in the so-called DD guarantee to cover consequential loss.

If you were told that there would be no install fee then you need to progress this with them. As you'd agreed to DD payment, they can simply take that out of your account. The DD was correct, but the bill was wrong.

You can agree a set fee with them of £17 per month however it used to be the case that a DD can be for a fixed amount/date. That doesn't exist any more, the supplier can change the amounts/dates at will.

Are you on online billing only e.g. no paper bill? Have you checked to see if the email notifying you of your bill was deleted as "spam?"

You are going to need to put all of this in writing, email or to their head office, setting out dates and events and what you disagree with. Phoning them isn't going to get you anywhere.

Paying by direct debit is either an expensive mistake waiting to happen or an expensive mistake which has happened.

I am not a retard, I know the rules regarding Bank Charges ETC. And no emails received from them and as I don't use a junk folder I guess it's not in there. I've put it all in writing.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I'm not suggesting you are a retard. I am not sure what response you were looking for.

BT's so-called customer service is well known to be a joke.

You have an issue with overcharging for the installation and a secondary issue with not being notified about debits.

If you only want to pay £17 per month on the same day each month the only solution is to set up a standing order with your bank to pay £17 a month on a fixed date.

You seem annoyed that you're incurred charges and do have a point that you were not notified of the amount. However if you do not pay by DD then this cannot happen. You'd still have had the line cut off for non payment since you had no bill to pay, but would be £39 better off.

So your letter/email needs to:

1 - make it clear that the installation was foc and so the charge needs removing;
2 - confirm your email address for your "the bill is ready now" notifications in case they have that wrong

That will then enable your two issues to be solved. Doing that by email is bound to be easier and more productive than trying to explain it to someone in India.

Rockport

I fully empathise with your experience doobiesis. Isn't it a complete disgrace that you have to take the measure of posting on a public forum that bears no connection to the company in question, in order to interact with somebody in the hope of determining why you are being charged random amounts without adequate forewarning?

I think its about time OFCOM or whoever is supposed to be regulating these cowboys forced BT into accepting a £50 charge for everytime they incorrectly bill an individual without adequate forewarning, resulting in not only bank charges, but also a black mark against your credit report and £22.75 for everytime they simply incorrectly bill you. This charge should be placed in with the terms and conditions of the original agreement and might just force BT into caring for its customers.

We all know how difficult it is to obtain credit these days and its about time people were fully compensated for bank charges and black marks against credit reports accrued by the sheer negligence of BT and other telecoms firms.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Rockport wrote: »

I fully empathise with your experience doobiesis. Isn't it a complete disgrace that you have to take the measure of posting on a public forum that bears no connection to the company in question, in order to interact with somebody in the hope of determining why you are being charged random amounts without adequate forewarning?

I think its about time OFCOM or whoever is supposed to be regulating these cowboys forced BT into accepting a £50 charge for everytime they incorrectly bill an individual without adequate forewarning, resulting in not only bank charges, but also a black mark against your credit report and £22.75 for everytime they simply incorrectly bill you. This charge should be placed in with the terms and conditions of the original agreement and might just force BT into caring for its customers.

We all know how difficult it is to obtain credit these days and its about time people were fully compensated for bank charges and black marks against credit reports accrued by the sheer negligence of BT and other telecoms firms.

I'd say that your comment is aimed at the wrong party here.

The bank charges for failed DDs are ridiculous and well in excess of the actual cost to the bank.

While those bank charges exist, and while the direct debit system remains as insecure as it is, the solution is for customers to vote with their feet, so to speak, and simply not use DD as a payment method.

Even if you are scrupulous about checking your bills, and make sure to fund your account you will eventually - unless you leave plenty of cash knocking about in your account - incur a failed DD charge or an OD charge thanks to an error by a payee.

Because the DD "guarantee" allows payees to set how long the notification is to the customer before the cash is debited, payees can over-ride the "10 days" which used to be the case. For BT it's "up to 10 days" which is of course meaningless, it specifies no minimum period.

So if that doesn't sound fair, simply don't use that payment mechanism.

If you're sent an incorrect bill, just don't pay it. Pay the it you owe and dispute the rest. Hence the "DD guarantee" simply does not come into play - you cannot be charged incorrectly.

If people read what they were signing up to and realised the flaws of the system which is essentially designed for the convenience of payees and to make banks money, then few people would use it and there would be changes made to properly secure and operate the system.

As it is, because people are fooled into believing that DD is a secure and safe way to pay one by one the safeguards which used to exist with that mechanism have been removed.

The next change to be made will be a subtle one, which will be that if a payment is made in error, you will have to get the payment back from the payee and you will need to produce a deadlock letter from the payee (which you'll never get) to your bank for the bank to refund the payment.

Where this is all going is to enable payees to produce a bill and debit for it "as one" with no notification so getting their money immediately.

Rockport

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

I'd say that your comment is aimed at the wrong party here.

The bank charges for failed DDs are ridiculous and well in excess of the actual cost to the bank.

While those bank charges exist, and while the direct debit system remains as insecure as it is, the solution is for customers to vote with their feet, so to speak, and simply not use DD as a payment method.

Even if you are scrupulous about checking your bills, and make sure to fund your account you will eventually - unless you leave plenty of cash knocking about in your account - incur a failed DD charge or an OD charge thanks to an error by a payee.

Because the DD "guarantee" allows payees to set how long the notification is to the customer before the cash is debited, payees can over-ride the "10 days" which used to be the case. For BT it's "up to 10 days" which is of course meaningless, it specifies no minimum period.

So if that doesn't sound fair, simply don't use that payment mechanism.

If you're sent an incorrect bill, just don't pay it. Pay the it you owe and dispute the rest. Hence the "DD guarantee" simply does not come into play - you cannot be charged incorrectly.

If people read what they were signing up to and realised the flaws of the system which is essentially designed for the convenience of payees and to make banks money, then few people would use it and there would be changes made to properly secure and operate the system.

As it is, because people are fooled into believing that DD is a secure and safe way to pay one by one the safeguards which used to exist with that mechanism have been removed.

The next change to be made will be a subtle one, which will be that if a payment is made in error, you will have to get the payment back from the payee and you will need to produce a deadlock letter from the payee (which you'll never get) to your bank for the bank to refund the payment.

Where this is all going is to enable payees to produce a bill and debit for it "as one" with no notification so getting their money immediately.

No I'm not certainly not aiming for the wrong party here, although I agree entirely with you with regards to the direct debit system which to exist in the format it does today, in the year 2010 is a complete shambles.

doobiesis makes the complaint that she/he is being billed a larger amount without any notification and is then unable to talk to anybody who is capable of understanding her situation. That is entirely the fault of BT. Why should the customer of any company have to leave money in a bank account on the off chance that "incompetence strikes again" on behalf of BT and another payment much higher than expected is taken from the bank account? If you left an extra £20 in your account for every organisation that takes a payment you wouldn't have any money left to do anything if your on a small budget.... These multinational companies should be doing everything they can to alleviate the burden of having a small budget in this day and age of not even knowing if you will have a job tommorow, as opposed to billing an extra £20 here or there without adequate notice.

Mark_In_Hampshire

That's just one of the reasons why DD is such a bad idea.

The incompetence of BT and frankly most telephony companies is a separate issue as is their inability to take customer service seriously enough to properly train their call centre staff or equip them with the information needed to do their job. Implementing crass and punitive policies only leads to the staff being abused by customers further demotivating them.

If you don't like the way you are treated or find that your emails are answered in broken english, your points ignored, you have to wait for 45 minutes to speak to someone, and so forth, then choose another company. You can't legislate against incompetence. But as a customer you can choose whether to put up with it or not.

I find that in general small companies offer better customer service than large ones. There are a number of smaller companies such as IDNet who provide both voice and broadband and who seem to have quite a good reputation.

doobiesis_2

I found the CEO's email address and emailed him earlier, within an hour I'd had a phone call from the Complaints Manager, who is taking a look at my complaint. He's reinstated my phone line and hopefully it'll get sorted out. He's calling me tomorrow after 1pm. :j

BexTech

I found making sure I had a decent buffer in my bank account and not leaving it close to zero eliminates charges for going overdrawn / past overdraft limit.

doobiesis_2

BexTech wrote: »

I found making sure I had a decent buffer in my bank account and not leaving it close to zero eliminates charges for going overdrawn / past overdraft limit.

Yeah that's ok if you're not a single mum surviving on money!