MSE News: BT accused of breaking rules on contract tie-ins

Heinz

But how are you going to keep the VOIP 'line' when you no longer have a landline to carry your ADSL broadband?

reihtec

Heinz wrote: »

But how are you going to keep the VOIP 'line' when you no longer have a landline to carry your ADSL broadband?

Quite simple, I have TV, Broadband and Mobile from Virgin. Touch wood I've only had a problem with broadband once or twice in the over 3 years I've used them and they sorted it pretty rapidly. Plus we don't get many calls on the landline and as all our outgoing calls to mobiles and land lines are on free mobile minutes, the land line was only there for making international calls with services like 18185. But as the price from Sipgate (who are fantastic) is much cheaper than 18185 and similar providers and is far more reliable, accurate and convenient than using calling cards, it's a no brainer for me.

Apart from the international calls, the landline recently has only been for those family members who won't use their free minutes and won't call mobiles from their landlines.

I got myself a C475 IP phone from ligo. Great investment as it's cordless, the clarity on Sipgate is just as good as the landline, and it has the great feature of being able to be programmed to dial certain numbers on the landline or voip lines (of which it supports 4), or blocking certain calls altogether (like 0845 and 09 and mobiles).

I realise I am probably in a unique position, but getting the C475 and cancelling the landline feels so liberating. Sipgate gives me a local landline number free, so incoming calls are sorted, and if you make loads of landline calls to other landlines, check the VOIP article on this site for some voip providers that give you 400 minutes free a month when you top up £10 which you can then use on other calls.

But I think I've waffled on a bit now.

traceyj83

I am currently in dispute with Bt over my renewable contract! I never received my reminder letter and wanted to switch as BT were starting to charge me in advance for my line rental, when i rang to cancel my contract they told me it was too late and i would have to pay, my contract had only been renewed for a week!! The man i spoke to was extremely rude and basically called me a liar after i said i did not get my letter!! He told me he would pass it on but if the system says a letter has been sent then there is nothing i can do!! I will fight this but dont know how far i will get!!
I also questioned why i was getting charged in advance and was told that "i think you will find we have always done this and every other provider does too". I was appalled at the way he spoke to me and when iasked for his name he refused!! I tried to get a surperviser but apparantly there was none there!!

Heinz

traceyj83 wrote: »

I am currently in dispute with Bt over my renewable contract! I never received my reminder letter and wanted to switch as BT were starting to charge me in advance for my line rental, when i rang to cancel my contract they told me it was too late and i would have to pay, my contract had only been renewed for a week!

BT has always charged in advance for line rental.

reihtec

Sorry you had such a hard time tracey, but I recommend that you try calling them back during the day (if you hadn't already) as the chances of going through to a call centre in India is less. Also try to get a reference number of the call and try to be nice. I know it's an annoying situation but it's the company's fault, not the person taking the call and sometimes being nice can get you further. Also I'd say try calling in the morning around 9:30 when people have settled in but are less likely to be stressed from all the callers. It's not scientific but it may help

BT_company_representative

Hi Traceyj83

I can have this looked at for you. Send an email to the address in my public profile and perhaps I can assist you further with your original questions.

Please include your BT Account information.

Cheers

Stuart

When_is_the_reset?

I have just called BT to check if we are stuck in a 'evening & weekend' thing contract and the man told me that that it renewed - today!

Is it too late to cancel? Yes - it renewed today.

Can I use any of the distance selling regulations etc - No - it renewed today and it is too late.

How much will it cost me to get out of it - £89.75.

Any chance of not charging me this? - No - it has gone to the high court and tough luck.

I didn't get any letter saying this - Bad luck, computer says we sent it.

How about if my computer says I sent one back saying we don't want to renew your stupid contract? - We will pass your details on to a debt collection agency who will hound you and ruin your credit rating.

Will I deal with BT again? Not likely; I will move on principle.

johnleask

I have a contract with bt for 18 month for phone and broadband, at £24 now they are taking over £27, I thought a contract was a contract, bt seems to do anything it wants and no one can touch them.
Ronnie Biggs was sentenced for 30yrs for taking far less money than banks , utilities and BT, the government lets them rob us! left right and centre, and still nothing is done about it.

BT_company_representative

Hi johnleask,

If you want I can check your account and see exactly what's going on here. You can get in touch by using our "Contact us" form, which you can find on my profile page.

Thanks,

Stephanie

sconch

Please, please, please can someone help! This is long, but bear with me. We are having a real nightmare. I live in a rented apartment and have a perfectly good Virgin broadband deal. My intial contract is over, so I have no tie-ins other than 30 day notice to cancel. I have had a new flatmate move in, and he wanted to bring his BT Infinity across with him, as he was on contract that started in January. BT told him rather than pay from transfer, they would start a new 18 month contract from the day he moved in (16th April gone), and installation would be that day. From then, it's just been one disaster after another.

Mon 16th - Engineer didn't know where green box in street was, or where main lines came into building. Surely they should sort this in advance of arriving? He then left saying he'd be 30-60 mins, and was gone over 2 hours, and had driven away. I suspect an extended lunch! After return, he couldn't get it to work, and suggested calling tomorrow if still off. He also left the box not properly fixed to the wall. Great start!

Tue 17th - Called and got Indian call centre (here we go!). He went through stuff on the phone re settings etc. I'd done all of that before calling. He said would need to book another engineer and would call back. No call back that day.

Wed 18th - Called at 7am, waking up whole flat, stating engineer would visit before 6pm. Engineer didn't turn up! Rang 18.35, on hold for at least 20 mins, and the Indian call centre couldn't say why he didn't show. Asked to complain and for it to be logged, and for explanation of complaints process. This wasn't given, and I was escalated to Level 2 (probably just passed to the guy sat next to him). He PROMISED to call back before 8.30pm, and said he would let me know what happened after he'd looked into it. He never called! I rang back just before 10pm, and he said wholesale needed to speak to diagnostic, and I'd get a call tomorrow before 10am. Complaints process still not explained, despite me saying I want to complain formally in writing (e-mail).

Thu 19th - They never called.

Friday 20th - Today, after Live Chat, got a call back, so I wasn't waiting on hold all that time. They (Indian call centre) didn't know what problem was, and would get an engineer out next week. I said this wasn't acceptable as over a week then without service. I insisted on speaking to UK staff. They said that there was a 48 hour wait to speak to someone in the UK. I asked for their duty manager stating I'd cancel if this wasn't sorted, and surprisingly got UK (at last!). Spoke to a lovely Scottish girl in their customer service, and she escalated to her manager that called me back promptly to sort. She gave me her full name, and was helpful. She said that despite notes on file saying I wished to complain on Tuesday, nothing had been raised! She rang complaints herself, and said she would see if they could sort engineer sooner, and that complaints would handle whole thing from here on in, but gave me her direct line if I had any issues. She said complaints would call asap. They rang the wrong number, and spoke to my flatmate and he was busy and out, so told them to ring our landline. They didn't. I called several time on the complaints number I'd been given. They couldn't get hold of the guy that was meant to be handling it (there's a surprise), and e-mailed him to call me back. They said it would be in 24 hours. Scottish manager said it would be within hour and he'd sort everything. I tried calling her back 4 times, and her phone was never answered! I rang complaints again before the closed at 6, and was told that the guy named wasn't sorting it. They put him on, and he said he had allocated it to someone else to sort and was off on his holidays! The guy it was allocated to wasn't back in until late next week! I said we had had no service and wanted to cancel, stating that there should be a cooling off period, and that the service had never activated (phoneline was working though). He said there was no cooling off period at all, and it was cost us a ridiculous amount to cancel the contract (almost £300 I think)! I was told I just had to wait until someone else called me back next week. He referred me to website to read T&C's.

My Virgin service is still active until the end of the month. I rang them, and quickly got a lovely girl on Teesside. She said they can pretty much do a similar deal, and it would be an upgrade that would take an engineer 10-15 minutes to do, and it can be done on Tuesday. How's that for helpful, quick, efficient service. She was so nice, and fully understood how p**sed off I was getting with BT.

We're almost a week down the line, no BT service, hours on the phone with no result, lots of time on hold and in India, passed from pillar to post, and now told that we're basically stuck with it, and nothing we can do, so tough! Anyone know if there is anyway we can get out of this contract without paying cancellation, or if there is any cooling off period that applies with a new contract, even though it started originally in January (but new renewal when he moved here). I would heartily recommend that you NEVER move to BT unless you want these kind of problems as well, and I think that Virgin are fab! I've been with them for a few years, and apart from a brief drop out of b/band, I've had no other issues. They've been great, and it's so easy to speak to UK staff.

BT feel free to sort this if you're watching!