BT Error has cost me £45 - O2 cut me off!

Joonyer

Hi all

Moved house recently, tried to do a BT line takeover but BT said:

"There's a business line active in the house, we can't take it over due to data protection"

Ridiculous idea as I'm paying the mortgage and no-one had lived here for 4 months beforehand. They also said they wouldn't contact the people paying the bill, for the same reason - this protects no one. I'm not protected as I have no phone, and the people paying the bill aren't aware that they're still paying (but it keeps money in BT's pocket).

Their bright idea was to plug in a phone, call 152 (business services) and try to get them to help. I tried this, but no dial tone. After 3 weeks of emailing and calling, they admitted they'd messed up and there was actually no active business line in the house. As such, they did a normal line takeover and we now have an active line.

Problem is we missed the 30 days with our O2 broadband and were terminated due to "no active line" (terms and conditions - fair enough I spose) although I did keep them informed the entire time.

They're now demanding (literally) £45 to clear the end of the contract, threatening legal nonsense if I don't pay. They don't care about the BT dispute and said "we're not liable."

Next step will be to call BT, but I need some advice - can someone tell me how I should go ahead with this please? I know I'm going to get some phone-monkey just reading from a script so how do I actually proceed?

It stands to reason that BT pay the £45 but I have a feeling they'll tell me I've got no chance.

Any recommendations/suggestions highly welcomed, thanks in advance

Kind regards
Matt

LeeSouthEast

Ordinarily I'd say fight. But when it comes to fighting with BT, I can't be bothered. It's such hard work it's easier to swallow the loss!

Joonyer

Not happening mate

Heinz

I'd have to agree, it's not worth the hassle for, what, 3 or 4 hours' pay?

Joonyer

I don't understand - it's £45 that I've been cost, for nothing. Isn't it at least worth trying to get BT to accept that they've cost me the money (they already accepted that THEY made a mistake).

£45 might be money you can just ignore, in which case I'm very pleased for you, but I'm still paying off uni debts and my mortgage so throwing away 50 quid at a time is not fun. Oh and 3 or 4 hours work for a normal person is not £45 after tax. I'm 24, I earn a shade under 20k.

I managed to get them to waive a £125 connection fee once through demanding to speak to managers, and being very firm, so I'm not about to give up at the first hurdle.

Seriously guys, it's money saving expert.

thanks
Matt

mandi

You could try an email to [EMAIL="ianlivingston@bt.com"]ianlivingston@bt.com[/EMAIL] , but dont hold your breath at getting any compensation. They will find some excuse not to pay .

Joonyer

Thanks for the tip - I'll get onto them now then and find out. I'd love to know what excuse they have considering they have admitted fault outright.

thanks
Matt

billycasper_2

Had a friend recently who was cut off by mistake by bt, she got it sorted and asked for compo, she got £70.. because of the mistake her broadband (which was with bt) also had to be reconnected, she is again asking for compo.
you have to be persistant, if they have admitted the mistake then you should not be left out of pocket. my friend got through to an indian call centre but immediatley asked for the supervisor calmly telling the poor guy that he wasnt getting paid enough for the rant that she was about to unleash. she then asked the super to put her through to the local bt office where a manager gave her a direct number..
she was persistant and calm.
it does work

Joonyer

Hi Billy

Cheers for that mate, much appreciated. I work in a role that requires a lot of diplomacy so I can relate there - no point ringing them screaming abuse.

After a long long conversation with an Indian guy about it, he said they're going to waive the line rental charges for the month I wasn't with them, and he also gave me some details of who I should fax+email a letter to, stating the termination and the charge from O2.

He said they would then be able to cover this.

I called O2 and basically said that if they can give me a letter stating what I ask, they will get paid - if not, they'll have months of chasing to do with very likely no positive outcome and would definitely lose some business.

I've got an individual's details now and I'm requesting this letter from him and will send it to BT. If this all works I'll be very pleased.

It will also be a nice success story considering the lazy responses I got initially, which weren't even worth posting given the nature of the forum.

I'll update when I can!

thanks again
Matt

Joonyer

Slight update for you - turns out the bill was £103 not £45, though I'm sure "Heinz" up there wouldn't care as it's only a few hours work to him!

I've had a letter from O2 outlining the charges exactly as I requested, and BT's billing department have forwarded my complaint onto their complaints department who are agreeing to pay me £103 as compensation.

Granted it's not sorted yet, but I've been dealing with a nice welsh bloke in Newport who is bending over backwards to help me. Should know by friday.

Will update then!

Matt

layla75angelgirl

Well done on the progress that you have made so far! I have been holding off tackling BT over the disconnection charges that they are going to impose on me....I can't bear their automated phone system. The other day they gave me the option of them ringing me back....which they never did! So not going to trust them to call back again.

For a communications company, they have a total lack of ability to communicate effectively with their customers - and they also take forever to answer their phones!!!! Pfft.