BT, small claims court,

Steveseven

Has anyone done this.

BT cut my number off, (Admin error on there part) I was without my number and BB for 25 days, and I wasnt even with BT.
Just to make it more fun they refused to speak to me about it for 4 days, as I was not their customer !!
Ive done the Ofcom/ Otelo and they thought I should get £50 for compensation, 4 days of my time is worth more than that.

So .. small claims, has anyone done it. pitfalls ?ect

Mark_In_Hampshire

I'd have said that £50 is all you're likely to get (I realise the point you make about your time being worth more) however just to clarify: as you were not with BT, the company you'll be sueing is the company you were with (doesn't make any difference that it wasn't their "fault" - they're the directly contracted party in breach), who in turn can sue BT if they like.

DVardysShadow

You need to 'quantify' your losses.If you cannot produce a good argument for them exceeding £50, then accept the offer.

Steveseven

I thought I had given Otelo enough info, I spent 4 days trying to talk to BT, but as I wasnt there customer, they didnt want to know. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Mark_In_Hampshire

BT are in the right there. If you're not their customer, they will not and indeed should not discuss the matter with you.

cabbage

Hi

It will cost you £25 to launch a claim in the small claims court via Money Claims Online, more if you don't do it online. The other posters are correct, your contract is with your ISP and telephone provider not BT.

You will have to weigh up if its worth £25 to get back £50 (potentially). Also there is no guarantee you will win via the small claims court and even if you do and they still do not pay you, you will have to go back and pay another fee to enforce the judgment.

Doesn't seem worth it to me. Of course being without BB and a phone for that long is unfair/frustrating etc and you want some compensation but looking at logically it might be better to take the £50 on offer and an apology if you can get it.

Buzby

Do also remember that if you lose, BT can apply for their (capped) costs, so budget another £100 to pay them. As you have no agreement with BT, your chances of success are remote.

DrScotsman

Wow, these replies are really surprising me.

I'm not saying that the OP should take BT to small claims court (he really really shouldn't), but why does he need to be a customer of BT for them to be responsible? I haven't imagined Donoghue v Stevenson, have I?

(Of course his actual calls/line rental provider is probably much more easily found liable under breach of contract, but that doesn't absolve BT)

DVardysShadow

DrScotsman wrote: »

Wow, these replies are really surprising me.

I'm not saying that the OP should take BT to small claims court (he really really shouldn't), but why does he need to be a customer of BT for them to be responsible? I haven't imagined Donoghue v Stevenson, have I?

(Of course his actual calls/line rental provider is probably much more easily found liable under breach of contract, but that doesn't absolve BT)

The nature of the case is that the decomposed snail is more obviously Stevenson's fault that the cafe owner's.

For telecoms on the current UK model, it is far easier to prove that you suffered the loss than to prove that Openreach caused it, so it makes more sense to go for your own telecoms operator and let them sort it out with Openreach.

DrScotsman

DVardysShadow wrote: »

The nature of the case is that the decomposed snail is more obviously Stevenson's fault that the cafe owner's.

...And it's more obviously Openreach's fault than it is the provider?

For telecoms on the current UK model, it is far easier to prove that you suffered the loss than to prove that Openreach caused it, so it makes more sense to go for your own telecoms operator and let them sort it out with Openreach.

Oh I agree it's far easier and it makes far much more sense, I just disagree with people saying that BT are definitely not liable.

Steveseven

Thanks for all your replies folks, really appreciate it ,

Here is the detail
I live at house number, 5
and my neighbour lives at 15, they applied to BT for services.
BT missed the 1 , killed my line, I only found this out when I reported the fault to my phone company, lets call them Tes,
Tes could not tell me who had nicked my line, it took 4 days of calling BT (they would not speak to me as I was not there customer) when I did work it out, mr postman sends letter to my address with the name of people who live at 15 on, I get BT to talk to me.
Otelo have a letter off BT admitting it was their screw up.

If it was a tech problem I would be less anoyed about it, It was the fact that BT told me to foop off for 4 days, when it was their fault.
And then just to make it more interesting they cut my bb off 3 times.


:mad: