Being charged for not making calls by BT???

findingnemo^^

welshnanny wrote: »

I have not been at home for 6 weeks due to family circumstances,in fact I'm 350 miles away from home caring for a family member.I got my online phone bill from BT and was a bit gobsmacked to see the penalty charge .

After phoning them up to query the charge of £2.70 for not making 2 calls,I was told by a jobsworth called Amo in the BT Billing dept that I should have left a key with someone to go in to my house and make 2 calls!! I really couldn't believe my ears and said so,has the world gone mad????

Maybe I should have said put the gas fire full on incase I get charged for not using enough gas and leave all the lights on or Scottish Power will penalise me for not using electricity,oh and better leave Sky on too,I have to watch 2 films a month oh and by the way leave all the taps running,can't have the Water Board charging me for under use of my utility in this drought.......!!!!!! :mad:

The two call rule is to stop people using free features with BT (1571/Caller Display) and not making calls through BT.

Bit harsh on you for going away for 6 weeks (I can only afford 2 weeks) but you could have ceased these services temporarily to avoid the charge?

Heinz

Your household insurance may well have been invalidated too - because your absence exceeded 30 days.

Jeffie_Freedom

Do you people realize that North Americans wouldn't even dream of tolerating what you're describing? It's as if competitive capitalism never really made it to your shores. It gives one the impression that any telecom with proper respect for their customers and free customer service could decimate the competition in your country.

My advice to you, is that when a company does something which irritates you, do not blame yourself for not reading the fine print of the contract. The onus is on your service provider not to do anything which might be annoying to their customers. If you feel annoyed, they failed to prevent you from feeling that way. Switch providers on principle. Reward the companies that get it right.

closed

That assumes there is someone in the market who gets it right, consistently, and at the right price.

Whatever service sector you care to think of, they all play the same game in one way or another, competition just adds complexity for the consumer, rather than choice, and the companies make the most of that complexity to try to hoodwink customers, inhibit price comparisons, and inhibit switching.