The Chances... Me, Oftel and BT

kelvinguest

March 2010 - ordered BT. At the time, on the internet there was a deal - free line installation. "great" i thought.. I rang them. "sorry sir deal no longer valid however you take out BT vision we'll install the line free of charge". so i thought fair do's - turns out I need a freeview ariel - but wait says the operator. you can get some digital channels on an analogue ariel. so he see's what the signal strength is for our area. Yeah its stong enough you'll get a few channels so wont be a complete waste.. I was taking their advice and went with it. I moved in 4 weeks after I initially planned, this was because the house completion kept getting put back. Eventually when I found out I had no channels it was too late for cooling off period as I had been delayed.

A few weeks after I ordered I rang them stating that the payment plan they put me on wouldnt be enough to cover my costs. They said not to worry it would alter itself. Me being naive believed what they said.

I had bill in the april 10 and they wanted to more than double my DD. I rang them and went through it. BT likes to keep customers in credit which is the reason why we doubled the payments. I reduced them down to what the payment each month should be.

I then had a letter stating they were putting the charges up. I rang them again saying because their increase was leaving me out of pocket I was able to go elsewhere with a cheaper rental. They agreed but said they would give me a discount for line rental, i also asked them to check my internet usage as i didnt believe I needed the top package. Turns out im using 5 meg a month. I asked if possible to reduce to a lower package. I could as long as I entered a new contract. I thought it was all sorted.

I had my bill in October 10 which had all of the previous costs on and everything promised hadn't been actioned. So i rang them again as well as sending an e-mail confirming i wasnt happy. Indian call centres are a nightmare. I couldnt speak to noone english until i said i wanted all of the contracts cancelled and wishes to leave. I then spoke to a scouse girl, confirmed all costs and they sent me a new bill (i had to enter another contract to get the prices right). 2 days later I had another bill for more than the original. I rang up again - this time india wouldn't transfer me back to england. Apparently I would get a credit on my new bill in January so i left it again.

I received my last bill in January, I almost missed a mistake - The tv package which i was offered for £6.75 per month still wads showing as 14.99 a month.

I emailed on 31 jan and feb 7th as i had had no reply. I finally got a reply yesterday asking me to ring them to cancel. I rang through and was quoted £478 to cancel all my services. I said no chance as its their fault and down to their incompetence why it has come to this. Bt state there is nothing they can do. (they can always do something but they just choose not to) I said i wasnt prepared for these charges and that i would go to ofcom. Ive contacted ofcom and oftel and they are sending me out a pack to sign etc.

What do you think are the chances of me getting out of the contract and not paying anything? every bill i've had has been incorrect and i've been trying since august to resolve.. i'm at the end of my tether now and hope oftel go with me on this one

Mark_In_Hampshire

The Vision thing does need an analog aerial, yes. That was a case of upselling to get you to buy an extra service for the so-called free connection.

I presume the phone and broadband services are working OK, and you were told about the aerial for the freeview vision box thing, so here it's a case of administrative incompetence. That in itself does not provide any easy right of recourse to cancel.

If you pay by monthly DD then BT can and do alter the amount to suit themselves which will most likely end up with you building a credit over time.

Personally I'd cancel that, and revert to paying via online banking when you get the bill. This gives you the opportunity to withold payment for the over-charged items.

Your chances - from a legal and probably regulatory perspective - would certainly be improved if you wrote to BT by recorded delivery. Send one copy to Durham and the other to their head office.

Outline, in date order, what was agreed, and then what happened.

Give them 14 days to sort it all out, detailing precisely what you expect done, and importantly, you expect only one contract which started on the day you took it out, not some subsequent contract which you only took out so they could get the prices right.

After 14 days, send a copy of that to the regulator to back up your case.

macman

There is no such thing as an 'analogue aerial' or 'digital aerial'. What you need is an aerial capable of receiving Freeview, which is how the non-on-demand part of BT Vision is delivered. This will normally need to be an external rooftop aerial, not an internal set-top aerial (you don't say which yours is).
So, if you couldn't receive Freeview before, installing BT Vision will not change anything.