BT Help Needed Urgently - taking to court!

DonnyDave

november wrote:

I have advised her to write to the solicitors confirming I contacted BT and they said they could not set up the payment plan and advising her to do nothing until the collection agency contacted her

I suggest that she takes legal advice. Get her to make an appointment at her local Citizens Advice Bureau. Or perhaps you could go to CAB (I assume you could go on someone else's behalf).

I assume that anything she puts in writing may be brought up in court, and could therefore affect her case (good or bad). I'm no legal expert, but seeking legal advice is a must.

clark1982

Its part of the T&C's that if the service is not paid for, BT will terminate the contract and hold the contract to term.

It’s very likely you're sister was advised of the contract at the point of sale, but we tend not to listen to this part of the call! BT is strict on compliance, as ALL calls to their CS centres are now recorded. In the past it was only sales calls that were recorded. If need be, you can ask a Customer Service Manager to review the sales call.

Now that you're sister has been sent a final bill, all services have now been terminated. Therefore BT will not reconnect the line until the debt is paid. Once they do agree to reconnect the line, you're sister will not be eligible for BT Broadband for 1 year (1 year is the approx time, it takes to build up a good payment history). BT is obliged under its licence to provide telephone service, but they can refuse to provide Broadband due to bad payment history.

You're sisters line would have been made OCB (outgoing calls barred), then TOS (taken out of service, both I/c and o/g barred), then the contract would have been terminated. This whole process takes approx 4-6 weeks to happen, so she would have had plenty of time to make a payment plan before the termination.

My colleagues are right in saying that the matter will now be passed to a DCA, and a payment plan will need to be arranged with them ASAP. To avoid the matter going to DCA, the final bill will need to be paid, in full, within 28 days....

You’re sister is not entitled to a refund of the £152.70, as she’s broken the contract.

kat21

You should bear in mind, that some whom post on this site actually work for some of the telecom suppliers. I personally would seek legal advice because if you are willing to pay but they want you to wait for a collection agency, then you could end up blacklisted too. See legal advice, try your local citizens advice. Point out that the terms and conditions were not clear, if you can find a copy of any signed documents take them along with you.
kat21

november

Hi clark - I take it you work for BT

clark1982 wrote:

BT is strict on compliance, as ALL calls to their CS centres are now recorded. In the past it was only sales calls that were recorded. If need be, you can ask a Customer Service Manager to review the sales call.

Thank you for that information.

Once they do agree to reconnect the line, you're sister will not be eligible for BT Broadband for 1 year (1 year is the approx time, it takes to build up a good payment history).

I think she's gone right off the idea of BT Broadband (understatement).

You're sisters line would have been made OCB (outgoing calls barred), then TOS (taken out of service, both I/c and o/g barred), then the contract would have been terminated.

Yes all that did happen.

This whole process takes approx 4-6 weeks to happen, so she would have had plenty of time to make a payment plan before the termination.

With all due respect though she has been trying to set up a payment plan but was told she couldn't by the call centre although she did say she had problems understanding them and visa versa. They said she had to pay the bill in full everytime she phoned so how was it plenty of time to do something she was told she couldn't do. Which was confirmed by my call to BT today - they don't do payment plans but outsource them to a collection agency plus I was told you can't contact them - they contact you

My colleagues are right in saying that the matter will now be passed to a DCA, and a payment plan will need to be arranged with them ASAP. To avoid the matter going to DCA, the final bill will need to be paid, in full, within 28 days....

Why does the letter she got say then that she needs to contact BT to make the plan or she will go to court? Then BT say that she cannot make a payment plan with them?

Plus they told me 14 days and the letter, I think from memory, says 10 days!

What seems silly to me is she can just about manage to get £300 - just not the 1 year broadband in advance charges as well. But she can't pay the £300 off the bill. Just like initially she had the phone bill money put up when her husband was made redundant but not the 4 months internet charges in advance she wasn't expecting but was told she couldn't just pay that part of the bill

You’re sister is not entitled to a refund of the £152.70, as she’s broken the contract.

I don't think she's expecting a refund for something she hasn't even paid

She did ask me if I thought BT would accept what she could pay which is everything but the rest of the one year's broadband in advance but it doesn't sound like they would. By that I mean to pay the phone/previous internet bill in a chunk and have her phone back and make payments on the internet in advance but not have broadband again. She really could do with her phone at the moment and doesn't know anyone else with a landline she can use.

Unfortunately she only has BT as a potential line provider so it looks like she is going to be without a phone line for a long time while she makes payments plus charges on the whole lot

november

kat21 wrote:

You should bear in mind, that some whom post on this site actually work for some of the telecom suppliers. I personally would seek legal advice because if you are willing to pay but they want you to wait for a collection agency, then you could end up blacklisted too. See legal advice, try your local citizens advice. Point out that the terms and conditions were not clear, if you can find a copy of any signed documents take them along with you.
kat21

Thanks Kat

She is really worried because it will be her daughter who is blacklisted not her.

She has no signed documents as she has signed nothing. I can confirm that as I saw all the BT info when I went round there last - everything was still in the box and that was all she had.

update

She is going to go to CAB tomorrow. She says she tried several times to make a payment plan offering to pay via direct debit. She was told she couldn't set up a payment plan until she had paid the bill in full (this was prior to the final bill and disconnection). She was also told after cancelling the direct debit that she could not set up another direct debit at all until she had paid the bill in full. This was by Indian gentlemen.

She also says she definately was not told that she would initially have to pay 4 months internet up front as she knew she couldn't afford to double that first bill. That call was to a man too.

She also says she phoned and asked several times about changing the account from her daughter's name to hers since her daughter left home. The last time was a woman who said it was really complicated and to leave it as it was. So BT knew the person they wrote to wasn't even using the phone. They also knew the broadband was set up by someone other than the person they were billing. Plus her daughter definately didn't sign for the internet connection - she doesn't live there! (Yes we know now they should have closed the new account and opened a new one but my sister did ask how to change the names and wasn't advised of this)

Hopefully all of these calls will have been recorded by BT.

Also she has found a letter from BT apologising for a delay in sending her the hub which didn't arrive until September so she didn't have the full service she had paid for since July anyway.

billsavings

kat21 wrote:

You should bear in mind, that some whom post on this site actually work for some of the telecom suppliers.

Yes and very helpful they can be too.:T

Poppy9

Here is the email address of BT chief executive

[EMAIL="ben.verwaayen@bt.com"]ben.verwaayen@bt.com[/EMAIL]

clark1982

once you're sister has paid some of the outstanding balance, she can apply for BT Pay & Call. Its a payAsYouGo landline service. Its great! prevents large bills, and you top up the account via the paypoint. Ask BT debt managment for more details.

november

Update

My sister went to CAB. She was there some while as it took the CAB advisor 3 attempts (separate phone calls) to get someone from BT to agree to my sister making payments! The CAB advisor was amazed!

Eventually they did agree that she could make payments BUT they won't let her pay by direct debit, it does have to be done by the collection agency with does incur a fee, they coudn't say how much the fee was only that it was 'reasonable'. Oh and she HAS to make payments 'by book' which is she is now waiting for

CAB was totally shocked that it was confirmed she was unable to make payments before being cut off and then she had to wait to hear from a collection agency but did thank my sister for letting her know as she hadn't heard of any of this before and it was all confirmed by the CAB advisor trying to sort it out with BT.

She also recommended my sister put in a complaint and if she had no joy there take it to Oftel regarding the 4 months broadband payment in advance with no advance notice, the lack of contract, the refusal to accept payments etc.

No-one mentioned Pay & Call. I mentioned it to my sister the other day as I found it on the BT web site.

My sister is in p/t employment in a responsible job for the NHS, her husband is now in employment again. She has children and grandchildren......... and she's left waiting for a 'payment book' as BT/their collection agency won't let her pay from her bank account Here's hoping the book doesn't have to be taken into somewhere silly! She would love to pay some of the outstanding balance as soon as BT let her!