What are my rights about unclear invoices/bills?

bloosmartie

Hi
I hope this is the right place for this issue, I've been lurking for a while and had a lot of helpful advice but now I'm at breaking point about this! My post might be quite long as a result but I've tried to keep it to the key points - if I've missed anything crucial I'm sure someone will let me know.

I cancelled my home phone and broadband account with effect from mid December last year.
Shortly after, I received a bill that charged me up to the end of December. I called and spoke to someone who agreed that this was incorrect. He said a new bill would be issued charging me for the correct dates and confirmed that the existing bill was not due.

I received another bill which refunded me for part of the first bill - the phone line - but actually charged me until mid January for the broadband.

I called again and again they confirmed this was incorrect and assured me that a new bill would be issued.
I received another bill with a credit which I assume relates to the broadband but it doesn't say that and it doesn't give dates of what is being refunded.

VAT rates have also changed over this period so it looks like I'm being charged and refunded at different rates (not always the one I believe would be applicable and I'm an accountant so I flatter myself that I understand that part!).

The total outstanding amount is not what I think it should be on the basis of the number of days I actually owe them for.
I emailed them again after the latest bill and requested an explanation of what is being charged. I had a reply this morning that just said 'the best I can do is to copy out the bills - see below... apologies for any inconvenience'. I don't know if my original email request was unclear but they have completely not responded to my concern.

I do not want to pay them until I understand what they are charging me for, and that is not at all clear from the invoices themselves, as evidenced by the fact that their customer services people can't do any better than copy them out. I am particularly reluctant to pay given that the first two invoices were definitely, by their own admission, wrong.

What are my rights around this? I have been unable to find anything more specific than vague references to reasonable charges. My feeling is that if they can't explain to me what the charges are then they can't defend them being reasonable.
How can I make them take this more seriously? I am so frustrated and genuinely losing sleep about this, not least because they are now sending me red debt escalation bills and I'm concerned this might affect my (til now) perfect credit rating. This just feels horribly unfair because I made a point of checking that the first bill would be cancelled so that it wouldn't look like it was outstanding months later, but they haven't done that.

Any help or advice will be really appreciated.

Fran

squeaky

Hiya

Your original post was made in a thread where questions and answers from several posters can get tangled up and cause confusion - so I've moved it into a thread of its own.

This one

Good luck.

bloosmartie

Hi

Thanks Squeaky, as I said, bit of a newbie at posting here!

Does anyone know if there are any consumer rights etc around understanding your bills? I have run out of ways to try to make them explain to me why the charges are so high, and they are just not listening!

Many thanks