BT charging my mum £128 for call out !!

lilly82

Hello,
Hope this is the right place to post been on here a few times and the advice is always very good so thought I might try again.
Im posting this message on behalf of my mum (she is not good on the internet lol)
A few months ago she noticed a fault on her BT line it was crackling and she could here other people talking on the line. She lives in a semi rural area and has had problems with the line before.
BT sent an engineer out to my mum (im not sure what he did while he was there and to be honest my mum didnt ask him which was a mistake on her part) not long after this my mum recieved a bill for £128 for the cost of fixing the fault which by this time had started to crackle again.
Without telling me my mum refused to pay the charge because 1 she couldnt afford to and 2 the fault had reoccured (she phoned them to tell them this !) but payed the rest of her bill.
Long story short BT eventually cut her phone line off which really concered me incase of emergency.
They are now sending her debt recovery letters and have now passed her case on to a balliff agency. By this point I was willing to pay the bill for my mum just so she didnt have anyone calling at the house or any affect to her credit ratting.
She has written many complaint letters to BT asking them to identify what the fault was within her house which meant she had to pay for it but none of the replies have ever included this information.
Anyway on Friday her neighbour had a problem with her line the exact same problem my mum was having with crackling and hearing other people on the line. An openreach engineer visited her and said that it was definatly something to do with a box up the road where the two lines meet and would need to be fixed. My mums neighbour actually mentioned to him about the problems my mum had been having and he said it was it was almost certainly connected so much so that he left the job number and his mobile number for my mum incase she needed to contact him to help with her case.
So my mum has called BT this morning (from my phone as she is cut off !!) to inform them of this information and their reply was that the only way they can investigate if the problems are connected and if the problem was not infact inside her house is for her to pay the £128 in order for them to reconnect her and to be able to send out an engineer :rotfl:
So just after a bit of advice now really as she does not seem to be getting far with the people on the phone from BT do we just pay them ? its getting to the point now that I am worried its causing her too much stress and I dont like her being without the phone. Or do we fight on ?
Many Thanks for looking I know its a bit long winded !!

Sublime_2

Contact Ofcom about it. I did when I had a problem with overcharging from a different supplier. Think mine was Onetel.

lilly82

Thank You I have taken note of the phone number so will get her to come bac to mine to give them a call she if they can help. Hopefully they wont just tell her to call BT again because we really are not getting anywhere with them
Thanks Again for that

Mark_In_Hampshire

BT Openreach at it again. Crossed lines caused by a problem in the home, eh? Quelle surprise.

Personally I'd go and find a new supplier and get the line migrated to them, and leave BT to whistle for the money.

lilly82

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

BT Openreach at it again. Crossed lines caused by a problem in the home, eh? Quelle surprise.

Personally I'd go and find a new supplier and get the line migrated to them, and leave BT to whistle for the money.

Thanks we are just a bit worried now the debt has been passed on to the debt recovery agency probably the longer we leave it now the cost will go up its really frustrating for us all

Mark_In_Hampshire

If you don't owe anything, then the cost won't change - it remains zero.

There's a difference between being sent a bill and making payment

With a DCA you need to write to them stating you dispute the amount, you won't be paying, you are attempting to resolve the matter with BT and will enter into no further correspondence; any further contact will be regarded as harrassment etc and they should then go away. There are some template letters available on the net for this, let us know if you need help.

Since it's been ceased anyway, and after your treatment, you may as well go elsewhere. You may well be charged to reconnect the line, though.

So BT wins regardless.

Time to bump these links again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/10/bt.html
http://www.ofcomwatch.co.uk/2009/11/openreach-insiders-reveal-pressure-to-levy-bogus-charges/

lilly82

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

If you don't owe anything, then the cost won't change - it remains zero.

There's a difference between being sent a bill and making payment

With a DCA you need to write to them stating you dispute the amount, you won't be paying, you are attempting to resolve the matter with BT and will enter into no further correspondence; any further contact will be regarded as harrassment etc and they should then go away. There are some template letters available on the net for this, let us know if you need help.

Since it's been ceased anyway, and after your treatment, you may as well go elsewhere. You may well be charged to reconnect the line, though.

So BT wins regardless.

Time to bump these links again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/10/bt.html
http://www.ofcomwatch.co.uk/2009/11/openreach-insiders-reveal-pressure-to-levy-bogus-charges/

Thanks Mark,
Definatly a great idea the template letter I will have a search on Google now and see what I uncover.
The links look very interesting just going to read them now will print them off for my mum.
This site is great and very helpful indeed

Mark_In_Hampshire

Try something along these lines

--

Address
Date
DCA Address

cc: British Telecom
81 Newgate Street
London EC1A 7AJ

Your reference: ACC NUM
I write with regard to your letter dated XX and received today YY which concerns an alleged debt to British Telecom.
I do not acknowledge and indeed refute the alleged debt.
This matter is with BT to resolve, with whom we are attempting to correspond. In the event that BT does manage to calculate a correct final invoice and if it can be demonstrated that we owe an amount that will be paid.
Prior experience with BT would suggest that this will take a very long time to resolve assuming that BT responds at all. However and in any event, they have up to three months to issue a response before the matter is then passed to the regulator which may then take more time.
I refute any suggestion that I owe any debt to BT until the matter is concluded with BT and am amount owing, in either direction, is agreed.
I will not, therefore, entertain the idea of making any payment at this time.
Any further correspondence chasing this amount before a satisfactory response has been received from BT and an amount is agreed – which may be owed in either direction - will be considered to be harassment.
You may therefore wish to return this matter to your Client.


Best Regards,
YOUR NAME

lilly82

Oh my gosh im about a quarter of the way down reading the comments on the watchdog link looks like my mum is not the only one who is experiancing this problem with BT. I am deffo going to print this for her I think she was getting a bit down thinking she was the only one ! Thanks:T

lilly82

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

Try something along these lines

--

Address
Date
DCA Address

cc: British Telecom
81 Newgate Street
London EC1A 7AJ

Your reference: ACC NUM
I write with regard to your letter dated XX and received today YY which concerns an alleged debt to British Telecom.
I do not acknowledge and indeed refute the alleged debt.
This matter is with BT to resolve, with whom we are attempting to correspond. In the event that BT does manage to calculate a correct final invoice and if it can be demonstrated that we owe an amount that will be paid.
Prior experience with BT would suggest that this will take a very long time to resolve assuming that BT responds at all. However and in any event, they have up to three months to issue a response before the matter is then passed to the regulator which may then take more time.
I refute any suggestion that I owe any debt to BT until the matter is concluded with BT and am amount owing, in either direction, is agreed.
I will not, therefore, entertain the idea of making any payment at this time.
Any further correspondence chasing this amount before a satisfactory response has been received from BT and an amount is agreed – which may be owed in either direction - will be considered to be harassment.
You may therefore wish to return this matter to your Client.


Best Regards,
YOUR NAME

Thank You so much thats excellent thanks for taking your time to post very kind of you :T

spike7451

Clearly this shows that the problem is on BT's network & therefore beyond your control.
Another forum member,skintlass,was able to get the charge reversed after I did some digging for her so you might find her thread useful.It contains information FROM BT that you can use to defeat their srguments.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2855286

Do I have to pay for a fault repair?

We can repair many line faults at the exchange or on the network. Others require a visit by a BT engineer. There is no charge for these repairs. We will only charge you when one of our engineers visits your property and finds that the fault could have been fixed by you. For example, if your phone is broken or has been left unplugged.

https://www2.bt.com/static/i/microsite/help_and_tips/faults/faq/faults_faq2.html