BT 40 gig usage Problem

Lewis567

Hi there

My families been with BT Broadband for about 4-5 Years now, and last September I moved out to attend University, as the main user of the connection the usage per month dropped considerably.

During the Month of December my dad received a phone call from BT telling him that the usage per month was not being used as much as it had been, my dad then explained to BT that i was at University and because of that he told my dad he should drop from unlimited to a 40 gig Usage Cap.

My dad explained that i was going to be back around May time from Uni, and obviously the usage would be back to the same, but this is where my problem starts... They told him that, me coming back around May was fine, and for my dad to phone in august and they'd rectify the Bill to allow the extra usage for the months i had been back, he was also told that they'd get in touch if we went over. No problem yeah? Well apparently it's just not as simple as that. Even after talking over what was offered to make sure this would be fine for the summer months i was back, he confirmed it was so my dad went on to except the offer and change the usage per month to 40 gig with this deal in mind.

Now being the 1st of August, we phoned up to rectify the bill, and instead we were handed an extra £120 bill for the last 3 months, apparently what BT told my dad when he changed to 40 gig was rubbish and untrue, they wont let up and are sticking to the £120 extra charge. As i stated before they mentioned that they'd get in touch when we had went over, nothing was sent to my dads email and no calls to the house were made, even though they know my dads Email, they apparently sent usage emails to the BT email, that he on several occasions since we joined 4-5 years ago has mentioned he does not use.

Here comes my question, is there any point trying to fight this? When we queried about "Phone us in August to rectify the bill" they told us he meant "We'll email you when you reach you're limit and you can change to Unlimited". They expect us to pay for them failing to explain things, does anyone think there's any hope for them retracting the payment?

Thanks for reading and any help or tips anyone could spare would be grateful :S

Mark_In_Hampshire

I suspect the problem lies in the interpretation of the original conversation.

What should have happened is:

You returned, and at the point where your usage was going to increase, you proactively called them to switch back to the package with the higher/unlimited allowance.

So no overages to bill for and nothing to adjust.

What has actually happened is that you've gone over the usage limit on your lower package, and incurred overage charges.

It would be very strange for them to have originally said "that doesn't matter, we'll deal with that when the time comes and just void all the overages off for you" because I wouldn't have thought any ISP would do that. It is inviting people to go over their allowance, then ring up and get the extra for free.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not saying that anyone is lying. Simply that: you have a 40GB package and you've exceeded what you've bought, and the terms will dictate what happens then - 1. You get notified and 2. You get billed

The notifications being delivered to the BT email address is probably good enough for a "court of law" and it's generally up to the customer to choose the package that suits their needs. The ISP can't simply change it for you and start charging you more each month - it might have been a one off month. They can't determine what's best for the customer.

So I fear unless you have a recording or transcript then BT are going to claim their "offer" was misinterpreted and stand their ground.