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BT Bill
inuk
Posts: 1 Newbie
in Phones & TV
Today i received my statement from BT. The account showed me a £61.00 in arrears and giving details of how the monthly direct debits would be raised by £15.00 per month to cover this.
Wanting to query this i embarked on the mammoth task of working my way through the worst automated telephone system i have ever encountered. After 6 goes, and 1/2 hr, at ringing all the number's given on the statement i managed to get to speak to one of their service desk reps.
After a rant about how bad their telephone system is, to which they agreed, we managed to get to the bottom of why the account was in arrears by so much.
The Explanation
The statement for my account had been run a day before my direct debit of £40 had been taken from my account!!
Therefore the account was only actually £21.00 in arrears. I demanded they reverse and confirm in writing that the DD would remain at £40.00.
I am so annoyed with BT as this is an underhand tactic to line their pockets. After being with them so long and my DD always coming out on the same day for the last 7yrs, no explanation they could give persuade me that was a deliberate attempt to increase my DD to their favour !!!
Apologies if this is in the wrong section or has already been pointed out, but felt everyone should know of the tactic they are using
Paul
Wanting to query this i embarked on the mammoth task of working my way through the worst automated telephone system i have ever encountered. After 6 goes, and 1/2 hr, at ringing all the number's given on the statement i managed to get to speak to one of their service desk reps.
After a rant about how bad their telephone system is, to which they agreed, we managed to get to the bottom of why the account was in arrears by so much.
The Explanation
The statement for my account had been run a day before my direct debit of £40 had been taken from my account!!
Therefore the account was only actually £21.00 in arrears. I demanded they reverse and confirm in writing that the DD would remain at £40.00.
I am so annoyed with BT as this is an underhand tactic to line their pockets. After being with them so long and my DD always coming out on the same day for the last 7yrs, no explanation they could give persuade me that was a deliberate attempt to increase my DD to their favour !!!
Apologies if this is in the wrong section or has already been pointed out, but felt everyone should know of the tactic they are using
Paul
0
Comments
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Change to Monthly Whole Bill Direct Debit and avoid such nonsense in the future.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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Happened to me once a couple of years ago - increased my DD from~£12.50 to ~ £20. HOWEVER, I used online account to reduce DD back down and moved the DD date slightly earlier in the month to ensure that it didn't happen again - and it hasn't!!0
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I wouldn't say it was underhand in any way, just the standard incompetence where systems are allowed to run unchecked and leads to the situation you outline, and another reason why you should never, ever, let them have access to your money when THEY want to.0
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I had the same with BT when my DD went from £30pm to £65pm. In the end I paid the next bill in full and left to go with TalkTalk (then Tiscali) for an all in fee of £14.99pm. Admittedly, things are slightly worse under TT such as customer services, but I still pay less than £20pm and that's with inclusive calls & 40gb monthly download allowance.
Bt keep writing to me inviting me back, but come nowhere near what TT are currently offering me.0
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