Warning! BT increase charges for non direct debit payers

wantmemoney

The "dodgy web site" theory

Firstly I am not implying in any way that BT "customer service" staff intentionally misled members of the public who were trying to dispute bills in 2004.
Although saying that I found them rude arrogant and ill-informed.

Why during 2004 did BT staff tell their customers the premium rate numbers on their bills were probably due to them visiting dodgy web sites?

If as it appears there was little evidence of the existance of these dodgey web sites why were BT customer care staff allowed to promote this story? Was it to mislead the victims into believing they were finacially liable for a dodgey BT bill because they had visited a "dodgey web site".

Lets look for the BT evidence of the "dodgey web site".

This case represents 20% of all dialler related complaints to Icstis (and presumably BT) in 2004.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4397308.stm

In 2005 there was an Ofcom investigation into Telecom One.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/comp_bull_index/comp_bull_ccases/closed_all/cw_833/
The reason being because they were refusing to give details concerning how Telecom One's service providers were promoting their services and content.
In short they were refusing to give details concerning their web site.

In 2006 I obtained the identities of the service providers.

Thank you for your email of the 5 October 2006 inquiring about Ofcom case reference CW/00833/04/05.
This Ofcom case arose following ICSTIS’ referral to them of network operator Telecom One. The service providers, to whom this Ofcom case refers, are: Massalia Telecom, Adventive Media and World Travel. The fourth referral mentions various service providers of dialler services, including:

o Premium Media
o Cala de Plata
o Inversion Zarnosa
o Quizir
o Amara Amichi
o Ibero, and
o Mesa Rotation

And yes the "fourth referral" are the service providers from the above BBC program.
So we have many tens of thousands of complaints concerning the above companies using 3,500 Telecom One numbers.
In addition we have Icstis "protecting" the public in 2004 by regulating a "service" they had no evidence even existed.
so why was BT allowed to knowingly bill for decidedly "dodgy" services or at least for services they must have suspected were "dodgy"?
had the DTI given them some kind of "fire wall" protection from police investigation?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/05/bt_rogue_dialler/
MP gets police to investigate BT over rogue
dialler scams

http://neilherron.blogspot.com/2005/02/investigation-this-man-wants-to-hit-bt.html
maybe Ben, BT's chief executive knows

..................................
There is a dialler that is connected to the above companies.

Accesoplugin
http://www.spywaredetector.net/spyware_encyclopedia/Dialer.Accesoplugin.htm
It may be downloaded through exploits and installed without notice and consent.

The Administrative Contact for the dialler site is also named in Spanish Companies House as the person who registered many of the companies named in the "fourth referal".
http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=accesoplugin.com
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MikeandMe

I am glad to see others are also not happy with BT's extra charge. It seems everyone wants to control your money by direct debit now and many don't care how heavy- handed their methods are to get you to agree. I hate direct debit, I like to know to whom and when I am paying out my money. Thanks for the standard letter I adjusted it for my complaint to reflect my feelings better. If my thoughts are of use to anyone else I have copied my version below.

Dear Sir or Madam,


I am writing to protest about your penalty charge for customers who do not pay by direct debit.


I accept that any business will try to collect its money in the most efficient way to maximise profits for their shareholders. However, the raising of invoices collection of money and administration of such is a cost traditionally and properly born by the provider and accounted for prior to publishing the cost of the service. I suggest that as you have been accepting payment without direct debit for many years you have already entered that overhead cost into your administration costs and are in fact attempting to charge twice.

To charge one customer for paying in an established and proper manner more than another who chooses direct debit is not a reasonable administration cost if it is an administration cost at all. Provided I do so on time, and the time allowed is reasonable, it is my right to pay my bill however I choose. Why should I be penalised and pay more just because I don't use your preferred payment method?

It appears that some customers are being expected to pay for your incompetent finance department that cannot cost effectively receive cheque payments like the rest of the business world. I think this charge is unfair and does not reflect the true cost of processing my payment. It seems to me simply a way of increasing your revenue by taking advantage of your position in the market.

I urge you to reconsider this unreasonable charge, but if you insist on continuing with it I would expect you to demonstrate that the charge is justified. You will be aware that the law says penalty charges must be fair. I do not believe that this is the case with yours, but look forward to hearing your explanation.





Yours faithfully,

BexTech

MikeandMe wrote: »

I am glad to see others are also not happy with BT's extra charge. It seems everyone wants to control your money by direct debit now and many don't care how heavy- handed their methods are to get you to agree. I hate direct debit, I like to know to whom and when I am paying out my money. Thanks for the standard letter I adjusted it for my complaint to reflect my feelings better. If my thoughts are of use to anyone else I have copied my version below.

Why the complaint now?

For years you have been paying £1 per month more for not paying by direct debit, now it's gone up to £1.50 per month, people complain.

Why not the complaints for all the years you were paying £1 more for non-DD?

wantmemoney

MikeandMe wrote:

I am glad to see others are also not happy with BT's extra charge. It seems everyone wants to control your money by direct debit now and many don't care how heavy- handed their methods are to get you to agree. I hate direct debit, I like to know to whom and when I am paying out my money.

yep

BexTech wrote:

Why the complaint now?

Why not?

BexTech

wantmemoney wrote: »

yep

Why not?

Why not complain before? They've been charging you extra for years!

wantmemoney

BexTech wrote:

Why not complain before? They've been charging you extra for years!

You are right may be people should have complained earlier.

Maybe BT could start billing for recieving "Late Complaints" from customers.

orangecat

We want all our illegal payments charged over the years for not abiding by B.T,s request to pay by "Direct Debit" refunded.

I pay by Internet Banking, and I have been informed by my Bank H.S.B.C that the transfer is immediate, and transfered to the reciepients account instantly, so why does B.T insist that it costs them money to collect payments from customers? They already have a late payment charge in place of £7:50, so what is the problem?

I pay my Credit Card bill, Gas bill, Rates bill,Electric bill all by Instant "Internet Transfer Banking" and many other bills, without a request for a "Direct Debit" to be set up.

I strongly feel that B.T's devious practices are illegal ??

Regarding Direct Debits, you are handing over your Bank Account to a thrid party to help themselves to what they like to extract from you, believe me I have had problems with this type of payment, and by god it takes some sorting out. In my case four weeks.

BT,s terms of contract: -



Bank transfer

You may be able to pay your bill through a simple bank transfer from your current account, over the phone or online. We don't charge for this facility, but you should check with your bank or building society concerning any charges or terms and conditions that might apply. You will need to quote our bank account number (31507346) and sort code (40-37-25). You may also be asked for a reference number - please use your BT account number (shown at the top of your bill e.g. EA12345678).

BexTech

If when you receive a bill and it doesn't look right, you simply cancel the DD so they can't take payment. However if you never received the bill, that could be a problem.

Heinz

BexTech wrote: »

If when you receive a bill and it doesn't look right, you simply cancel the DD so they can't take payment. However if you never received the bill, that could be a problem.

I know my BT bill is due on 12th every 3 months - so I check online on 13th and review the bill. Easy really.

Cheaper too - £1.50 discount for paper-free billing and £4.50 discount for paying by DD.

Just money-saving (now what made me think of that phrase?) really.

gt94sss2

orangecat wrote: »

I pay my Credit Card bill, Gas bill, Rates bill,Electric bill all by Instant "Internet Transfer Banking" and many other bills, without a request for a "Direct Debit" to be set up.

I strongly feel that B.T's devious practices are illegal ??

I certainly would not describe them as devious or illegal - in fact BT are one of the last 'big' companies to have such a charge.. BT have also not hidden the fact its introduced this charge etc..

As for paying your Gas bill, Rates bill,Electric bill by "Internet Transfer Banking", I suspect you will find that you are paying considerably more than those who do pay by direct debit (I only know of one utility company which charges the same regardless of payment method) - and paying rates this way does cost your local council more than paying by direct debit

Regards
Sunil