BT not taking DD payments

nicki_2

I've had a DD set up with BT since 2002 and I've always managed my account online (still get paper bills, but I'm thinking of changing that to get a further discount). Recently we've been using the phone less and less so I decided to drop the DD payment to £17 a month, and also change the date from the 15th to the 1st of the month to try and get as many bills paid at the start of the month as possible. So in February I made the changes after my bill had come in showing credit again and expected the first payment to go out on the 1st of March. Nothing happened. Thinking that maybe it would go out the 15th I left it until after then but still no payment went out of my account. Life got in the way (Daughtera birthday and school holidays and I forgot about it. Now the 1st of April has gone and still no payments have been collected.

I contacted BT through their website Wednesday :

I changed the date on which I wished to make Direct Debit payments from the 15th of the month to the 1st via your website. Around the same time I also dropped my monthly payments to £17 as I was finding we were in credit quite often.

However upon checking my bank statements, no payments have been requested from my bank account since the 15th of February. The whole point of me setting up a Direct Debit was to spread the cost of the bills over monthly payments to avoid one big payment when the bill came in. I'm concerned that this may happen as a result of me not being billed since the 15th February.

Can you please advise me as to what can be done to rectify this?

and I got this response (personal info edited out) :

Thank you for your e-mail dated 11/4/07 regarding your dierct debit.

With regards to your email, I can confirm to you that you your account is setup with direct debit that is Monthly Payment on 1st of every month you make the payment of £17.00 towards your bill, however to confirm you that your outstanding balance is absolutely nil we have taken all the payment from your bank account till date I can also confirm to you there is credit amount on your account.

Should you have any further query, please do not hesitate to contact us via email at www.bt.com) or BT?s self service line (0800 44 33 11), which allows you to access a range of services without the need to talk to an advisor 24 hours a day, seven days a week at no cost. If you want to find out about BT?s wide range of products and services, please visit our website www.bt.com.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

XX XXXXXXXXXXX
BT Customer Services

To me this makes no sense whatso ever. I'm unsure of what to do now, should I bother to contact them again or just keep stum and wait to see what happens when I get my bill at the end of May? I'm £34 up at the minute on what I should be so I'm leaning towards not saying anything :rotfl:

impy78

nicki wrote: »

I've had a DD set up with BT since 2002 and I've always managed my account online (still get paper bills, but I'm thinking of changing that to get a further discount). Recently we've been using the phone less and less so I decided to drop the DD payment to £17 a month, and also change the date from the 15th to the 1st of the month to try and get as many bills paid at the start of the month as possible. So in February I made the changes after my bill had come in showing credit again and expected the first payment to go out on the 1st of March. Nothing happened. Thinking that maybe it would go out the 15th I left it until after then but still no payment went out of my account. Life got in the way (Daughtera birthday and school holidays and I forgot about it. Now the 1st of April has gone and still no payments have been collected.

I contacted BT through their website Wednesday :
and I got this response (personal info edited out) :
To me this makes no sense whatso ever. I'm unsure of what to do now, should I bother to contact them again or just keep stum and wait to see what happens when I get my bill at the end of May? I'm £34 up at the minute on what I should be so I'm leaning towards not saying anything :rotfl:

This happened to me - it means tht there is a credit on your acount, until the credit is gone, they will not take any direct debit payaments. Someone needs to go into the file to sort it out.

I'd ring (much as I hate to give that advice).

niceshoes_2

Strange Nicky, as this exact thing has happened to me. I did owe them £38.00 and decided to increase payments to £20 for a few months to pay off the balance and also changed my DD date at the same time. They were meant to take payment earlier this month but so far haven't. Online bill also shows that my balance is now nil - so I'm a bit confused, as I've not paid anything extra off the bill?

notbritishgas

Strange goings on with my DD also. I have been on online billing and paper but Bt have said they are going to force me to go onto online only!
However just had my online bill and they also sent me a paper version which was exactly the same as the online one except the paper one said as I was in credit by £71 they would reduce my DD to £15.50 per month whereas the online one said a reduction to £11.50. The next day the online bill said a reduction to £12. How can the two versions of the same bill differ.

nicki_2

After thinking about it over the weekend I'm just wondering whether there's a bug in the system due to the changes they're making to bills from the 1st of May, plus the change in the Tax year

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is having this problem. BUT since it's currently in my favour (we're not quite a light user, but don't use the phone that much so it's not as if the bill is going to be huge) I'm going to leave it until the next bill comes in sometime in May. The extra money is needed ATM in other areas :rolleyes: