BT line rental saver renewal - you could be overcharged!

Phillip21

My BT Line Rental Saver renews in the middle of September each year. In the bill I receive at the beginning of September I am always charged standard line rental from the due date of renewal to the next billing date. Once I have renewed, I expect to see this amount credited on the next bill. I received my October bill this morning and noted that only half of this had been credited. I reported this to BT and they immediately said that this was an error and that they would correct it. My own problem has been sorted, but this seems to flag to me a problem with their systems that could lead to thousands of other customers being overcharged. So if you have a Line Rental Saver, check that the credit on the bill following renewal equals the charge on the previous bill!

macman

If you are on quarterly billing, they also charge you line rental on the last bill before LRS expires, assuming that your LRS has less than 3 months to run. The promise is that once you renew LRS (which you can only do up to 28 days before expiry), the quarterly line rental already charged will be credited back (don't worry BT, I'll be checking that in January).
Quite cunning though, as in my Mum's case she will be lending BT about £30 interest-free for the next 3 months.

Leodogger

I ordered a new Line Rental Saver and added Broadband for our house move on the internet on BT's advice to qualify for £25 Sainsbury's voucher. I already have Line Rental Saver on my existing BT line. I did this 3 weeks ago and told them at the time that I could not give them the disconnection date for my current address at that time as we didn't have the completion date on our sale. They said that was OK and just to ring this week and tell them when I had a date. What they neglected to tell me was that because I had placed a new order on line, this meant they would close my old account when I rang to arrange disconnection, thereby incurring 30 days subscription penalty for not giving them the requisite 30 days notice to close the account.

Although BT never told me this would happen when I was happily giving them extra business 3 weeks ago :mad: . I have just received the email confirming the disconnection on 25th October and right at the bottom it states "If you've paid £141 in advance for 12 months' line rental, we can't refund this as it was a special discount for paying up front." . As it happens my line rental saver expires on 26th October, the day after I move, otherwise they would have taken even more money off me.

What I don't like is the devious way they neglect to tell you what will happen if you order online instead of doing the two together (disconnection and installation of the new line, thereby keeping one account). There was no warning that I would incur extra charges not to do the two together either on line when I ordered the new line or on the phone when I spoke to them about their products and what to do when I moved. So it appears they have taken money off me for the privilege of giving them extra business !

You couldn't make it up could you ? No wonder they are making money hand over fist :mad: