Can I get a refund? 24 September 2014 at 11:16AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Phones & TV 2 replies 830 views

Big_John_246

Hello all I am new to the site.

I hope some one can advise me.

I have just taken over my elderly parents bills.

While checking there phone bill I have seen they are being charged £3.42 for rental of a BT phone and £4.50 for Internal Extension - Migration, they have never had a BT phone they have always had there own phones.

I did check with my parents if they had ever rented a phone and they said no and as far as they were concerned the charges above were something to do with the line rental.

I have just arranged for them to get YouView and Broadband and Anytime calls, and I got the charges taken off and with out knowing was given a 6 month refund.

My dad phoned them up to get a full refund and after being put on hold a number of times he was offered another 6 months making a total of 1 year, he has not accepted this offer.

He was informed that a manager will phone him back within 15 minutes but he never received the call.:mad:

The lady on the phone said all the bills are altermated now but as my farther explained someone had to put the information in the system in the first place.

These charges go back for around 10 years.

They have admitted liability by was of a partial refund can I get the whole amount back

Thank you in advance

Regards

Big John

macman

These charges probably go back to the GPO era when everyone rented their phones from BT-there was little alternative. And only BT could fit extension sockets, which were then also 'rented'. So more than ten years, and they may never have cancelled.
Given that the charge has been shown on at least 40 bills over the years and they have failed to query it, I think that a year's refund is about as good as they will get.
A lot of elderly BT customers are still paying phone rental for phones that they probably disposed of years ago.
Bear in mind that the rental fee also included a maintenance contract, so had there been a fault on the phone or extension circuit then it would have been fixed without a call-out charge.

talktalktobt

If it were me I would be saying "I require a refund totalling at least 5 years otherwise I will move my service." If they don't process a larger refund, take what they have offered and switch to another provider. As you are dealing with he bills they will notice no change other than (more than likely) paying less, and if you sign up using a cash-back service you will be able to surprise your parents with a little extra cash.