BT billing issues (Vision)

philcrumpler

Hi,

Hopefully this is in the right place - i'm currently arguing with BT over last months bill, currently invested 5+ hrs of phone time alone in this... My last bill came in at over £100 which was obviously wrong straight away - looking at it revealed a charge of £45 for BT Vision, which is very worrying as we've had sky for many years!

Phoning BT resulted in being passed around, eventually ending up speaking with an admittedly helpful gentleman named Desmond, who said that it was a order from 2011 that had for some reason become live, he was unable to access my account to amend this but advised me to pay the bill less the £45, and the system would automatically amend this. I managed to a email from him stating this, so left it at that.

A few weeks later, collections called chasing the £45, I advised them of the above conversation and they were satisifed with this, but the day before my bill was due to be issued, we awoke to no phone or internet. Calling BT got this restriction lifted, with the customer services rep saying there were no notes from before about this, and he would look in to this.

I now have the latest bill, still with the £45 charge on AND a £7.50 late payment charge! Another protracted phone call later, and I have another promise this will be looked into as my account is locked for some reason, and not to worry.

Yet again, Saturday just gone, we awoke to no phone or internet, calling BT again and getting bounced around finally resulted in reaching someone in the UK billing department, who could access the account and saying they would get the restriction lifted within 24 hours, and both the £45 charge and the £7.50 'late payment fee' credited, I agreed once the internet was restored I would pay the amount of the bill left. A few minutes after this call, I get a email stating a credit of £7.50, and a text from BT_SMS stating they had taken payment of the rest of the bill (which I didn't authorise them to do, nor am I on direct debit...)

Its now late Monday, the 3rd day of no phone or internet, and phoning after work, holding for over an HOUR only to be told that our internet wouldn't be restored until tomorrow as 'the systems are not operated at the weekends', and that the £45 credit wasn't authorised as there was 'No valid reason' to do so, and they wouldn't discuss it, as its now 8pm so they are closing - but have promised a call to my mobile tomorrow whilst i'm at work to discuss payment!

Obviously i'm extremely frustrated as its going to be at least 4 days of no service, and being constantly told different things! I'm refusing outright to pay the £45 as we have not ordered vision, and the way the whole thing has been handled is leading me to look elsewhere, I am sure i'm out of the minimum contract period, but if not, is there a way to get them to release the contract, failure to provide service or something? :mad:

BT_company_representative

Hi philcrumpler,

I'm sorry you're having these problems and that you've had to speak with so many people to put it right. I can help sort out everything from here. You'll see the link to send us your details in our public profile.

Thanks,

Robbie

beattie-the-pits

Hi Phil,

If you find you are being passed from pillar to post (as I was by BT) you could try contacting Chris Heaney directly as he is the Customer Services Manager. His email is christopher.heaney@bt.com (most direct BT addresses are in the form firstname.lastname@bt.com). You will probably get the usual flannel but he does reply in English as opposed to some wierd combination of English/Hindi/Urdu.

hope this helps,

Beattie.