Help needed - Crap BT Service

ZeroHikari

Hi there,

Needing a bit of help from all you lovely folk - first time posting so if I don't make much sense let me know.

I'm currently with BT on the BT Infinity Option 2 + Unlimited Weekend Calls and am in the 4-5th month of a 1 year plan and so far haven't had any problems with the service up until 6-7 months ago when they started messing with my Direct Debit amounts.

Now, we've always had good service and i've always paid the amount needed to cover any usage and such but up until 6 months ago BT had started adding services onto my bills that I didn't even need (caller ID masking and things like that) that were costly and unwanted and started putting me into Debit (around £245 from no fault of my own). I had to speak to 6 advisor's and 1 manager (all of which apart from caller 3, 6 and manager) were overseas and didn't do anything they agreed to do until I spoke to the manager in complaints.

Now, I upped my regular direct debit payment from £45 for the plan and line rental to £75 as they had cancelled the charges for the services not needed and was told (multiple times) on the phone that £75 for 3 months would clear the debit and i'd be able to go back down to £45 or lower - two weeks ago I paid a one off fee of £5 and managed to change my DD amount to £28 but today they've produced my new bill which shows a debit of £185 and are increasing the payments to £90 as my bill is now £184.

So to summarise: :mad: I'm sick of BT and want out and am looking at some other reputable companies such as Virgin via the deals on the site, but I need to know - are their any fees apart from paying what is owed to break this contract so I can transfer to a different provider and if so, how on earth do they calculate them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

kwikbreaks

First thing to check is if Virgin Media cable is available at your address - there should be a checker on their website.

If you do move there is probable £30 termination fee for the broadband + any early termination charges if you are in a minimum term. Only BT can tell you what they will be.

If you do move to VM expect to have to call in regularly to avoid a steady dribble of increases leaving you paying more than new customers. Their telephony charges tend to be higher than BT - if you use the landline check your options. If you don't then with cable you don't have to take one although if you take TV too it will probably either be mandatory or cost more if you don't - remember I mentioned high telephony costs? VM want you to take the phone.

brewerdave

@ZeroHikari -how did you run up such a deficit in such a short space of time? As you are on u/l fibre I can only assume that you are making an extraordinary number of chargeable weekday phone calls -if so, you should go onto an Anytime calls package pronto!!

teddysmum

As you have recently had a bill, what does it say that the amount owed covers ? Bills are itemized.


As you are only 4 or 5 months into a years agreement, then the get out fee will be quite large.

ZeroHikari

@Kwikbreaks I can confirm that Virgin appear to be in my area so that part of switching isn't a problem. Termination fees (if I calculate it right) i'd be able to half the costs with my Mam. any ideas how they calculate it?

@teddysmum after looking at the itemised bill again, as mentioned line rental has gone upto £16.99 and Broadband and calls package to £82.95 without prior notification.

@brewerdave - Having a further look, appears that frequent calls have been made which currently amount to £37.44 (twice as much as last month) and found younger sibling has been using the phone more than usual - maybe a change of phone plan is right?

brewerdave

ZeroHikari wrote: »

@brewerdave - Having a further look, appears that frequent calls have been made which currently amount to £37.44 (twice as much as last month) and found younger sibling has been using the phone more than usual - maybe a change of phone plan is right?

...absolutely I think you can get Anytime plan for ~ £7.50 pm from BT

adeysim

I understand your pain! I've had nothing but trouble from BT. After previous problems, they agreed to waive a cancellation charge, but imposed it anyway. They promised me infinity broadband at half price, but continued to charge full price. They've installed infinity, but it runs at less than 0.5 meg (way below the speed of my previous ordinary broadband). They organised six engineer visits: two turned up but didn't solve the problem (the first of whom I had to tell about basic cabling issues), two failed to turn up, and two turned up when I was out because they hadn't told me anything about it. Their call centres are staffed with people who can't address issues and are obviously following a script. Even when escalated to their "executive level" team, they've done little except make things worse and repeatedly promised things they don't deliver.