Really struggling with BT

GemJar_2

Hi,

I'm havibg huge issues with BT and I have no idea how to solve it. I joined with them on BT infinity 2 at £45 a month last July, the internet itself is OK but their billing is up the wall and they just charge me whatever they fancy and up my bill every couple of months.

It started off lat October when I told the lady on the phone I wanted to pay on the 1st of each month and she somehow translated this to "I want to pay quarterly" and then forced me to pay the remaining £118 over the two months left of the quater- I still have no idea how that worked out but I did it because their customer services said it could not be reversed. They said to phone back up in December and havw it changed back to monthly billing.

I called back in December and spoke to a manager who at first was awful and then admitted there had been a mistake by BT staff and moved my account back on to monthly billing at £45 a month to come out on the 1st of each month- perfect! I queried him about why my account said I owed £135 and he told me not to worry about it and to pay the £45 a month as agreed.

Now BT have decided I must pay £67.50 a month to cover my "debt". I have never missed a payment, I don't see how I owe this money, this "debt" on my online account has never gone down and I definitely can't afford £67.50 a month for internet that in my contract is £45. Can anybody help? I've been in tears over this it's just so frustrating that they can just take as much money as they fancy telling me is owed this month.

Help!!

macman

So what are the extra charges for, as shown on your bill? If on a capped tariff, are you exceeding your data allowance? Very easy to do when you are on FTTC.
Or are you making exclusive calls?

JJ_Egan

Your Account should let you access previous statements/ bills .

GemJar_2

I'm looking at previous bills now and they have added an extra months charge from 11th June - 3rd July of £38.39 (I didn't get the service until 1st July). And the rest of it literally comes out of nowhere. We very very very rarely use the house phone so it's not call charges and for some reason between 3rd August and 2nd September the bill was £118.60. Nobody will help me and nobody can tell me what's going on, even when I complained on twitter they sent me a link to the 'pay your bill' page! I've never once asked to be on quarterly payments, only ever on monthly so I don't understand what's going on. The bills tell me nothing.


My bills look like this (there was a deal where the first three months should have been £35.99 a month):

• Bill Date : 03 Mar 15
  Bill period : 03 Dec 14 - 02 Mar 15
  Amount : £135.54
  
  
• Bill Date : 03 Dec 14
  Bill period : 03 Sep 14 - 02 Dec 14
  Amount : £136.33
  
  
• Bill Date : 03 Sep 14
  Bill period : 03 Aug 14 - 02 Sep 14
  Amount : £118.60
  
  
• Bill Date : 05 Aug 14
  Bill period : 03 Jul 14 - 02 Aug 14
  Amount : £36.23
  
  
• Bill Date : 03 Jul 14
  Bill period : 11 Jun 14 - 02 Jul 14
  Amount : £38.39
  

JJ_Egan

Try
https://community.bt.com/t5/Billing/ct-p/Billing

Or the BT problems thread on this forum .

macman

If you have gone to quarterly billing, then your bill will be around 300% more than with monthly (so c. £115.17), which is roughly what it is showing, with the exception of the bill dated 3/9.
Unless you look at your bill and post what the extra charges are (they'll all be itemised, along with the standard monthly charge for line rental, call package, and broadband), then nobody can really help you.
As I pointed out, if you are on, say, a 40GB Infinity cap and exceeding that data limit, you will rack up extra charges very quickly.

Angelbub80

Hi there,

I am currently 'out of contract' with bt. i am still provided by them however.

i have just rang them to see what offers they have to keep me with them and im disgusted with all the 'offers'

I was offered a small discount on my broadband..... £3.50 ish
I was offered free caller id etc for 12 months

Thats it! nothing else! apart from the guy on the phone trying desperately to sell me the home hub 5.... for £45. even after telling him im a single mum and theres no way i can afford that!

has anyone recently had any success in getting a good deal from bt to stay with them? seems awful that loyal customers get nothing but if i was a new customer i could get it so much cheaper!

GemJar_2

Sorry did mean to add that I have no caps on data. I've been through everything and they've decided to put me back on quarterly billing without informing me for somw reason. Thanks foe your help! X

macman

Angelbub80 wrote: »

Hi there,

I am currently 'out of contract' with bt. i am still provided by them however.

i have just rang them to see what offers they have to keep me with them and im disgusted with all the 'offers'

I was offered a small discount on my broadband..... £3.50 ish
I was offered free caller id etc for 12 months

Thats it! nothing else! apart from the guy on the phone trying desperately to sell me the home hub 5.... for £45. even after telling him im a single mum and theres no way i can afford that!

has anyone recently had any success in getting a good deal from bt to stay with them? seems awful that loyal customers get nothing but if i was a new customer i could get it so much cheaper!

No, that's sound business practice, and how they build their customer base. Why give discounts to people who don't intend to leave anyway?
If you want discounts then you need to ask for your MAC. You will then be put through to retentions, which is where the serious offers are made, as long as you convince them that you will be leaving if not. First tier CS don't have the authority to offer much.
PS: you are not 'out of contract', you are out of minimum term.

Gordon_Hose

I had the very same issue with BT. Got tempted in by the "reduce your monthly bills" spiel and started paying £25 a month on a quartely billing cycle. Then all of a sudden it shot up to £57 a month because "they had forgotten to bill me for broadband", then it went up to £65 for no apprent reason. In November I upgraded to Infinity 2 - my next bill was £113 for the month, so I contacted customer services who kept telling me I didn't understand how quarterly billing works, I got absolutely nowhere with them. They promised 4 manager call backs, I got nothing! they wouldn't let me go back to monthly billing because I "owed" them over £300... for a quarter billed in advance... what?!!! Their excuse is that I had to pay some of the next quarters bill "just in case I make too many phone calls"... I'm on an unlimited calls and broadband tariff, I don't call mobiles or premium rate numbers from my landline, in fact, I barely use it.

In the end I emailed the CEO and spoke to a really helpful chap in the Execustive Level Complaints department who removed the advanced payments, told me what I needed to pay to get up to date and he put me back onto monthly billing. So now I pay £57 for unlimited calls and broadband.

I cannot honestly believe they actually thought people would be happy to pay over 100% more a month on quarterly billing!

The service is amazing, I get full speed broadband 78 down, 19 up, but their customer services is an absolute shambles!! The guy I spoke to in Executive Level complaints told me that quaerterly billing is not fit for purpose, and if he had his way he'd remove it as a billing option.

It works for people who don't have unlimited calls to spread the cost. For those on unlimited tariffs it's not fit for purpose.

As soon as I'm out of my minimum term I'm leaving.

Baby_Angel

Angelbub80 wrote: »

....
has anyone recently had any success in getting a good deal from bt to stay with them? seems awful that loyal customers get nothing but if i was a new customer i could get it so much cheaper!

I didn't want to leave BT, as we had absolutely no issues. Even then I called them up when my contract ended and said I love the service, but want a discount to stay. They upgraded me to BT infinity 2, unlimited, from BT Infinity 1. Then gave me a discount of roughly £4 per month. So I actually pay only £20 a month for broadband now. I pay the phone lines charges yearly to get that bit of the discount as well. This was done straight by customer services, not by retention.

OP: If you are on BT infinity 2 unlimited package and with phone line, your bill would be around £40 any way. BT charges phone line rental upfront, so that might be the reason for the earlier date in June. Remember the phone-line charges went up in December by a £1 or so as well. You may be also charged for additional services, if you have any international/europe numbers etc. even if you are not using it. You should be able to check them all online.