BT issue - advice wanted

Bobarella

Hi
Posting here but if there is a better place please move it mods.
I was surprised to see my landline bill was £20 higher than usual this month. As no one really uses our phone I checked the bill closely and discovered that the charge related to a 2 day period where my husband and I were trying to get through to the local council. To a specific department that just weren't answering the phone. Each time we tried and got voicemail we hung up. As we had already left messages that were not being responded to. Anyway apparently each call was charged at 30p. Despite the call lasting 1 second in some cases less than a minute in others.
I raised it via social media tonight and the response was pretty much 'yes so what?'
I would not have made the calls if I'd known. I suppose I am asking if anyone else has experienced this and if I have any grounds to challenge it?

thank you
Bob

bubblegun

Bobarella wrote: »

Hi
Posting here but if there is a better place please move it mods.
I was surprised to see my landline bill was £20 higher than usual this month. As no one really uses our phone I checked the bill closely and discovered that the charge related to a 2 day period where my husband and I were trying to get through to the local council. To a specific department that just weren't answering the phone. Each time we tried and got voicemail we hung up. As we had already left messages that were not being responded to. Anyway apparently each call was charged at 30p. Despite the call lasting 1 second in some cases less than a minute in others.
I raised it via social media tonight and the response was pretty much 'yes so what?'
I would not have made the calls if I'd known. I suppose I am asking if anyone else has experienced this and if I have any grounds to challenge it?

thank you
Bob

If the calls cost 30p each I suppose you could switch to Sky for calls then they would cost 29p for these calls.
Or you could have switched to Anytime calls for the month and had these calls included for the month.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

I email my council for free.

My phone package includes unlimited calls to 01, 02, and 03 numbers, so I never have to worry about the cost of a call. If a number proffered is outside of these numbers, they can wait until such time as the a month of Sundays.

If your package does not include this, how much have you saved over time?

poppasmurf_bewdley

What was the exchange number of the council?

Did it begin with 01, 02 03, or was it an 084/087 number?

And what call package do you have with your telephone landline supplier? If you have a free anytime package, then you have cause for complaint.

If you only have evening/weekend free calls, or no free calls, then you have no cause for complaint.

If you were calling an 0844 number, then everybody should know that these are premium rate numbers and you will be charged no matter what call package you have.

Speaking personally, I never make a call from my landline without first checking what it will cost. I'm not made of money and I can't afford BT call prices.

DUTR

Bobarella wrote: »

Hi
Posting here but if there is a better place please move it mods.
I was surprised to see my landline bill was £20 higher than usual this month. As no one really uses our phone I checked the bill closely and discovered that the charge related to a 2 day period where my husband and I were trying to get through to the local council. To a specific department that just weren't answering the phone. Each time we tried and got voicemail we hung up. As we had already left messages that were not being responded to. Anyway apparently each call was charged at 30p. Despite the call lasting 1 second in some cases less than a minute in others.
I raised it via social media tonight and the response was pretty much 'yes so what?'
I would not have made the calls if I'd known. I suppose I am asking if anyone else has experienced this and if I have any grounds to challenge it?

thank you
Bob

BT publicised residential phone tariff

Smodlet

Hi Bob,

All of the above, I'm afraid. If the number begins 084 or 087 you could always try https://www.saynoto0870.com for a landline number for future reference otherwise, it might be time to think about changing your call package/provider.

You could try appealing to BT (good luck with that!) and say the charge was not clear and could they, please, just this once waive the charges but, unless you get someone in an exceptionally good mood, it will be a case of you dialled the number, you owe for the calls, I'm afraid. HTH and it pays to be vigilant. Sorry.

sourcrates

Our council, East Riding Of Yorkshire, has a "contact the leader" facility.

You submit your query from the council website, it gets passed to the right dept, then you get a written response within 7 days.

Used it a few times, always got back to me, and always satisfied with the reply.

I know that not all councils are not so pro-active though.

Bobarella

Thank you all so much for your very helpful answers. Back soon to reply properly.

Bobarella

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

I email my council for free.

My phone package includes unlimited calls to 01, 02, and 03 numbers, so I never have to worry about the cost of a call. If a number proffered is outside of these numbers, they can wait until such time as the a month of Sundays.

If your package does not include this, how much have you saved over time?

It was sadly a time sensitive situation to do with obtaining a licence for a small event. Email got me nowhere. That department seem to just leave their voicemail on for hours on end, hence lots of call hang ups when the answering machine kicked in again.

It was a 0207 number and I believed we had unlimited calls. I need to call them. Been working all day.

Bobarella

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

What was the exchange number of the council?

Did it begin with 01, 02 03, or was it an 084/087 number?

And what call package do you have with your telephone landline supplier? If you have a free anytime package, then you have cause for complaint.

If you only have evening/weekend free calls, or no free calls, then you have no cause for complaint.

If you were calling an 0844 number, then everybody should know that these are premium rate numbers and you will be charged no matter what call package you have.

Speaking personally, I never make a call from my landline without first checking what it will cost. I'm not made of money and I can't afford BT call prices.

It was 0207. I usually use no more 0870 to check for a cheap alternative but in this case believed I was covered under my call plan.

Bobarella

DUTR wrote: »

BT publicised residential phone tariff

This is very helpful. Bit of bedtime reading.