BT charging my elderly parents £900 a year for Internet access!!!

undermanager

I am livid with BT. I have just found out that my parents in their 80s, one with Alzihmer's and one with Parkinson's, are paying BT £220 a quarter on average for broadband access and about a total of 2 hours phone calls per month, mostly in the evening but a few during the day. They seem to be paying:

£63 a quarter line rental
£7 a quarter BT answer
Friend and family £6
BT privacy £5
Broadband £54
Something called 'Internet phone Weekend and evening calls £12. ( and their bills show that they have never used in the past year!)
Then a further £24 broadband data charges and another £50 - £60 phone charges, mostly in the evening!!

They are light broadband users. My talk talk bill is less than £90 a quarter and I would consider my family to be power users, and I run online businesses from home.

I am so angry with BT. They must know these charges are not only outrageous but those are not even appropriate, like the Internet phone (what is that?)

They have made no attempt to contact or write to my parents as far as I can tell, and I doubt they would understand even if they had. At least a letter would have been picked up by one of the family but BT have not even done that.

Where is their ethical code? Where is their moral compass?

Now the anger is abating, has anyone got any suggestions on approaching BT about this? Do they have a code when dealing with older people? Can I get some of these past charges refunded? And most important of all, how to get these charges changed to something more reasonable. The parents are concerned they may be left without a phone or internet if we change providers. Comments? Advice.

teddysmum

I remember from my days with BT that, when options which were inclusive, eg caller privacy, became chargeable, people were sent an email, giving them notice and the chance to opt out before the charges kicked in.


Perhaps your parents didn't respond to these emails ? Charges for what were once inclusive features are not recent, some starting at least 3 years ago).


To be fair to BT, if someone doesn't respond to an invitation to cancel, they are correct to assume that the customer wants to retain the service (though it was commented at the time, that it would have been better to ask customers to opt in rather than out) and they have no way of knowing that your parents have coping difficulties.


The price of broadband suggests that it is the fibre option and the extra charges suggest that it is a limited service incurring high rate costs for data usage over that limit.


If they have they have the weekend and evening calls package, then normal connection and per minute charges will apply to any daytime calls or weekend/evening calls over 60 minutes long (for the part over 60 minutes).

Stevie_Palimo

I'd suggest rather than going in all guns blazing as per your posting style here that you approach this from a calm and to the point way as you will find that the person you speak to will be more inclined to want to assist if you do it this way.

lee111s

BT are a money making, profit generating business.

It is entriely up to the customer to manage what products they have and to call up and haggle new deals/switch suppliers when any introductory rates come to an end.

You need to forget about the money paid in the past and concentrate on either negotiating a deal suitable for their needs, or, consider switching suppliers to a one which can provide what they need at a price you/they're happy with.

JJ_Egan

>>£63 a quarter line rental
£7 a quarter BT answer
Friend and family £6
BT privacy £5 >>

No overcharging on above but are they all needed .

Broadband at £54 must be a very old price that has been rolled over at the end of a contract .User should have negotiated a new package current prices under £25 pm


>>Then a further £24 broadband data charges and another £50 - £60 phone charges, mostly in the evening!! >>

That looks like somebody is using the service .Can you not check the actual bills .

If out of contract then its best to leave for a new supplier should be no downtime .

You should register your parents with BT as vulnerable or whatever its called users .

Personally if your parents are as you say then it was up to the family to put procedures into place as no way do BT know a users mental state or health conditions .

Swipe

I will never use BT after they tried to overcharge my elderly parents by £80. They switched broadband and BT billed them in advance £90 for broadband and line rental etc 3 days before the switch. Fair enough as I was promised it would all be refunded pro rata. Then the final bill came 6 weeks later after the switch with a £7 refund. It honestly took 5 phone calls to get the money back. I was continually told that the bill was correct by numerous overseas call staff who were not prepared to listen to the facts. Luckily in the end I finally got through to someone with some authority who could issue a refund. The way their bills are laid out is so complicated with discounts added and removed, my parents just couldn't grasp that they were owed money and had no way of arguing their case.

teddysmum

Swipe wrote: »

I will never use BT after they tried to overcharge my elderly parents by £80. They switched broadband and BT billed them in advance £90 for broadband and line rental etc 3 days before the switch. Fair enough as I was promised it would all be refunded pro rata. Then the final bill came 6 weeks later after the switch with a £7 refund. It honestly took 5 phone calls to get the money back. I was continually told that the bill was correct by numerous overseas call staff who were not prepared to listen to the facts. Luckily in the end I finally got through to someone with some authority who could issue a refund. The way their bills are laid out is so complicated with discounts added and removed, my parents just couldn't grasp that they were owed money and had no way of arguing their case.

But companies don't know about the state of people's mental capacity, so it's up to family to help them out.

VajaSlayer69MrBigD69Bling

Glad I moved away from those scam artists years ago, they were playing tricks on me as well!
Not on my watch!

onomatopoeia99

If they are "light users" then I don't see how they are running up data charges. If their wifi secure? If they have an evening and weekend calls package then the same applies to call charges if their calls are mostly evening and weekend, who are they calling?

Please do a detailed analysis of their itemized bill and identify exactly where the usage is.

Browntoa

They are probably still with British Gas on a standard tariff

Elderly people stick with what they know , the OP surely could have suggested swapping suppliers before now

No large company is required by law to offer anyone a cheaper tariff , the emphasis is always on the customer to change or shop around

You MAY get a goodwill offer but don't bank on it , and that won't be a "scam" before you spout that

boatman

https://www.bt.com/help/home/complaints.html

Send email to CEO, easy enough to find it.