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

giraffe69

I would
1. Set up the vulnerable user part. Try here http://home.bt.com/news/bt-life/how-bt-can-help-vulnerable-customers-priority-fault-repair-outgoing-call-control-11364055453703
2. Look at the bills and see what can be removed for the future. Unlimited standard broadband+weekend calls is about £20 in addition to the line rental.
3. Line rental can be paid for a year upfront for a modest discount.
4. When this is sorted then complain if you wish to
5. consider a power of attorney if not already in place to make it easier to deal with BT or other companies on your parents behalf for the future.
6. If you prefer to switch got to https://www.samknows.co.uk to see what is available in your parents area.

lee111s

boatman wrote: »

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

Send email to CEO, easy enough to find it.

About what exactly? How a customer hasn't bothered to check their bills?

undermanager

Thanks for the advice. Spoke to my supplier of broadband / limited calls / mobile phone and they will give my parents the same package I have, so it will cost them about £90 a quarter instead of £220.

BT could have easily flagged up that my parents were paying for options they didn't use, or easily recommended different pricing plans based on use, or easily done an annual review, or easily said to my parents they can save by using option 2 broadband (unlimited) rather than option 1 (2 quid cheaper but very expensive data charges over 12 GB. They have done none of these things and for elderly people, this is a big problem.

Never again, BT.

mije1983

undermanager wrote: »

BT could have easily flagged up that my parents were paying for options they didn't use, or easily recommended different pricing plans based on use, or easily done an annual review, or easily said to my parents they can save by using option 2 broadband (unlimited) rather than option 1 (2 quid cheaper but very expensive data charges over 12 GB. They have done none of these things and for elderly people, this is a big problem.

Never again, BT.

WHY should they? They are a profit making business. If your parents are as vulnerable as you say, you really should have got them signed up BT's elderly and vulnerable persons list. That way BT would know about their situation. I'm not sure how you think BT would have known about your parents if nobody has told them?

Who is your current supplier? I assume you have checked that they will do the above points that you have slated BT for not doing................

elsien

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

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.

I would agree with this. There's little point changing suppliers if you're not clear how or why the extra charges are being run up. Especially if someone is hooking into their wifi, for example.

teddysmum

elsien wrote: »

I would agree with this. There's little point changing suppliers if you're not clear how or why the extra charges are being run up. Especially if someone is hooking into their wifi, for example.

Above, I said I suspected, and later it was confirmed, the couple are on a capped broadband service, so are going over the allowance and so paying the price for 'excessive use'.


Very few people can keep within the capped limits (A PlusNet call centre person told me that this is why they no longer offer a limited service),so go into the realms of pay-as-you-go, whose rates are high and so will account for a large part of the bill.

carguy143

Stevie_Palimo wrote: »

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.

As a former retention adviser for an internet company I can confirm your statement is 100% correct. As my job involved high commission rates for exceeding targets such as cost per save, retention rates etc, I would be very reluctant to jeopardise my targets to assist someone who came out all guns blazing just because. I would often push the rude ones to cancel and would save the polite ones and often give them a better discount in the process as I could juggle the targets so easily.


So to all of you on here, trying to be rude and play hard ball isn't always the best option when you're talking to another human being on the other end of the line as they may have a similar mindset to myself.

Have a great weekend.

Rik.