MSE News: BT to hike broadband and call prices and charge TV customers for BT Sport

Doc_N

WillPS wrote: »

Switched to TalkTalk on March 1st. No line rental saver refund despite being promised one twice!

Called and will have a revised bill in 14 days (!!) showing a £160 line rental saver refund.

You can see why BT get bad reviews as their customer service really is quite poor. I can't really complain as I've effectively been paid ~£200 for 3 months of fibre connection (not including whatever the Smarthub and Youview box are worth), but of all the ISPs I've been with they have been the most faff.

Similar situation here. No mention of LRS refund on the final bill, and they even argued that was correct when I contacted them via online chat to get it corrected. It took a reference to Ofcom, their own forums and a Guardian article to get them to agree to repay, and I suspect they're cheating ex-customers out of hundreds of thousands of pounds by adopting this underhand approach.

TalkTalk come in for some stick, but BT are infinitely worse to deal with.

Therockett

Doc_N wrote: »

Here's an extract from the email:

"You don't need to do anything but if you want to change something or leave, and you're within your minimum contract term, you'll need to contact us within 30 days of receiving this email to avoid paying a charge for leaving early. You'll need to give us 30 days' notice to leave (or 14 days if you're switching to a new provider). We won't charge you for any increase in price during that time."

The bit in bold should help you considerably - they've used the word 'receiving', so if you state categorically that it wan't received there's very little they can do but resend it, allowing you a further time period.

Thank you will mention that text when we speak with the manager on Monday

gener8or

I've opened a compliant about the activation fee of £50, saying it's an unfair charge as I have only been a customer for a few months.
I asked them for a refund but they refused.

We are now in deadlock. Had a letter.
What's the thought of taking it to the frugality regulator?

Thanks

Doc_N

gener8or wrote: »

I've opened a compliant about the activation fee of £50, saying it's an unfair charge as I have only been a customer for a few months.
I asked them for a refund but they refused.

We are now in deadlock. Had a letter.
What's the thought of taking it to the frugality regulator?

Thanks

Interesting! Ofcom requires the provider to "allow its Subscribers to withdraw from their contract without penalty", as I'm sure you know, and will have argued. Whether losing the connection/activation fees counts as a penalty is, I suppose, arguable - but it's an argument worth pursuing.

Certainly no harm in pushing it to Ofcom, and I think a lot of people would be very interested in the outcome.

[Deleted User]

Doc_N wrote: »

Interesting! Ofcom requires the provider to "allow its Subscribers to withdraw from their contract without penalty", as I'm sure you know, and will have argued. Whether losing the connection/activation fees counts as a penalty is, I suppose, arguable - but it's an argument worth pursuing.

Certainly no harm in pushing it to Ofcom, and I think a lot of people would be very interested in the outcome.

Not a chance in hell Ofcom will rule in their favour. It's an activation fee, not a refundable deposit. Total waste of time.

Doc_N

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Not a chance in hell Ofcom will rule in their favour. It's an activation fee, not a refundable deposit. Total waste of time.

Not that clear cut at all. LRS isn't a refundable deposit either - though it turned out to be after Ofcom intervened.

Anyway, what's to lose?

gener8or

I was thinking its an unfair penalty, when selecting BT I countered the £50 activation into the 12 month contract price, due to BT prices rises I had to break out of that contract so I feel stiffed by a proportion of £50.


Going to give them one more chance to refund it and then take it to the regulator .... does it cost BT when I take it to OFCOM?

boatman

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

Not a chance in hell Ofcom will rule in their favour. It's an activation fee, not a refundable deposit. Total waste of time.

If you have to pay another activation fee to another provider for effectively the same period, why shouldn't you get a pro rata amount back?
BT have made the decision to change the contract, they need to take the consequences.

Doc_N

gener8or wrote: »

I was thinking its an unfair penalty, when selecting BT I countered the £50 activation into the 12 month contract price, due to BT prices rises I had to break out of that contract so I feel stiffed by a proportion of £50.


Going to give them one more chance to refund it and then take it to the regulator .... does it cost BT when I take it to OFCOM?

Looking a little more closely at this (and I do hope you feed back to us), I think it won't be Ofcom that resolves it for you, because they say:

"We are not responsible for regulating:

disputes between you and your telecoms provider;"

However, these people do:

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html

and it will cost BT:

Cost

CostsOmbudsman Services is funded by the companies it handles complaints about. We charge an annual subscription fee and a case fee for each complaint we accept.

boatman

I was led to believe it was about £250 if the case goes to the ombudsman.

This is for the financial ombudsman, which may well be a more expensive process, but gives an idea.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/businesses/answers/funding_a5.html