BT - cannot dispute charges if 3 months have passed?

Poorstudent123321

Hi there,

Sorry if I've posted in the wrong place.
I first took out a 12 month contract with BT on 26th/27th October 2016.
I paid £205.08 upfront for their line rental saver.
I paid £49.00 for the engineer visit.
The line installation fee (normally £130.00) was free.
The delivery charge for the hub was £7.50.
Broadband + Calls cost £32.50 a month.
The package came with a discount of £7.50 a month for 12 months.
A BT Reward card worth £100

I make that out to be
One of fees:
£205.08 + £49.00 + £7.50
Monthly Fee (x12)
(£32.50 - £7.50) £25.00 x 12.

Engineers failed to turn up 5 times, my line was finally installed ~ 11th January 2017.
I was charged £205.08, £241.12, £106.93, £25, £27.73, £27.50 x 6, £32.50 for a grand total of £803.36. Every step of the way, I have disputed this. In my last correspondence with BT, I was told I cannot dispute anything from before 3 months ago?! I have had numerous complaints open with BT that were closed without my consent and left unresolved. Case managers failed to call back several times, through no fault of my own has this dragged on. I am quite literally at the end of my tether.I have paid £803.36 for 4.5 months of internet. I have spent money out of my own pocket to accomodate engineers that do not turn up. I missed my Christmas vacation, numerous lectures+tutorials, dozens of hours waiting for engineer visits and case manager phone calls to ultimately leave me in this diabolical situation. Is there anything I can do?

Thank you for reading.

unholyangel

Are they disputing the amount owed? What paperwork did you receive when you entered into the contract and what does that say about pricing? Did you incur any losses as a result of their failure to keep their appointments?

If they tell you again that you can't dispute anything longer than 3 months ago, remind them the limitations act gives you a period of 6 years to make a claim against them (assuming you're in england or wales).

If you have followed their formal complaints procedure and been rejected or 8 weeks has passed since you made the complaint, ask them for a deadlock letter and for details of their ADR provider.

agrinnall

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain-to-ofcom

NeilCr

You could try here

https://community.bt.com

The mods, who are BT employees, are pretty good at sorting problems out if you can get their attention

Poorstudent123321

Hi there. Thank you so much for the response.

I am. I received e-mails about my order which confirm there is a charge for the engineer vist, there is no charge for the installation, etc.
I did in the sense I missed a lot of university time and wasted money(train cost) travelling back to my student house in December/January. I also paid my landlord to remove a sign that allegedly prevented engineers working on the box. I didn't however, lose wages from missed work hours.

Thank you, I wasn't aware of that.

Thank you. It gets very messy here since I've had several complaints open with them.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Email the chairman's office:

gavin.e.patterson@bt.com

with a clear breakdown of what was paid and what you believe was overcharged (check your bank statement and make sure they took the amount on each bill rather than carrying one or more of the bills over to the next one without taking payment).

BT should give you £10 per failed visit if there is a record of it on their system. If you have been overcharged, once it's all sorted, ask for a couple of months line rental to be refunded, they'll likely agree.

I'm very good at dealing with bills but find BTs extremely complicated and they tend to put you on quarterly billing (thus taking 3 months up front each time they bill you). Switching to monthly billing means they only bill one month ahead and the bills are a bit easier to understand.

pmduk

agrinnall wrote: »

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain-to-ofcom

If you follow that link the first thing you'll find is that Ofcom don't handle individual complaints.

agrinnall

pmduk wrote: »

If you follow that link the first thing you'll find is that Ofcom don't handle individual complaints.

Well, the first thing I see is a box saying:

Report a complaint or issue Ofcom may be able to help you complain about or report issues relating to phone and postal services and TV or radio programmes.

And then a bit further down a link titled:

"Complain about phones or internet services"

So while you may be right that Ofcom themselves don't take individual complaints, they clearly can help individuals to make a complaint, so thanks for your itervention but no thanks.

eddddy

Have you seen BT's Complaints code of practice?

It includes details of how to take your complaint to the ombudsman....

http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/RegulatoryandPublicaffairs/Codeofpractice/CustomerComplaintsCode/Complaints_code_of_practice.pdf