BT Charges not as they seem, Don't believe me? Read on....

cleo165

Below is my report to BT asking to be more transparent about its call charges. How they have got away with this for so long is beyond my mind.
In brief, they have added a whole penny to each of my calls using my landline using a hidden technique which discredits the data advertised to consumers.
Imagine if this action was applied to all BT customers.

The results can be catastrophic!
BT Charges not as they seem, Don't believe me? Read on....
My First bill arrived and i studied the charges for my unanswered calls to mobile. There were two problems i encountered.

Firstly, I was not under the impression that a call is connected once it is ringing, I thought it was to be answered first, like when you phone from a public phone box and if the call is unanswered theres no charge. It seems that a connection fee is applied along with the first call charge when the dialled number rings! I cannot find any info on this and BT staff seem to inadvertantly misunderstand what i am saying.

However, The next problem i had was to identify what my actual charges were.

According to BT, calls to mobile phones are charged at 18.0p per minute with a 23.0p connection charge.

Frontend Charges.PNG

This is confirmed in their terms and conditions and Tariff guide.

Chharge Terms.PNG

The confusion is where the data is, not with my account. I was billed 42p within the first minute of every call to mobile.

My charges.PNG

Now my maths skills are stronger than average so that is a whole penny extra i am charged per call.

Now, BTs explanation is to confuse matters, by outlining the way charges are calculated:

Call Rates Application.PNG

and the calculation method:

CALL CHARGE ROUNDING.PNG

Base call charge, rounded UP to the nearest whole pence, then VAT is applied which allows a second rounding up to a whole pence. This is common calculation and is accepted, BUT the terms say that the charges are 18.0p (note the .0) and 23.0p. So this tells me two things:

(a) the charges are to the nearest whole pence, and

(b) these charges are inclusive of VAT

The result, I have been ripped off by a whole penny per call according to the difference in the data

BT consultants breakdown of costs go alot further than just the 18p and 23p we see, but they dont tell us...

Unfortunately, you have been caught out! Lets see the data change please.

[Deleted User]

BT staff seem to inadvertantly(sic) misunderstand what i am saying

I'm not surprised TBH. Since none of your images have uploaded, I have no idea what you're saying either.

cleo165

BT advertise that they have a base charge of 18.0p and a connection fee of 23.0p for the first minute of my calls to mobile. They charge me a total of 42.0p. They cannot refer me to any information to explain where the other 0.01p goes.

The images are cuts from BT.com outlining their charges and how they calculate them found in the Tariff Pricing Guide.

Ian011

It is illegal for charges to be rounded up such that the customer pays more VAT than they should.

takman

cleo165 wrote: »

BT advertise that they have a base charge of 18.0p and a connection fee of 23.0p for the first minute of my calls to mobile. They charge me a total of 42.0p. They cannot refer me to any information to explain where the other 0.01p goes.

The images are cuts from BT.com outlining their charges and how they calculate them found in the Tariff Pricing Guide.

As your post is all about accuracy then i should point out "0.01p" is one hundredth of a penny when you should have written either "£0.01" or "1.0p" as you intended to mean 1 pence.

But the question i have to ask is why are you using a BT landline to make calls to mobiles? If you do this regularly there are much cheaper ways to do it.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Only millionaires should be making calls using BT's standard call charges.

And even they will probably find them expensive.

cleo165

I agree yes, the amount 0.01p should indeed be £0.00, thanks for pointing that out.
Well these calls are to call my sons phone and he calls back as it is included in his plan. Yes i do find that calls from landline to mobile are charged excessively however i was thinking that a call was only connected once answered. That is a question for another day.

My problem is with the data. I have a post on BT website where it has stirred some interest. It seems that through only wordplay, BT is having us believe that the charges on their tariff terms are final, however within text they also outline methods that enforce my beliefs> the advertised charges cannot be met as the calculation method does not allow it, so we all pay 1p extra per connected call than advertised. Period!

[Deleted User]

You can find threads on exactly this going back at least 8 years on here, I'm afraid nobody appeared to really care then either.

cleo165

It seems that BT care, they responded well as it is clarified as a possible compliance fail and is being dealt with - don't see much happening though, i got £75 refund, and its my first month!

cleo165

Conclusion:

The connection fee, advertised at 23.0p inc VAT, should be, in my view, rounded up to 24.0p following the formula used.
(19.17p >20.0p + 4.0p VAT)

The only time this would be correct at 23.0p is where a call charge excluding VAT would have a decimal lower than 0.83 and when combined charges are rounded up, then then it would calculate correctly. However, no call charges excluding VAT do have a decimal according to BTs Tariff. So the need for charges to be advertised ex-VAT are greater - that or the simple task of changing the connection fee advertised to the minimal charge possible - which is 24.0p

That information alone tells me that BT are applying figures outside their quotes. The agents I have spoken to understand my views so far.