BT and Contracts Without My Authority

digitaldaz

Hi all,

Just received a charge from BT for 133 to cancel my BT sports which I did a month or two ago, there is a little bit more to it than that though...

This bill basically is for my daughters house that I pay the bill for. At no time have I ever authorized her to deal with BT on my behalf and I have never told BT this, the account is solely in my name.

One way or another, whether she rang BT or BT rang her, I am not totally aware, she ended up recontracting ME into a new contract.

As soon as I found out I rang BT and complained that she had managed to be able to do this and said that I was quite happy for them to go ahead with the broadband service but absolutely did not want the BT sport, I now live in Spain and have no way to view it even if I wanted to.

When I noticed this direct debit I immediately rang BT regarding this and they said that if a third party can validate so much then they can place orders on my account.

They are refusing to refund me this and are saying it must be treated as fraud and I must report my daughter to the police to get a reference number that I then must give to their fraud team. In my opinion this is just BT trying to intimidate me into not taking this further.

Is there anything I can do about this? Am I legally liable?

Thanks
Daz

[Deleted User]

digitaldaz wrote: »

Hi all,

Just received a charge from BT for 133 to cancel my BT sports which I did a month or two ago, there is a little bit more to it than that though...

This bill basically is for my daughters house that I pay the bill for. At no time have I ever authorized her to deal with BT on my behalf and I have never told BT this, the account is solely in my name.

One way or another, whether she rang BT or BT rang her, I am not totally aware, she ended up recontracting ME into a new contract.

As soon as I found out I rang BT and complained that she had managed to be able to do this and said that I was quite happy for them to go ahead with the broadband service but absolutely did not want the BT sport, I now live in Spain and have no way to view it even if I wanted to.

When I noticed this direct debit I immediately rang BT regarding this and they said that if a third party can validate so much then they can place orders on my account.

They are refusing to refund me this and are saying it must be treated as fraud and I must report my daughter to the police to get a reference number that I then must give to their fraud team. In my opinion this is just BT trying to intimidate me into not taking this further.

Is there anything I can do about this? Am I legally liable?

Thanks
Daz

they said that if a third party can validate so much then they can place orders on my account

I've worked on many projects at work and we've always only dealt with either the account holder (no way to verify that is who you're speaking to of course) or a previously authorised person on the account. I'd be very surprised if what they say is true.

Search out the email or postal address and put your complaint in writing.

wongataa

Have you asked your daughter about this? Maybe there could be fraudulent activity on the account?

digitaldaz

My daughter fully accepts that she made the order. My argument is, she did not have the authority to do it. ie BT should never have accepted that order without consulting me. I am the bill payer, the contract is in my name.

Carrot007

digitaldaz wrote: »

My daughter fully accepts that she made the order. My argument is, she did not have the authority to do it. ie BT should never have accepted that order without consulting me. I am the bill payer, the contract is in my name.

So 90% daughter / 10 % BT?


REporting her for fraud sounds a reasonable request from BT. You ashould have done it already. And cancelled all her accounts. Are you even allowed a BT account when you do not live in the UK? Fraud seems to run in the family.

JJ_Egan

Then its fraud .

Browntoa

With enough details from bills sent to the address she could do that online without any phone calls. All you need is account number , name of the account holder and an email address. Why would BT question that ?

100% your daughter's fault.

borkid

Browntoa wrote: »

With enough details from bills sent to the address she could do that online without any phone calls. All you need is account number , name of the account holder and an email address. Why would BT question that ?

100% your daughter's fault.

When I've dealt with our BT account which is in my husband's name they always ask for the address and his date of birth as well. They've always asked do I have authority to deal with the account. All email goes to his email account and we are given 14 days to change our minds on new contracts.


Surely to change things online she would have needed the account login details ie password and email address.


From my experience for the situation to have happened the daughter would have lied and given BT her email address.


Definitely daughter's fault and if she were my daughter I would make her pay for the extra services by DD to you. I'd also change all my contact/ password details etc.

onomatopoeia99

digitaldaz wrote: »

My daughter fully accepts that she made the order. My argument is, she did not have the authority to do it. ie BT should never have accepted that order without consulting me. I am the bill payer, the contract is in my name.

She has defrauded you then, and probably BT as well.

If you wish BT to cancel the contract because you have been defrauded, they will, but will need you to provide them with evidence in the form of a crime reference number. They have told you this, so get down the police station.

[Deleted User]

Browntoa wrote: »

With enough details from bills sent to the address she could do that online without any phone calls. All you need is account number , name of the account holder and an email address. Why would BT question that ?

100% your daughter's fault.

Or a male friend if using the phone.

I'd say 50% the daughters fault and 50% the OP's fault for setting this up in the first place.

digitaldaz

I understand your replies regarding my daughters liability but here is why I completely dispute this.

When I ring BT to discuss this account at all, they send a text to my phone and I must read back to them an authorization code. Until I have done this they tell me they cannot speak to me about the account. I was under the assumption that this protection would absolutely apply to adding things to the order.