BT Billing Errors & Inept Customer Service

Henred9482 · 8 October 2020 at 11:29AM

This is a resume of my experience with BT - the full details are mind-numbingly painful, but I do have records of everything that transpired.

In September 2020 my 18 month contract was incorrectly ended after only 12 months (thought I wouldn't notice?) and they billed me £20.49 more than they should. What followed were frustrating sessions with a succession of BT employees who failed to correctly understand their system failures regarding my account: -

1. BT chatline , 2. BT phone call agent, 3. BT chatline.

The two chatline agents and BT phone agent confirmed there was an error and one by one tried to unravel the BT mistake and attempt to give me a refund for their error.

With trepidation I awaited my October bill and although I was refunded for the early contract ending error, they still got it wrong - this time for suddenly charging me £4.20 for the Free "700 Anytime Minutes". Another frustrating 2hours 8 minutes session with a clueless chatline agent, who actually asked for me to prove that the 700 Anytime Minutes plan were free - he was effectively calling me a Liar! (You do pay £4.20 or £4.50 for the "Unlimited Anytime Minutes"). That, I was able to prove as I had confirmation from BT about that and the agent was forced to accept it and correct my current bill. He then proceeded to send me a confirmation email - to the Wrong email address! I had changed MyBT profile and account details a couple of months before and the proof of that was in the fact that BT sent my bill notifications to the new email address. Just why the agents were using an old email address is anyone guess?

I eventually asked to create a complaint and communicate with a "senior manager", who was as bad as the hapless agent. After 2 hours 8 minutes on chatline I eventually got my latest incorrect bill amended. The "senior manager" even had the gall to claim that the error was not BT's fault - well, whose was it then?

A closing of the ranks was happening and I had the feeling they were trying to shift the blame for their errors "somewhere else".

Another thing I was told by the "senior manager" was that the 700 Anytime Minutes plan would be charged when my current contract ran out. So that's another way they are going to get BT customers to pay more - so watch out for that bit of BT stealth.

I now wait to see if what I have now been promised is implemented, but as my contract with BT expires in January 2021, and after my bad experience with their inept accounting system and shoddy customer service, I shall be looking to go elsewhere and I would recommend that anyone thinking of joining BT, or are with them, to think again and double check their bills.