Wrongful BT Cancellation Charges

cufc_mike

From day 1, I have experienced nothing but hell from BT, and have resorted to sending an email in a desperate attempt to the Chief Executive of BT. Why do we put up with the following type of service? I'd like to think I've a good 50 years ahead of me, but I can honestly say I will never ever use BT's services again.

On the 12th October 2007, my partner and I, both first time buyers moved into our property.

On the 17th October 2007, I contacted BT Customer Services on 0800 800 150 to create a new customer account. I opted to sign up to BT Together Option 2 for 12 months, with Free Evening & Weekend Calls for £11.95 per month.

On the 18th October 2007, I received a letter thanking me for choosing the Free CallMobile Special Offer, for 12 Months. After a bit of research, I found this was given to customers signing up to BT Together Option 2, however, still rather annoyed that I hadn’t been told about this offer when initially signing up.

On the 21st October 2007, I received my 1st bill through the post, from which I identified I had been incorrectly put on BT Together Option 1, and subsequently incorrectly charged for previous local telephone calls made during the evenings, and at weekends, which should have actually been free calls.

On the 23rd October 2007, I phoned BT, explained that I had been signed up to the wrong service, and was advised that it had been changed to BT Together Option 2.

I should add at this point that speaking to a member of the Customer Service team involved spending many frustrating hours on hold.

On the 24th October 2007, I received a welcome letter, thanking me for signing up to BT Together Option 2, the Evening and Weekend package, for 12 months, at a cost of £11.95 per month. The letter also stated that my 12 month contract started on 23rd October 2007. Towards the end of the letter, under the What Happens Next? section, I am informed that I have 7 calendar days to cancel from the date of activation should I decide not to go ahead with the offer.

In the Terms & Conditions provided, it states, and I quote:

“Customers can cancel their order up to 7 days from when BT supplies customers with the offer. If you tell us that you want to end this service after 7 days and before the end of the 12 month term, you will incur an early termination charge.”

This would give me until 30th October 2007 to cancel my service without incurring an early termination charge.

Between 25th October 2007 and 29th October 2007 I attempted to get through to a BT Customer Advisor to find out more about, and sign up to a Broadband package. Unfortunately I was unable to do, and after spending more than 10 hours on hold, I gave up trying, and decide to go elsewhere for my services.

On the morning of 30th October 2007, I rang the Customer Services phone number, and followed instructions for the Cancellations department. My phone call was answered almost instantly. After being assured that I would incur no early termination charge, I cancelled my BT service.

During the evening of 30th October 2007, I rang the Customer Services phone number, and once again followed instructions for the Cancellations department. Again, my phone call was answered almost instantly. Having asked for my account status, I was told by the Customer Services advisor that a cancellation notice had been added to my account, and was again assured that I would incur no early termination charge because I had cancelled my service on the 7th day since activation.

On the 20th November 2007, I received my 2nd bill (M002 TR). I noticed that a ‘one off’ charge had been applied to my account, for £129.52.

On the 22nd November 2007, I spent 3 hours on hold, having followed the instructions for ‘Billing Enquiries’. When my call was eventually answered, the advisor was unable to help me. She informed me that I was being transferred through to the ‘Billing Department’. I was placed back on hold for a further 40 minutes, until my call was answered again.

The advisor informed me that the charge had been applied to my account because I had cancelled my service outside of the allowed 7 day period. Unfortunately the advisor was unable to tell me when I cancelled my service.

The following paragraph is extracted from the BT Website, under the Terms & Conditions ‘Ending the Service’ section.

“40. If you take service on or after 1st May 2007 the charges for ending either a new line or a line that you take over before the end of the minimum period will be the lower amount of either £70 or the total of the monthly line rental left in the minimum period.”

Having assured the advisor that I had cancelled my service after 7 days, he offered to refund £70 back into my account. The reason he stated, was that I was an unhappy customer. I refused to accept the £70 refund and insisted that I spoke to his line manager. Unfortunately by this time, it was approximately 21:30 and I was informed that there was nobody available to speak to. I was however promised a call back the next day from a senior member of the Customer Services Team. After my phone call I wrote a letter out to Mrs Jillian G. Lewis (Customer Services Director), and copied the letter to OFCOM. I am still waiting to hear from Mrs Jillian G. Lewis regarding this matter.

The following day, on 23rd November 2007, I received a phone call from a foreign Customer Service advisor who explained that if I had any issues with my account, I should call the Customer Services number on 0800 800 150 and follow the instructions for ‘Billing Enquiries’.

On the 14th December 2007, I checked my Online Account, to find an outstanding balance of £461.89.

On the 15th December 2007, I phoned BT Customer Services. The foreign advisor informed me that a charge of £319.02 had been applied to my account for cancelling my service early. I informed the advisor that the previous month, I had already been charged a £129.52 cancellation fee.


The advisor broke the cancellation fees down for me, as follows:

£129.52 cancellation charge for ending the CallMobile package early.
£319.02 cancellation charge for ending the BT Together Option 2 package early.

The advisor informed me that all details had been passed onto the ‘Escalations Department’, and gave me a reference number # VOL 0116972556605. She explained that they would clear all cancellation charges that had been applied to my account, and somebody from the ‘Escalations Department’ would call me on Monday 17th November 2007 – today. Unsurprisingly, there hasbeen no phone call.

I am extremely aggravated by the charges which I feel have wrongfully been applied to my account, but I am more annoyed at the amounts, and reasons for these charges. The initial charge has been applied for cancelling a service which:

a) I wasn’t told about whilst signing up for BT Together Option 2 package.
b) Was given free to me for the duration of my 12 month contract.

The 2nd charge, £319.02 has been applied for ending my BT Together Option 2 package, despite the Terms & Conditions clearly stating that, and I re-quote:

“40. If you take service on or after 1st May 2007 the charges for ending either a new line or a line that you take over before the end of the minimum period will be the lower amount of either £70 or the total of the monthly line rental left in the minimum period.”

Unless I’m very much mistaken, the lower amount of £70, and £319.02, is quite obviously £70.

Throughout, what I can only describe as an utterly horrendous experience with BT, I have found the Customer Services team to be impolite, uncaring, and extremely unhelpful. After hours on hold, waiting to get through to speak to somebody, I have often had to explain my situation 2 or 3 times whilst being passed through various departments.

As you can understand, my experience to date has been frustrating, but most of all very disappointing. As a first time home buyer, I was looking forward to a long and successful service from BT, which was nothing but poor from day one. I feel I have been misled ever since my initial phone call. Every time I rang Customer Services, the wrong information had been applied to my account.

All the dates listed above are accurate, and as “all calls made to BT, or by BT may be recorded to help us give you a better service”, you will have a record of all telephone calls made by myself.

normanmark

Ok - Was it a general rant or was you asking for advice/answer to a question?

cufc_mike

I think I had so much of a rant, that I forgot to ask whether BT were in the wrong, or whether they were rightfully charging me £461.89?

Anyway, I've just had a phone call from a member of the Chairman and Chief Exec office and they have wiped the whole balance from my account, without asking for further information or anything, therefore I can only assume they were in the wrong?

jackieb

I can feel your frustration! I had many, many hours on hold to BT, trying to sort out my parent's cancellation charge. The only way I got it sorted was through the CEO. Glad you got yours sorted too. Those were horrendous charges. BT need to get their customer services sorted out as it's virtually impossible to sort things out through them - you get put through to another department, on hold for hours again, only to find out it was the wrong department you were put through to.. They need to bring back the call centres to the UK!

gt94sss2

jackieb wrote: »

BT need to get their customer services sorted out as it's virtually impossible to sort things out through them - you get put through to another department, on hold for hours again, only to find out it was the wrong department you were put through to.. They need to bring back the call centres to the UK!

Its got little to do with the locations of the BT call centres - most of which are actually still in the UK and not India - its more to do with changes that Ofcom has forced on BT and the effects of these changes are still working their way through their systems etc..

Regards
Sunil

wantmemoney

gt94sss2 wrote:

Its got little to do with the locations of the BT call centres - most of which are actually still in the UK and not India

yes but they are not used for handling customer complaints.
but
if the tax paying public were aware of how BT were using them!

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=424323&in_page_id=2

BT covered up a massive fraud by call-centre staff to ensure it held on to a contract worth more than £1billion, a tribunal was told yesterday.

Staff made millions of false calls to themselves in order to meet bonus-linked performance targets under the contract with the Ministry of Defence. The fraud, which went on for at least four years, involved the use of computerised ' autodiallers' to maintain an artificial call rate.
An examination of phone records found that one operator who would normally handle 100 calls in an eight-hour shift was logged as answering 412 calls in just over an hour. The MoD was tipped off about the scam and asked BT to investigate in June 2004 - when the contract was up for renewal.
It concluded there was no case to answer and it was not until the following year, by which time the contract had been renewed, that another tip-off led to a second probe and the fraud was exposed.
Five BT managers were sacked for their roles in the incident. One of them, Joseph Hewson, from Ossett, West Yorkshire, has taken BT to an employment tribunal claiming unfair dismissal.
Mr Hewson, who worked at the company's Wakefield call centre, insists he had only been following orders. He claimed he had not been aware of the 2004 investigation, describing it as 'simply useless' and 'an absolute sham'.
Mr Hewson told the tribunal in Leeds: 'In June 2004 when an anonymous informant caused the first investigation to take place upon the instruction of the MoD, this was at a time when the contract was in the renewal phase. This renewal was worth over a billion pounds to BT and so they could not let anything affect it.'
The fraud also involved call centres in St Helens on Merseyside, Dumbarton in Scotland and Kettering, Northamptonshire.
Mr Hewson said: 'Everyone in every centre was fully aware that auto-diallers were being used. I was fully aware that auto-diallers were there and being used. I knew it was wrong and every single other person knew it was wrong. I couldn't do anything to stop it.'
Mr Hewson said a 'bullying culture' within BT was so bad it was impossible to speak out or refuse to organise the false calls. He said the company was after 'scapegoats' and other managers aware of the fraudulent activity had not been disciplined in the same way.
BT does not accept Mr Hewson was forced into co-operating with the scam and insists his dismissal was justified. Earlier this week, Anne McHugh, 28, one of the other sacked managers, lost her case for unfair dismissal at a tribunal in Liverpool.
The MoD said a 'thorough and wide-ranging investigation' had been carried out into the 'artificial inflation' of target-linked ' successful' calls and compensation would be paid by BT.

normanmark

wantmemoney wrote: »

yes but they are not used for handling customer complaints.

Erm...they are!

k1ngy

Funny we have just come out the otherside of a huge row with BT but i wouldnt change my phone or broadband to anyone else. There customer service stinks but the service itself i cannot fault. I have used their internet for nearly ten years and never had an outage or drop once whereas i know others have no end of trouble with other companies.

wantmemoney

re: BT UK call centres

yes but they are not used for handling customer complaints.

normanmark wrote:

Erm...they are!

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/09/11/bt-staff-in-8m-phone-scam-100252-19768169/
BT staff in £8m phone scam
Sep 11 2007

A MERSEYSIDE BT call centre was part of a multi-million pound Ministry of Defence call-handling scam. An investigation sparked by a whistleblower revealed that between 1999 and 2005 millions of false calls were made by BT workers to make sure targets were hit.
The fiddle may have cost taxpayers at least £8m.
Details emerged as one of the five BT workers sacked for her part in the scam lost her claim for unfair dismissal.
Single mother Anne McHugh from Aintree was sacked from her job as the St Helens call centre manager for gross misconduct after admitting instructing staff to make phoney calls.
But Ms McHugh told an employment tribunal: “I felt that I had to go along with it even though I didn’t agree with it. I did know it was fraud but who did I report it to? I am a single mum of two children – I didn’t want to lose my job.”
Four BT call centres, at Dumbarton, Kettering, Wakefield and St Helens, handled MoD calls from British bases into the UK.
The MoD paid for all the calls, but if the centres failed to answer them within a certain time limit, BT had to pay a £30,000 monthly penalty to the MoD.
Staff bonuses also depended on the targets being met so staff phoned each other on auto-diallers to rack up extra calls.
BT saved almost £2m in penalties which the MoD would have been paid and the union believes the actual cost to the MoD for the ghost calls could be as much as £8m.
Robbie Ayres, of the Communication Workers Union, told the tribunal that the scam was “a fiddle of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money”.
The tribunal in Liverpool heard that the practice of making false calls began after a conference call allegedly made by Chris Bean, business director and manager of four BT call centres.
Carolyn Clews from BT told the tribunal in Liverpool: “It was decided false calls would be made to bring the level up to the standard required by the contract. Managers below him went to speak to their people and made sure that happened. It started with one call and became ‘business as usual’.
“Managers colluded over a long period of time to falsify accounts and by their actions brought BT into disrepute. It’s shocking behaviour.”
The tribunal heard that Mr Bean was still employed by BT but had been suspended for 19 months while a disciplinary and grievance process took place.
Workers questioned about their involvement said they felt pressure from managers to take part in the scam and that employees were threatened with action under the Official Secrets Act if they dissented.
A confidential BT report handed to the tribunal as evidence and obtained by the ECHO states: “It stands very much to reason that bullying and intimidation was the force which ‘kept the lid’ on this matter for so many years – a truly shameful situation in a company which prides itself on its business ethics and publicly denounces such behaviour.
“The reputation cost to the BT brand is probably the most serious loss. The MoD relationship has been tarnished by this event – by how much it is for others to assess.”
In a statement to the ECHO, a BT spokeswoman said: “It would be totally inappropriate for us to comment on any confidential matters between us and the MoD. However, BT categorically denies defrauding the MoD of £10m.”
An MoD statement said: “The artificial inflation of the number of successful calls made by the Defence Fixed Telecommunication Service in order to achieve the contracted Percentage Call Answered target, has been subject of a thorough and wide ranging investigation.
“The MOD and BT are now in the final stages of a full and detailed review of the scale and value of the reparation payments – these payments will cover not only the specific financial losses incurred, but also the costs to the department of the time and detailed work involved in this protracted investigation.”

'Erm' Using BT UK call centres to defraud the UK tax payer out of £8m is not the same has handling customer complaints. If you or BT believe it is then may be that explains the disgraceful attitude BT has towards its customers.
BT can pogue ma hone

Drunkstar

You realise that BT has more than 4 call centers?
Oh, and the ones that deal with complaints are mostly UK based, though there is an offshore one too I belive.



Though this was a scam done by BT Global Services, NOT BT Retail.

Wantmemoney, you seem to have a bit of an ax to grind.

edit: in fact, that article about call centers has been posted by you 4 times now, either in part or in full.

normanmark

wantmemoney wrote: »

re: BT UK call centres

'Erm' Using BT UK call centres to defraud the UK tax payer out of £8m is not the same has handling customer complaints. If you or BT believe it is then may be that explains the disgraceful attitude BT has towards its customers.
BT can pogue ma hone

If you refer to what i was answering, you were saying that BT's UK based call centre's were not used for dealing with complaints. Having worked for a different division of the BT Group in the past I can recall of at least 5 call centre's which are used for dealing with customers complaints. That was why i replied with said post. BT Retail have around 30-40 call centres in the UK.

The worst part of the article is that it doesn't specify which division of BT that has committed this fraud. However I'm pretty sure you don't really care