BT still running up a bill despite changing provider.

SleepySamurai86

Today I received a letter from BT, to my confusion I opened it and had a big £366.17 bill on it!

To my horror I was like surely this is a scam, nope its legit from BT, realised my account was still active despite I changed Broadband and Phone over to SKY around middle of MAY 2022 ( change over was 31.05.22 ). So I contacted BT to follow up and find out why I owe them. Short story is they told me there was a transfer of service made back in MAY however not a transfer of line.

Checking my emails I pulled up a BT email aptly named "Sorry to hear your leaving" it had my switch over date etc for BROADBAND & TELEPHONE, the email is dated 18.05.22........strange. BT confirming both services would be switching to SKY yet its now December 2022 and they send me a bill for the last 6 months. I press them as to why and they said they only cancelled my contract in 23.11.22 cause the bill was overly large then sent letter demanding I pay it. Yet I no longer have BT services, my account was still open and should've been closed after my final payment was made in MAY. Someone at BT hasn't closed my account and was still charging me £70.79 per month however with my DIRECT DEBIT cancelled during the switchover I'm left to believe BT knows this and is trying to swindle money out of me at the worst time possible.

I'm waiting for contact back from SKY as BT has requested SKY to foot the bill as isn't my fault.....but my belief is BT is at fault given they sent emails out regarding my leave date and confirmation of both services being switched to SKY.

Curious as to if anyone has any insight to this or has experienced the same thing? ( I was informed by SKY that the switch over would be effortless as the SKY TEAM would contact BT to arrange everything and save me the hassle of waiting on hold via telephone )

southsidergs

Contact Sky as they said, you did a working line takeover which never completed properly which are gaining provider led so if they never transferred over properly, it's up to the gaining provider to manage

iniltous

Did you transfer your ‘BT’ phone number to Sky or take a different number from Sky ?, if you dial 17070 what does is the AVR ‘announcement’ ?, it’s different on a Sky line to a BT line , presumably you are using the Sky router rather than the previous BT one ,
Everything points to the transfer being completed even if for some reason your BT service was not ‘ceased’ and a bill continued to be produced.
I would join the BT Community forum 

 https://community.bt.com/
Post you issue there , there are BT staff members as board moderators , and seem to have good success at resolving issues .
However , if it turns out that Sky didn’t raise a migration order , but a ‘new line’ order , and the installer provided the Sky service in place of the BT service, then BT would have no way of knowing that the BT service was no longer wanted, but that wouldn’t explain the ‘sorry to see you go’ letter/email, unless Sky cancelled the migration after the letter , then raised a new line order…..the BT Mods will be able to see the order trail from BT point of view 

SleepySamurai86

The email "sorry to see you go" related to me ditching BT broadband and calls due to HIGH cost per month as I was out of contract. SKY acknowledged I wanted to keep my telephone number line and not a new line, which was transferred across and worked same day the transfer happened. Telephone line wouldn't accept or call out when using phone jack on wall, plugged it into back of SKY Hub and it works off internet calls, I personally called it and it rang using the HUB as its source not the wall jack. So the line was transferred on the day I had the SKY engineer setup the new SKY equipment.

Problem is that BT never once sent a letter demanding I'd missed a payment in June so I had no reason to check for BT in my emails as to me it was all done and dusted. Seems to me that someone at BT has spotted this massive error and manually cancelled my contract only on 23-11-22 when it should've been cancelled and my account deleted from June onwards.

I have both confirmation of the SKY migration email and transfer of line plus the termination date of my contract with BT so I don't get how either these two big companies can screw it up. The new legislation was meant to make changing providers easier yet it seems there is some beef with the companies or staff are not on the ball and expecting "us" to pay for their mistakes.

Given the time of year no one wants to see a triple digit bill in their mail, again I've talked to BT but they claim its SKY's fault and they will pay but part of me believes BT is to blame for not cancelling my account given I had no line services or broadband with them from June onwards. Its frustrating being the piggy in the middle. 

southsidergs

SleepySamurai86 said:

Given the time of year no one wants to see a triple digit bill in their mail, again I've talked to BT but they claim its SKY's fault and they will pay but part of me believes BT is to blame for not cancelling my account given I had no line services or broadband with them from June onwards. Its frustrating being the piggy in the middle. 

My previous post still stands, takeovers are gaining provider led so BT are not at fault here, if the takeover didn't complete it's up to the gaining provider (Sky in this case)

SleepySamurai86

UPDATE: Today I woke up to find BT slipped me a pleasant email basically threatening me with DEBT COLLECTORS!

Now keep in mind I received their letter to pay this bill on the 05-12-2022 and its now 14-12-2022. I tried emailing SKY but got wrong section since couldn't get through on the phoneline. Only days after complaining to BT where I setup a complaint and was given a complaint reference, days later email stating Complaint has been resolved and now closed? 

So my initial thought was someone looked into it at BT and resolved the issue.....apparently not as they sent me a email threatening to hand this off to debt collectors. I am really not in the mood right now given BT is now beginning to get on my nerves. They claim its SKY's fault and some of you say contact SKY but why is BT acting so fast and aggressive. Almost makes it look like a SCAM is at play here and BT is trying to defraud me for someone else's mistake.

I will continue to try get through to the correct SKY representative but have been flat out at work and wont have any free time to sit down and pull my hair out over a phone call till at least next Monday ( 19-12-2022 ) but by then I'll probably have a DEBT COLLECTOR letter in the mail trying to force me to pay this triple digit bill despite BT rep I spoke to claiming "Don't worry, its not your fault, were here to help." 

Then why are you threatening me with Debt Collectors? Seems like even BT doesn't want to acknowledge there is a giant muck up between them and SKY, sure I'm not the only one who has encountered this nonsense.

What are my options if SKY gives me the cold shoulder and says not our problem?, I know I could take this up with the financial ombudsman and hand them all the emails and proof I haven't been with BT for the last 6 months despite them ringing up a bill in MY NAME ( surely that's some type of corporate fraud? )

Or am I doomed to be harassed by debt collectors until the day I die?

SleepySamurai86

FURTHER UPDATE: They have already passed it to DEBT COLLECTORS......surely there is some legal law that they have broken by acting this fast. Total scam artists it seems, nice one BT for stressing me out totally now, utterly unreal behaviour towards a once LOYAL customer. 

Sorry but this is now going to keep me up all night infuriated with how idiot BT operates its scamming business! ( im sure you can understand my frustration given the time of year )

also any advice or help is greatly appreciated as I've never been in debt and now this is looming over my shoulder for something totally out of my control.

Neil_Jones

The switching is provider winning led (so in this case Sky) but your post of December 5 suggests you now have a VOIP setup and a digital line.  Which doesn't necessary mean that the old style copper line gets disconnected.  So do you have FTTC or FTTP internet from Sky?

Also another school of thought, if your contract wasn't up until November, why did you move in May?  Are you sure that £366 isn't your early exit fee?

SleepySamurai86

I have had SKY broadband and Telephone services since 31st MAY/1st June, this is BT running a bill up for 6 months without my knowledge despite having terminated all services with BT.

SleepySamurai86

I have been with BT since 2017, I left and final payment was for May 2022, made the switch to SKY and have been with SKY until now. 

I have no business with BT after the termination of broadband and line services with BT yet they are requesting me to pay £366

SleepySamurai86

also my contract was OUT given my intial 12 month contract back in 2017 february so I was out of contract by feb 2018 and was on rolling contract monthly.