BT Ripped off my elderley parents, any comeback?

Jimrod

My father sadly died this week at 71, still working with cancer - I've been going through his finances and can see so many companies were ripping him off meaning he had little money - BT among the biggest culprits. He basically had fibre and a basic call plan, the landline bills on that plan - £200-300 per month!! Over the last couple of years he's literally paid £thousands for his landline use, especially from mum contacting him and family for hours while he was having treatments. A simple tick of the £12 Unlimited option on his account would have saved him so much money but it was never recommended to him, even when he took on their fibre around January. I've added it now but next bill is already £302! 

Is there any use in complaining to them or is it just pointless?

Thanks for any help.

iniltous

Ive noticed you also posted on the BT Community forum , that may be a better forum than here ,
firstly condolences on your loss .
 you could try making a request for a goodwill gesture (waiving part of the charges ) given the terrible circumstances, but ultimately BT haven’t done anything wrong or immoral, presumably your folks were on the PAYG ‘tariff’ , which is aimed at the very low usage customer , being a  ‘cheap’ way to keep incoming calls , and very few outgoing calls expected , but it is expensive on a pence per minute basis should any calls be made (I’m also on it , I never use it for outgoing calls but the option to continue to get incoming calls is worth the small £3 a month charge )  ….at around 25p a minute, anyone who makes over 45 minutes of calls per month would be better off on the unlimited calls option for £12,(after negotiations , official price around £18 ) and although it’s of no use now , you can change the plan you are on month by month using the online management of the BT account, or call an agent to do it .

I suspect you think that BT should have  noticed the amount of calls being made by your folks was making the Unlimited plan a better option and they should have  called them to suggest changing to unlimited , but ask yourself do you appreciate being called with ‘marketing’ people offering to save you money , chances are you don’t , perhaps you don’t even answer these type of calls , or as soon as they speak , you clear down the call .

Its worth calling BT and explaining the situation calmly, and asking if any gesture could be made , but calling saying your folks were ripped off , when the terms of the PAYG deal very simply applied will not help .

unfortunately it really is a case of ‘caveat emptor’ , be aware of what you are buying, it’s the purchaser than needs to make sure that it’s the right product for them , not the sellers  responsibility , it may seen harsh , but that the reality, not just with BT but with  every single company out there….there will be some that say ‘oh , so and so are not like that ‘ but in truth they are .

Jimrod

Thank you very much for your advice, I intend to call them and explain the situation, I'm not expecting that to achieve much but worth a go. My father was not very tech savvy and sadly this is just one of many things he was overpaying for, often clicking any pop up warnings his computer "May be at risk" etc despite endless advice not to. For me, when he took on the fibre contract any decent advisor should have said "Do you realise you could save a lot on your calls?" when putting that through, he'd have listened. It's just so frustrating.

EssexExile

It's not nice losing parents, I know what you're going through. My father-in-law was well and truly screwed by his bank, among others, but there's not a lot you can do about it. You can try for goodwill but the organisation's main aim is to make money for their shareholders, not save money for their customers.

Jimrod

EssexExile said:

It's not nice losing parents, I know what you're going through. My father-in-law was well and truly screwed by his bank, among others, but there's not a lot you can do about it. You can try for goodwill but the organisation's main aim is to make money for their shareholders, not save money for their customers.

Exactly, for me it's one of those things where I thought there had actually been changes made ensuring companies had a duty of care to put existing customers on their best tariffs and packages, or at least offer them. I'm not a big fan of Sky but every time I've had to deal with them their advisors have offered suggestions to save me money on their packages without prompting.

Pensioners using landlines because it's what they know should not be facing these kinds of bills (below) through greed - my dad upgraded to Fibre broadband in January so would have spoken with advisors, I guess they didn't notice the huge amounts being paid when they had a £12 unlimited calls option at the click of a finger. Sure it's dad's mistake, but BT are still scum in my eyes - I dread to look back at how much they've had off my parents over the years, being a significant contributor of why dad was still working until his death, through his cancer treatments rather than enjoying retirement. Yes I'm angry about it.

littleboo

"but it was never recommended to him, even when he took on their fibre around January"
Do you know that to be true? Could it have been offered but he declined, could it have been accepted, but the order didn't complete correctly? There is no gain to a call centre agent keeping someone on an unfavorable tariff.

Jimrod

littleboo said:

"but it was never recommended to him, even when he took on their fibre around January"
Do you know that to be true? Could it have been offered but he declined, could it have been accepted, but the order didn't complete correctly? There is no gain to a call centre agent keeping someone on an unfavorable tariff.

Looking through the amount of crap dad said yes to I can't imagine he'd have turned down an offer to save him thousands if it was explained to him. I'm sure they're very wholesome and had his best interests at heart rather than profit, probably just a mistake...

littleboo

So that's a no then. Any of us with aging parents have the same issues, it can be very frustrating.

saajan_12

At the end of the day BT is a business. You wouldn't expect a shop to remind you to use a discount code, nor would you expect a luxury brand to suggest you can get close to the same thing cheaper elsewhere. Its up to the consumer to shop around. If the consumer isn't fully able to do this, then you could have gotten a POA or even just informally reviewed contracts and purchases. At least you've done this now and mum won't be overpaying going forward. 

brewerdave

I had a similar experience when my mother died, altho fortunately , for much smaller amounts .I found that she was in the habit of returning calls to numbers left on her 1571 style service - EVEN mobile numbers !!
BT were sympathetic but only offered a small goodwill discount on the last 3 monthly bill.

mjm3346

When my wife died almost 20 years ago and I was contacting some companies to either change the name on accounts or just remove her name, everyone was helpful (including the HSA who took details over the phone to make a claim which wasn't why I called). That is everyone apart from BT who were the only company who tried to upsell their products while I was on the phone advising of a bereavement - something that still annoys me today if I think about it