BT taken to court over non direct debit charges

moonrakerz

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/13/nbt113.xml

BritBrat

I hope she wins the case.

blahdog

This woman needs to get up to speed with modern life. As a direct debit payer, I'm bored of constantly subsidising thosen who can't be trusted to run an automated bank account properly.

I hope BT kick her 4ss and then suspend her service as the cherry on the cake.

emmahip

I admire her convictions BUT - as a Direct Debit payer I hope this doesn't mean that all our discounts will now be taken away.

BritBrat

I admire her convictions BUT - as a Direct Debit payer I hope this doesn't mean that all our discounts will now be taken away.

Don't worry it will not as you no longer get a discount, they changed it to a charge last May.

I pay using online banking, but as I ticked the direct debit box I no longer get charged for not using direct debit.

If the lady wins the case I will try and claim back all those years I did pay more.

Twinkly

blahdog wrote: »

As a direct debit payer, I'm bored of constantly subsidising thosen who can't be trusted to run an automated bank account properly.

I hope BT kick her 4ss and then suspend her service as the cherry on the cake.

As a non-direct debit payer I got bored with constantly subsidising banks who cant run an 'automated' bank account properly.

I hope BT get their a*se kicked, everyone gets refund of the fees charged and they are abolished by all utility and service providers across the board as the cherry on the cake.

Botch

And I will second that. Its all a rip off for these utilities paying electronically cannot involve them in any more costs than a direct debit. Why should we have to resort to devious schemes to avoid surcharges when we pay our bills on time?

TangledMemories_2

I personally dont see why you should have to pay extra just because you dont want these fatcats having control over your money.

The only reason they want you to have direct debits is so that they can dip in whenever they want and change the amounts to whatever they want. I once got a gas bill for £80 and rang British Gas telling them I couldnt afford it and to take it out in 2 splits. They confirmed that would be ok and told me not to cancel the DD. Two days later...£80 goes out.

Trust goes a long way if you want access to my account. That's why only certain companies have my details. The rest...you can have a cheque or cash and deal with it. I'm not paying in EUROS I'm paying in the british currency.

thedrumdoctor

Yep, I'm totally behind this woman 100% all the way. This 'fee' for the 'privilege' of paying a bill by Internet banking, just because I choose not to allow BT to dip into my bank account is scandalous. I wouldn't mind if they'd simply said reduce your bill by x% or whatever by paying D/D or pay your bill as it stands if you choose any other method. But slapping a fee on to process a payment is daylight robbery.

Furthermore, I totally disagree with Martin's comments on yesterday's Jeremy Vine show. I think he was way off the mark with his argument, though he was right about the loss of anonymity whether or not you choose to sign up to D/D. But it's not as if anyone's asking to go to BT's head offices with a wad of cash and pay them.

Corporates bully their customers into paying how THEY want them to pay. Today, that means shoving everyone down the funnel of convenience that is D/D. Whatever happened to choice? Isn't that what Margaret Thatcher, champion of the PLC corporates ranted on about during her term - "choice"?

I'd like to see it like this:

My phone bill comes in and it's £69.00 for arguments sake.

BT give me the option to pay by D/D and offer me a reduction incentive for doing THEM, YES, THEM the favour.

If I decline their 'kind' offer, I can continue to pay my bill via my usual Internet banking, WITHOUT having to pay £4.50 for the 'privilege'.

For God's sake, if they're prepared to take a hit on profits through D/D customers, where the hell is the sense in penalising none D/D customers who they'll make more money from anyway, simply because they'll be paying their FULL bill?

I hope she wins and I want all my sodding £4.50’s back for paying them on time through the Internet which would have cost them next to nothing. I know how business banking charges work and yes, you do get penalised for paying pure cash into your account. But electronic transfers are very, very cheap.

The Post Office is still a very popular method with the older generation to pay their bills via. I can see there would be a charge between the PO and the clearing house for BT but surely that’s a cost you have to swallow to keep your customers? No business can own their cake and consume it – there has to be some give and take to stay competitive. Other companies can stand it, why not BT? Let’s not forget that business bank charges are a TAX DEDUCTABLE EXPENSE!

The whole thing stinks like a maggot farm in the Sudan.

Somerset

blahdog wrote: »

This woman needs to get up to speed with modern life. As a direct debit payer, I'm bored of constantly subsidising thosen who can't be trusted to run an automated bank account properly.

I hope BT kick her 4ss and then suspend her service as the cherry on the cake.

I'm quite capable of running my bank accont properly - I just choose not to pay utilities by d/d. It was a lesson learned after British Gas helped themselves to over £1000 one Christmas ( rogue meter reader ) and another £700 6 months later ( short confused meter reader ). There are too many mistakes with the utility companies and I'd rather discuss the billing errors while the money is still in my account.

BritBrat

Just listend to the Jeremy Vine show for wednesday.

Fast forward to around 01:10:00

Martin is also on Tomorrow.