Bt Charges

mercuryrising_2

New to this site, so bear with me.

Have been reading some of the comments re BT.

What a bunch of rob dogs!

I have just received my quarterly bill - 80% of it is landline charges and admin fee for processing last quarter cheque.

What gives BT the right to charge me for paying by cheque - yes I know they want us to pay direct debit but out of principal I don't see why I should.

And don't even get me started re the call centres and the lack of understanding from the other person on the phone.

I have been trying to get my name altered to the correct spelling on my bill since last July - the person on the other end of the phone couldn't understand me so I gave up.

I am in the process of switching providers and have no wish to ever return to BT again - I have had problems with then both in a personal and business sense.

Rant over

topherxp

mercuryrising wrote: »

What gives BT the right to charge me for paying by cheque - yes I know they want us to pay direct debit but out of principal I don't see why I should.

BT aren't saying you have to pay by direct debit, only that there is a charge if you don't pay by direct debit.

The choice is yours.

C_Ronaldo

Just pay via direct debit or change to another provider

littleboo

.... but make sure you choose one who gives you a choice of how to pay, many only accept direct debit.

Heinz

littleboo wrote: »

.... but make sure you choose one who gives you a choice of how to pay, many only accept direct debit.

Yes, watch out - Virgin Media charges £60 for non-DD payments and Talk Talk charges £42.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/nfees103.xml

Which sort of makes BT's £18 look quite reasonable!

BritBrat

If you normally pay using online banking or payment card.

Sign up to direct debit and continue paying as you always did.

Result: save £4.50 a quarter.

But make sure the account is in credit before the direct debit is called for.

Let's put it this way - Collecting payments is a Cost of Sales. EVERY company has such costs - why some choose to penalise customers is clearly an opportunity to fleece its customers, many of whom choose not to pay by DD because of precarious financial situations. It a DD bounces, you'll get even more unfair charges from your bank and so it sprials

I was as angry as you last May and I got mad but then I got even and saved £4.50

Followed Heinz advice and took all my calls away from BT and they lost £30 - £60 a month but now my bills total is now normally less than £20 so even more saved.

Talk about BT shooting themselfs in the foot.

If you have online banking make it easy to do what you want to do.

Work out your normall monthly bill and add £2 for possible error divide it by 30 and set up standing order to pay the 1/30th each day of the month every month, then when you get the bill check its in credit.

Once it is set up little hassle to you but lots of processing for BT, just hope they don't charge you £1.50 for each payment.

Oh I can be wicked.

VAMPIRELLA_2

Can't Martin take up the cause of these unfair charges.

I just got a bill with £2.50 in calls that became £40.50 after all the charges and processing fees. (£4.50).

For the first time I'm thinking of ditching BT!

deklan99

Martin actually recommends paying phone bills by DD at present "as paying this way saves you cash, it's the MoneySaving solution." - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/direct-debit#save

C_Ronaldo

VAMPIRELLA wrote: »

Can't Martin take up the cause of these unfair charges.

I just got a bill with £2.50 in calls that became £40.50 after all the charges and processing fees. (£4.50).

For the first time I'm thinking of ditching BT!

how are the charges unfair, all you need to do is make sure theres enough money in your account for when the direct debit comes out,

BritBrat

VAMPIRELLA wrote: »

Can't Martin take up the cause of these unfair charges.

I just got a bill with £2.50 in calls that became £40.50 after all the charges and processing fees. (£4.50).

For the first time I'm thinking of ditching BT!

Martin thinks it's the way it is get use to it.

Pity they never said the same about bank charges then those customers who never went overdrawn would not be having to foot the bill in the future.

Yes, banks will still get the money but from everyone by making us pay to have accounts.

I hope I am wrong but that is how I see the future of personal banking.

jhp

VAMPIRELLA wrote: »

For the first time I'm thinking of ditching BT!

Most over suppliers insist you pay by d/d, at least BT give you a number of payment options.