Getting a refund of "shocking" BT billings

antrobus · 3 January 2019 at 4:54PM

superdario wrote: »

....

Does anyone have any advice?

If you are not satisfied with BT's response to your complaint. you can escalate it to the Communications Ombudsman.

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/communications

[Deleted User] · 3 January 2019 at 5:11PM

superdario wrote: »

Thanks awfully again for the helpful comments. Having checked your other posts on here I can see that they are 100% in character - you're always delighted to help other members of this "fantastic community of MoneySavers" with a cheery and positive comment! On the PlusNet forum, as well!

Keep it up in 2019 - I'm sure that your friends and family will love it!

Instead of going into full denial mode wouldn't your time be best served actually looking after your mothers affairs rather than blame everybody else? You have now checked her bank statements I hope.

poppasmurf_bewdley · 3 January 2019 at 11:31PM

I'm a pensioner, over 70, and have been a BT customer since 1965, with just a three month break with a disastrous switch to TalkTalk.

I hear what you say about your Dad suffering from dementia, but surely that would have been an incentive to you and your family to check that everything, not just the BT bill, was ok.

Did no one check a bank statement in all that time?

Up until eight years ago, I had to sort everything out for my elderly and ever increasingly infirm Mother. And I had been keeping an eye out since my Dad died in 1981.

I knew virtually all her financial affairs, but it still didn't stop her spending £3k on a new gas boiler from British Gas - a bill that could have been halved if she had talked to me first. But BG are a business and I didn't go bleating to them that they had robbed my Mother.

Really, a little more involvement by the family could probably have avoided your situation - but you can't really blame BT because you didn't keep an eye on your parents affairs.

Takmon · 4 January 2019 at 11:18AM

superdario wrote: »

>>Sorry but BT are a business, not Care for the Elderly<<

So, businesses don't have a wider social responsibility, over and above making money for shareholders? If you believe that, then much of the other campaigning by this website must be equally baffling for you!

>>If you thought your parents weren't capable then it's up to you or your siblings to help them<<

My original post makes it clear that I recognise my negligence (and that of my siblings) here. Of course we should have been more on top of our parents' affairs than we were. But if you have ever been through the extended grieving process that comes with a dementia diagnosis - at the same time that your other parent is going through surgery and rehab that confines her to a wheelchair - I am sure that you will you appreciate that things slip through the net. And you can't get away from the fact that responsible businesses should have systems in place to make sure that they are not treating their customers unfairly.

>>They've been getting billed for 6 years so the charges should have been obvious.<<

As was also mentioned in my original post, the bills were being sent to a BT email address that was defunct - so no, the charges were NOT obvious. My mother has not received a single bill from BT and although one could obviously observe that she should have seen the payments going from her bank account, well - how many 82 year olds would query those?

Anyway, thanks for your cheerful and helpful reply. Happy New Year!

My grandmother is in her 90's and if she had a quarterly bill of £375 she would be straight on the phone to them finding out what is going on. She checks every bank statement she receives to makes sure it is correct. Just because someone is old doesn't mean they are stupid or vulnerable by default.

A person in their 20's could be just as oblivious to how much their bills are and how much extra they are paying that they shouldn't just because they don't take the time to look into it. I know someone who is around 30 who is paying around £55 a month for a sim only contract they could be getting for less than £20 a month due to them simply not bothering to look at their finances.

Also i think your family have been very slack if your mother is indeed vulnerable. It would have taken less than a couple of hours a year to go through all her bank statements and check she is on a competitive rate for all her bills.

Mr_Singleton · 4 January 2019 at 7:55PM

superdario wrote: »

He had signed up for BT broadband in 2012 and the service was hardly used - mainly, in fact, by family and friends visiting him and my mum!

Does anyone have any advice?

ROFLNAO, ARE YOU SERIOUS???

Here’s a suggestion...... maybe all the family and friends that took advantage of your parents broadband connection stick their hands in their pockets to pay back for the data they used?

The cheek of some people.

Edit: Am wondering if this is ‘elder abuse’? Con parents into giving out broadband password run up ‘shocking’ bill then try to blame the broadband provider. Sounds like the 15gb a month was fine for your mother and father as they never used it.

Bigphil1474 · 11 January 2019 at 1:57PM

I think most of you have been way too harsh on the OP. Whilst BT are a business, it's not good business PR or a good business model to fleece your customers just because you can get away with it. Energy companies now have to tell you if you can get cheaper deals elsewhere, so it should be no different for BB providers. A good company values it's customers, and if the OP's parents have been customers for 60 years then it is not unreasonable to expect that they would at least point out that you can get the same service (from them) for less than half the price, with a simple phone call. And it's not unreasonable that the company would know they were elderly - 60 years customers would make them at least in their latest 70's with simple mathematics.
OP, unfortunately, can't see you getting much more back. They've paid for what they were contracted to, so BT are in their right to not offer anything. Just a pity BT didn't flag it up a few years ago. My dad's been with British Gas for over 50 years and I keep trying to get him to switch, but he says he's a loyal BG customer. At least he's on their cheapest deal, but we did have to get a refund for him last year as he was over £3k in credit. They kept offering him a refund but he told them to keep hold of it as he didn't want them to be out of pocket if he died !!!

kangoora · 11 January 2019 at 11:47PM

How is it fleecing your customers?

They signed up to a specific contract and BT were simply billing them in line with the contract. I used to work in BT and no-one EVER looks at outgoing bills unless there is a complaint, or, very occasionally, if there is an unexplained revenue drop - 99.99% of the time no-one would ever query a revenue increase!

Everything to do with billing, along with many other things, is automated. You don't think there are a legion of billing people scrutinising every one of the millions of bills monthly to see if they are correct and checking if they are inadvertently over-billing vulnerable members of society? They could do it, but be prepared for a massive increase in BT charges to cover these costs - would you prefer that?

I've seen customers being billed for whole premises because they didn't inform BT they were leaving the premises so they merrily went on paying line costs for entire buildings for years and BT kept billing them (in line with their contractual terms) even though none of these phones ever made a phone call. Nobody in BT checks line usage vs. cost unless they are doing an upsell opportunity or negotiating a new contract when sometimes these things come out of the woodwork.

TLDR; Your parents, and you by extension as you acknowledge they are lacking some knowledge now, are solely responsible for the contract they have signed.

dazzaofdagenham · 12 January 2019 at 10:32AM

Difficult situation.....been there myself...

Use it as a positive and share the story with friends family who may be in the same situation and get them to check bills and tariffs...

Good luck

Getting a refund of "shocking" BT billings

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