Why is BT allowed to exist?

[wanda]

Just before Christmas we moved into our first bought property. AOL were the service providers for our broadband and calls. As we were happy with their service we informed both AOL ad BT that we were moving and needed a new line and would like to continue with AOL.

Now we have arranged a direct debit of £12 to go to BT for the line rental only. Since January we noticed BT had been charging us for our calls. The lovely thing is that for every call we make we get charged on from AOL and again from BT for the same call. Naturally we called AOL and asked them whats going on. They informed us that it is a common thing that BT do and we should inform BT. In the beginning we were polite, but the person with an Indian accent said AOL never informed BT of the "change". Now in BT mind apparently they get thousands of customers who leave free call services to go on to charged ones because during a recession we got money to give to the poor. Well that's my understanding of it.

After about 3 months of calling and 3 months of charges being taken from the account at over £150 a month, we got tired and called BT again. This time after complaining for about 20 minutes I asked for the manager. After being placed on hold some rude man with the suspicious name of Rogo said if we are not happy we can cancel the BT line and we can go somewhere else.[:x] Taking into account BT is the only line provider within the area we had no choice but to say no.

The next day I called ofcom and was given the "special" serious complaints line number where someone "English" for a change admitted that its all BT fault and that we would be refunded.

We thought the matter was resolved but yesterday I saw that BT took £109


Why are they allowed to take as much as they feel like from my account?

I called BT and asked what was going on and was told actually its AOLs fault for not telling BT that we wanted continue with our contract


Now with no refund, I have had it. I feel like calling them and describing how I feel about their parents bringing them into this world. I m going to write another letter of complaint.



Can you guys give me some advice on how to proceed with this as I am too angry to think straight.

[anth_dci]

consumer direct not able to advise you? i hate BT with a passion. If virgin were in my area i would be with them.

[pocket]

When i call BT i speak as fast as possible in as strong a glasgow accent as possible. The confused bloke in the indian call centre who can hardly speak english themselves will then put you onto someone in the UK who can actually do something to help you. The call centre in india is no more than a switchboard. They go through loads of standard replies and only take a note of your problem. The people with the power to do things to your account are all in the UK.

[Stranger]

I've just filled in an on line customer survey for them, which was sent to me following contact I had made regarding our latest statement which showed us as £15.45 in debit, when I checked the statement they hadn't taken the March DD payment, which is £15

The customer survey will make good reading

If, as I have been told, the next statement does not bring us back in to credit I will be contacting consumer direct about the matter.

Anyone know what Talk Talk are like because funnily enough I had a call from them just prior to getting the latest BT statement in which they assured me that they would provide the same package, evening and weekend calls free, for something like £11 p/m?

[Toodeep]

Anyone know what Talk Talk are like

A well-known idiom including the words "Frying Pan" and "Fire" comes to mind. FOR PITY'S SAKE, DON'T!!!

[Stranger]

Hmmmm, that's what I expected to hear tbh although I have friend who says that they are superb.

Thanks for the feedback, it currently stands at 1 for and 1 against

[IainMW]

Don't get me started with BT (endless problems at our old address)

We were with TalkTalk a while ago and then I signed up with Tiscali (Line rental, calls and broadband for 19.99 a month) Never had a moment of bother with either of them.

Ironically TalkTalk have just taken Tiscali over

[Stranger]

Cheers Iain, that's 2 for an 1 against now, I think it's time to check out Martin Lewis' site and see what folk are saying about Talk Talk on there.

[anth_dci]

ive had nothing but both with both tiscalli and talk talk. If virgin was in my area i would be going with them. As far as asdl goes i cant recommend Be highly enough. Hour adsl2 service at work is at 18mb

[Jdewer]

Our Family have been with both Talk Talk and Bt we changed from Bt to talk talk and found the service a hell of alot better, the only reason we changed was to go to virgin.

[Stranger]

Cheers folks, some good feedback re: Talk Talk, I've been on their website and web chatted with a rep, the website and the rep seemed very good, just need to suss out Virgin now.

Re: ISP, I've recently migrated from AOL to o2 and they are superb, great speeds (on a LLU exchange) excellent customer service and a darned good price (even better if you're an o2 phone user).

Sorry for the thread hijack wanda but I hope that what i am discussing will help others such as yourself.

[wanda]

Thats ok. I actually called them for a quote, and they said £17.74 for land line + calls + Broadband which sounds like a deal to me plus I can finally tell BT what for.

[davelowe]

Why are they allowed to take as much as they feel like from my account?

They can't. Go to your bank, or log on to your online banking and cancel any standing orders or direct debits to BT. Before doing this, check that you won't incur a fee, and read all of the small print.

If you are sure that they have charged you for services that you haven't used, or should not be billed for, write (a letter) to them, stating your position. You are legally allowed to apply 8% (or a reasonable interest rate) on any money that they have taken mistakenly taken.

If this fails, find out the head office address and name of the actual company billing you (BT Ltd, BT PLC, BT Broadband), go to your nearest county court office, and submit a small claims form out. For a small fee, they will serve a legal notice on the company and they will have the options either to settle up, or see you in court. This usually puts the wind up them to the extent that they take the problem seriously and give you money back ASAP as litigation is expensive for them. They also refund the court fee.

[nickbell69]

I'm with talk talk and have been for 18 months. costs £17 month for broadband, rental and calls weekend and evening.

Got that many free mins on mobile i use that during the day.

Service and broadband has been no problem.

Only thing we had was when changing from BT talk talk said we had to do nothing they would contact BT and cancel our line with them. Needless to say they didn't.

When i contacted talk talk they denied this saying they had no power to contact another provider and cancel someones contract. This was soon refunded and sorted when i sent them a copy of a page off their website stating "you need to do nothing we will contact your current provider and cancel for you".

Refund came that day with an e-mail apology.

[wanda]

I cant believe these people we got refunded th money from BT and they are still not admitting fault. I will give them one hell of a customer satisfaction report.