WHY WHY WHY? (BT)

Member Name: leeanne160480

Product:	BT
Date:	19/11/08 (137 review reads)
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BT have been my telephone provider since I got my own house and got a phoneline in. Unfortuately in my area there is only BT that provide a line rental service, so they kind of have the monopoly as in other areas they have cable telephone that can provide the same service at often a cheaper rate. I have now moved to another town and although I can still choose Cable I have ended up being stuck into another 12 month contract with BT which I can't wait to get out of. More of that story later.

Who and what is BT? BT is British Telecom. They provide Line Rental, Broadband, Obviously Phone Calls and other calling features such as Caller Display, Annonomys Call Reject, and so on. Where to start? A phone bill from BT is generated every 3 months and you are charged for Line rental, any call add ons and Broadband if you have it. Since I only have Line Rental I am a bit rusty about the pricing.

Line Rental costs £11.75 a month, or the price is reduced to £10.50 if you opt for paper free billing. This is where you just get your bill online and it's just a little incentive to make you not want a bill posted out. I do this, as any saving is good for me and i'm online most days anyway so I can keep an eye out for it. Unfortunately there is vat added onto this amount, so you probably end up paying £36 a quarter just to have their line.

You can pay them in a few different ways.

Monthly payment plan, which is basically a direct debit for a set amount every month.

You can get a payment card, which you can take to a Paypoint or Payzone machine which are in lots of shops and pay an amount to it.

Pay when you get the bill through the door. Unfortunately this way they often charge you £4 extra for paying this way. They say the charge is for administration or something.

Pay online. You don't even have to wait until your bill is due to pay this way.

They can also keep your bank/ card details and take the full amount that you are due when the quarterly bill is due.

I get my phonecalls through Sky Talk and BTs Caller display feature - where you can see what number is phoning you, used to be free. However about 10 months ago they changed their mind. When I checked my bill and seen I was getting charged for Caller Display I phoned them up and they said because I wasn't making any chargable phone calls through them then they would charge me £1.75 a month for this feature unless I made 2 chargable calls a month. Since I think a standard geographical number (starting with 01,02) costs about 7p per minute it would be cheaper to make a couple of calls this way a month, but I was annoyed at BTs tactics. As I said BT has had the high ground on the Line Rental aspect for years, but I am away from them in May.

So why am I so keen to leave them? Read on

I have been a customer since 2000 and always kept bills and such up to date. I moved house in May this year and phoned them to advise of this. I was planning to go with Sky for my Line rental, since their price is £10 a month and the Caller Display is free, so I will be saving £2.25 a month, and any saving is good. So I phoned them up and told them I would be moving and where I would be moving to. They tried to get me to stay, but I said I was wanting a cheaper deal and knew I could get Sky in my new house as it was a BT line and number there already.

They gave up and said my cancellation was through. There was no 30 days notice and my cancel was through in a few days.

However when I got to my new house which was a few days later I found that although the phoneline was still active and it didn't have a dial tone, BT had given the phone number that was allocated to my house to another house - or so they said. Sky couldn't give me line rental as since BT had gave the phone number away, they couldn't take the line over as they didn't have a phone number to add the line rental on.

So back I went to BT to ask what had happened. They again confirmed that they had cancelled the Line and the only way I would have an operating line would be to go through BT again. Since I had the Sky engineer at my door at this time and I have Sky Multiroom and need by boxes connected to an operating phone line due to terms and conditions then I agreed to sign up to BT again. However it got a bit worse .......

When I phoned BT to ask what was going on and they said how I had to go with them again and I reluctantly agreed, they then said I had to stay with them for another 12 months. I asked why, as I wasn't told any of this when I cancelled and since i'd been a customer of their for 8 years then I thought this was unfair. They then said that my details as a customer had been wiped since I had stopped being a customer for 3 days and I would have to be treated as a new customer. Also I was told if I still existed as a customer, since I had moved towns and moved exchange then I would have still been locked into a new 12 month contract anyway

I admitted defeat and said "Sign me up. I will be leaving when my 12 months is up" They then said fine and said they now wanted a £50 security deposit. Why did they want a £50 deposit paid straight away with credit or debit card? Well it was part of their new rules for new customers. Since I was a new customer and they had no record of me being a previous customer then they Credit Scored me and said I had failed, even though I had just got a new mortgage with not much problem! They said they would keep the £50 for 6 months and as long as I kept my direct debit and didn't miss any payments then they would refund the £50 straight to my bank account. The 6 months were up on the 6th Of November and after sending numerous e-mails to them I am still waiting on my £50 back.

Since they wanted me to have a direct debit set up they said I should set it up for £15 a month. This would cover the £12.25 in Line Rental and Caller Display charges and a little for Call costs. Since I was changing my Calls over to Sky Talk I thought that was alright to pay that amount. Just before I went over to Sky Talk I had run up £7 in call charges and I asked BT if I should keep paying the same Direct Debit. They said yes, as my £2.75 that I was paying extra would cover the call costs then they could review my direct debit and reduce it as I knew I wouldn't be using anything else rather than Line Rental and Caller Display.

In October I got a letter from them to say they had reviewed my direct debit and was wanting to set it to £38.50 per month. I thought was this a 1 off payment as my quarterly bill was due to be produced and you pay BT in advance. I e-mailed them to say why did they want all this money as I was still only using "12.25 a month and would keep using that amount unless they put their prices up. They e-mailed back and confirmed that I did only use £12.25 a month and was willing to lower my direct debit to £21 a month. Again I e-mailed them to ask why they were wanting all this money and they still didn't give me a right explanation. I said that a load of credit onto my BT account didn't interest me, as I would be leaving in May and their comment was that If I overpaid then they would give me the money back. My point is why pay it in the first place? So I am currently still arguing the point.

I used to phone them up and argue my points, but there was often a queue to get through to them. I think they are open 8am-10pm 7 days a week, but I would often wait about 15 minutes to get through to them, which doesn't sound horrendous, but you know what it's like waiting on a phone. Annoyingly they often don't have hold music and I would hear the annoying ringing in my ear for 15 minutes or more. I know a lot of companies use call centres abroad and BT seem to have a call centre over in India. I find that they are often hard to understand and I understand that they are trying to do their job, but I find the friendliness a bit annoying. I know that sounds a bit harsh, but when they start asking "How are you today, what have you been up to?" I just want to ask some questions about my service, I am not there to make friends!

Roll on May, when I can leave them - Weyhey!!!

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