"you should have checked your bill" (BT)

Member Name: taker4376

Product:	BT
Date:	21/03/09 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Provide essential services for modern day living

Disadvantages: Poor customer helplines, tried to rip me off and screw me over!

BT was first established in 1980, but for some reason I thought it had been around since Alexander Graham Bell had his eureka moment and invented the first telephone. This is because BT seem to be synonamous with Britains telephone services. For a very long time I did not know that there were actually other companies that offered the same services that they do.

BT offer a range of services:- Line rental, Calling packages, Broadband, Dial Up Connection and now they also offer BT Vision, a T.V package. I think this expansion has come because competitors began to offer Calling Plans linked with other services and BT had to compete.

When I moved into my university residence we decided we wanted Sky TV. In order to have Sky at this time you needed a BT line. So we grudgingly got the line rental but decided to take out Sky Broadband and Sky Talk as well as Sky TV as the package was cheaper. So the only thing we wanted from BT was the linerental. This worked fine until we discovered a couple of months ago that Sky now offer linerental. Its only 50p cheaper than BT but I wanted to switch as it lowers the broadband charge and means you only get one bill every month. I phoned Sky to switch, but they told me someone had cancelled Sky Talk a couple of months ago. I was slightly confused and as they could offer no explanation for it I just readded it to the account.

One month later, checking my bank statement I see BT have taken £98.30 out of my account. Obviously very annoyed I phoned them to see what on earth they thought they were doing. They explained it was a cancellation fee for terminating a contract. Riiiight. What contract is this then? There is no contract for line rental and I had no calling plans with them. They explain I did have a calling plan, which I had taken out a couple of months ago after they sent me a letter. Really?? What letter was this then? They insisted rather haughtily that there was nothing they could do, the charge was correct and the calling plan had been on my bill and as I hadnt queried it before I had accepted it!!! Thoroughly annoyed now I asked when the calling plan had been taken out, by whom and if they had evidence of an agreement. The only answer I got was a date. The date they provided happened to be a date that I was in London, visiting the Hadrian exhibit with my mum. It was during the summer holidays and so there is no chance I could have recieved a letter or responded to it. After several further phone calls they still werent budging, insisted I had agreed to this. Now as far as I can see this is illegal! I had agreed to no contract. They had added this calling plan without consulting me, cancelling Sky Talk in the process. Just because they say they sent a letter and they put something on your bill does not mean you agree to something!

I thought I was going to have to turn to trading standards when my housemates boyfriend stepped in. He works for BT and although he initially spouted their line about "reading your bills" he then gave someone at BT my number to phone me. Within a couple of minutes on the phone to them they agreed to refund me the full amount. (Talk about double standards) Within 5 days I would have a cheque... so they said. Two weeks later I am still waiting so contact them again. They apologize as they have not yet sent it. I can expect it within 15 days. Meanwhile I've been out of pocket of £100 for nearly a month!

What annoys me most is the double standards. If you know someone who works for BT then they are perfectly nice and amenable. But otherwise you will undoubtedly get a foreign call centre who can be of little help and will get agressive if you have a complaint.

BT do provide a valubale service and if you have no problems then they can be a great and simple company to deal with. But the moment you try and get money back from them you are in trouble. Line rental is £11 from them, but doing their bit for the environment they knock 50p off if you agree to paperless billing. You are also not committed to any kind of contract with line rental and so this can be cancelled at any time (in theory)

Summary: Pray you have no problems with them!