More BT Overcharging

clearz

Hi,

I signed up for IOLBB back in 2003 and was paying 47.50 for it until I got a letter saying that they where reducing their rates to 40 a month and 2.50 for a paper bill which was fine until.
I checked my bank statement there recently and noticed that I had been paying 42.50 all along. I have never recieved one paper bill from them so I rang them up twice to find out why I was paying this extra 2.50 a month and I have to say that they where the two most ignorant people I have ever spoken to. One of them accually hung up on me (my tone was little more than slightly annoyed)
They kept telling me that I had to sign up at the website to get the reduced rate of 40. This is the most rediculus thing I have ever heard. BT has already got all my personal details since I did sign up for their broadband(which also was a nightmare) but now they are telling me I need to re-sign up again to get 2.50 knocked off my bill. I told them that I had never recieved a paper bill which is what the 2.50 is for and they just diddnt care. Has anyone had a similar expierence or know anything about my situation.

C.

MunsterCycling

Have you been in a time warp regarding BT billing issues?
Just look around the forums for loads of complaints about them, you at least seem to be having the money deducted from your a/c every month unlike most.

dub45

The big news will be when someone consistently get a correct easiliy understood bill either paper or on line and does not have have their bank account raided:rolleyes:

Richard Dower

Same here, i signed up online for the online billing, and they are still charging me for a paper bill. I called them on this today and they blind you with figures...figures you can't even SEE on your oline bill.

All you see is credit applied, but no breakdown as to what these credits are?
If i do the math for the broadband charge and add 21% VAT it comes to €84.99, which means i am still being charged for paper billing.

But they tell you then you're getting this back in the credits applied...but how the hell do you know????

They don't break down the credits in the online bill, you've no idea what the hell they are, add to that everything is quoted before VAT and you have to go add things up yourself.

The billing is a joke, you can understand a damn thing...i don't know how many times i have added things up and incl. VAT...and the figures still don't add up.

clearz

MunsterCycling wrote:

Have you been in a time warp regarding BT billing issues?
Just look around the forums for loads of complaints about them, you at least seem to be having the money deducted from your a/c every month unlike most.

I am fully aware of other peoples difficulties regarding BT billing issues. As Richard has stated I am also getting charged €84.99/2 months. I tought it to be a bit strange the way its 1 cent off 85. I was told that once I signed up online that I wouldnt be charged this extra fiver so ill just have to wait and see.

Richard what do you mean by 'credits applied' The two morons that I spoke to never mentioned this stuff to me. Think ill call again tomorrow.

mendo

I've subscribed to Esat BT BB (BB Option 2, at 40 euro a month including line rental) aprox a year ago.
After the 3 months free BB, they started charging me 84.99 euro bi-monthly for the last six months instead of 80 euro.

On the bill :
-the discounted line rental is 16.52 euro w/o 21% VAT, which means 19.989 euro with the 21% VAT.
(The EIRCOM normal line rental is 39.96 bi-monthly w/o 21% VAT, but we get 23.44 euro w/o VAT discount for the line rental, which leaves the line rental at 16.52 euro w/o 21% VAT).
-the BB is 53.72 euro w/o 21% VAT, which means 65 euro with the 21% VAT.

In total, aprox. 84.99 euro bi-monthly instead of 80 euro.

This is 4.99 euro more than I should pay, because I don't receive a paper bill and I've subscribed over the phone and I did't request a paper bill.

It means that they are charging us more for the BB, 4.99 euro bi-monthly (or 2.49 euro monthly).

I am afraid to try to complain because they may start to charge me even more, as it happens to some people.

Regards,

Mendo

Kristok

Do you still have the letter you recieved ? If so it clearly states you need to go to their website and sign up for online billing to recieve the 2.5 discount it even gives you a link of where to go for a demonstration on how to set it up. The fact that you have never recieved a bill is only because their billing department is a joke.

I dont want to be the one sticking up for BT because ive had my own problems with them but it looks to me like your causing your own problems by not following what they told you to do in the letter and getting an attitude when they told you what to do again.

With regards to the person hanging up on you, if you where shouting at them or something they are fully entitled to do so it might be personal for you but its just a job for them and they dont have to take abuse just because you have a problem with the company.

Foxwood

clearz wrote:

Hi,

I signed up for IOLBB back in 2003 and was paying 47.50 for it until I got a letter saying that they where reducing their rates to 40 a month and 2.50 for a paper bill which was fine until.
I checked my bank statement there recently and noticed that I had been paying 42.50 all along. I have never recieved one paper bill from them so I rang them up twice to find out why I was paying this extra 2.50 a month and I have to say that they where the two most ignorant people I have ever spoken to. One of them accually hung up on me (my tone was little more than slightly annoyed)
They kept telling me that I had to sign up at the website to get the reduced rate of 40. This is the most rediculus thing I have ever heard. BT has already got all my personal details since I did sign up for their broadband(which also was a nightmare) but now they are telling me I need to re-sign up again to get 2.50 knocked off my bill. I told them that I had never recieved a paper bill which is what the 2.50 is for and they just diddnt care. Has anyone had a similar expierence or know anything about my situation.

C.

Me too. (€65 per 2 months, instead of €60). I tried to sign into the website at various times, but it asks for an account number, and I had no idea what my account number was! I really didn't pay too much attention to it until the recent "upgrade" to 2MB. (Which I found out about here - I certainly didn't get any notification from IOL/ESAT/BTIreland. I don't need 2MB, I'd much rather have the cheaper "Option 1" package, so after lots of rooting around, I finally found the original confirmation letter from them, confirming my payment details, and including an account number. That is the only communication I have received from them ever, apart from generic "welcome to esatbt" flyers.

I was finally able to register on the website (with IE - didn't work in Firefox), and requested a "downgrade", and for the first time in 18 months, saw an actual bill - a .gif image, believe it or not. I also set the account to "online billing", so we'll see what happens next month.

Given that the actual service has always been reliable for me, and that I've saved lots by not paying eircom for broadband, I'm prepared to treat this as me paying for one month of my free trial. But I do think that Comreg should make sure that BT Ireland are actually sending paper bills to people who are being charged €2.50 for them.

Foxwood

Kristok wrote:

Do you still have the letter you recieved ? If so it clearly states you need to go to their website and sign up for online billing to recieve the 2.5 discount it even gives you a link of where to go for a demonstration on how to set it up.

None of the letters that I received say anything about that - if I get a chance later, I'll scan them and post them.

Kristok

I kept that letter I have the letter in front of me now it defo says you have to go online to sign up for online billing the whole second half of the letter is all about how you go about it.

Foxwood

Kristok wrote:

I kept that letter I have the letter in front of me now it defo says you have to go online to sign up for online billing the whole second half of the letter is all about how you go about it.

That's nice. It doesn't change the fact that I didn't get that letter.

Kristok

Did you get a letter saying the prices have been reduced without the info on going to their website ? If so then yea post that otherwise dont see the relevance of posting any other letters as thats the only one in question here.

Foxwood

Kristok wrote:

Did you get a letter saying the prices have been reduced without the info on going to their website ? If so then yea post that otherwise dont see the relevance of posting any other letters as thats the only one in question here.

Okay, so they don't tell you about the €2.50 when you sign up, only in some other letter that they sent out a year later when the price goes down.

Clearly we're all just

causing your own problems by not following what they told you to do in the letter

.

Not.

CuLT

Customer services people only ever hang up on you if you're being a total jackass, otherwise they get reamed for it.

Kristok

Foxwood wrote:

Okay, so they don't tell you about the €2.50 when you sign up, only in some other letter that they sent out a year later when the price goes down.

There was no option to do have online billing a year ago that was only introduced when they dropped the price and offered it as an extra way to reduce your bill you clearly either never read the letter or this thread.

Richard Dower

The billing system is very poor, i honestly think that anyone who signs for online billing is still getting charged for paper billing.

Sarn

Thankfully my billing is working smoothly (took a long time to get to that stage).

Regarding the online billing, I signed up online with them (well in advance) to get the discount (despite never having received a paper bill) only to find I was still charged for a paper bill. Quick phone call, explained the situation, apology received, credit applied to my account as witnessed on my next bill. Sometimes things do work out.

Richard Dower

My billing issue will hopefully be resolved, since i have it in writing from BT. Still...who's to say that further bills won't be higher then expected?

I mean, why do customers have to do all the chasing?, why do we need to point out their mistakes?

dub45

Sarn wrote:

Thankfully my billing is working smoothly (took a long time to get to that stage).

Regarding the online billing, I signed up online with them (well in advance) to get the discount (despite never having received a paper bill) only to find I was still charged for a paper bill. Quick phone call, explained the situation,

apology received, credit applied to my account as witnessed on my next bill. Sometimes things do work out.

Definitely buy a lottery ticket because the odds of winning on that are far better than experiencing what you have recounted up above!!!!;)