1st bill from BT on high side?

JoeA3

Hi all,
I realise there's lots of threads on BT billing, but its pretty hard to find one specific to my issue.
I got my 1st bill today, I'm on broadband 2mb + talk (€40 per month). The first bill is €158!
Now I know its a 2 monthly bill, so thats €40*2 = 80.
And I got the wireless modem, which is another €40.

Thats 120 euro total. So where the other 40 odd euro comes from I can't work out. Bearing in mind we've hardly used the phone itself at all.

This is how its broken down on the BT site. It looks to me like they charge me for self install (33 euro), then they subtract €27.28 and again subtract €37.19! Where do these figures come from?!?


Line Rental 46.51
All Ireland 0.05
Other Call Types 0.21

Broadband Option 2 Two Monthly Rental Fee 82.78
Broadband Option 2 Self Install Charge 33.06
Wireless (New) modem Charge 33.06
Broadband & Line Rental Discount -27.28
Other charges and credits 0.00

Total Discounts Received -37.19
Total Charges (ex. VAT) 131.20
VAT @ 21.0% 27.55
Total Charges this period (incl. VAT) 158.75

Nody

JoeA3 wrote:

Where do these figures come from?!?
Line Rental 46.51

.

thefinalstage

Nody wrote:

.

Nope not the problem. It is a bi-monthly bill.

dub45

Not just a BT observation although they are particularly bad at it - it baffles me that Companies cannot come up with simple clear bills - it seems such an obvious thing to do - good for the customer and good for themselves as it would surely save lots of calls to the helpdesks?

The person who originally devised the bt one must have been some sort of puzzle nerd.

On most first bills there is usually the advance 2 months plus the charges from the time of switch on to the bill issue. That doesnt seem to be itemised in your bill?

Nody

Do the math Thelastangry man. They have reset the bill date due to being a combo date to include all on one bill (cheaper for the company and prefered by the customers). Hence the second discount (which is to set the phone line rental to match the time period of your BB bill), see below.

Line: 46.51 (full 2 month period)
Call Ireland: 0.05 (calls done from last bill)
Other call: 0.21 (calls done from last bill)
Discount Line: -37.19 (To set the line rental in line with the BB bill)
BB rental: 82.78
Installation Charge: 33.06
Modem: 33.06
Discount for combo package:-27.28
Total: 131.2 (before vat)
VAT 21% 27.55

---

Total: 158.75

dub45

Nody wrote:

Do the math Thelastangry man. They have reset the bill date due to being a combo date to include all on one bill (cheaper for the company and prefered by the customers). Hence the second discount (which is to set the phone line rental to match the time period of your BB bill), see below.

Line: 46.51 (full 2 month period)
Call Ireland: 0.05 (calls done from last bill)
Other call: 0.21 (calls done from last bill)
Discount Line: -37.19 (To set the line rental in line with the BB bill)
BB rental: 82.78
Installation Charge: 33.06
Modem: 33.06
Discount for combo package:-27.28
Total: 131.2 (before vat)
VAT 21% 27.55

---

Total: 158.75

The sad thing is that the customer (of any Company!) should not have to do the math. There are more than enough Sunday papers giving out exercises to mentally stimulate people.:rolleyes:

Nody

Well the math is already there strictly speaking, all I did was change the names on the posts from the bill and add comments to make sense of it (;.

Worth noting is that the line rental etc. is strictly speaking speculation (never worked with Esat BT), but from what I know it is very likely.

JoeA3

thanks guys for the help, but I'm still confused!
I can't understand why they list the €46.51 line rental separately from BB rental. I assumed the €82 BB rental should already include the line rental?
I guess the confusion is all down to to the changeover mid-month, so hopefully the next bill will be simpler! As well as all this, I also have a bill from Eircon, for the line installation charge + line rental, so I'm sure I'm being double-charged line rental here somewhere...

Also, I didn't realise there was an "installation" charge - I installed it myself - i.e. they posted out the router and I set it up!!

You'd need a PhD in maths physics to make head nor tail of this stuff...

Sponge Bob

is that €46.51 including or excluding vat , eircom line rental is €48.20 for 2 months including vat ??

there is a €45 install charge including VAT for their €45 a month bundle

did you get your discount for online biilling , I cannot see it

only an existentialist philosopher could understand a BT bill if , even it was accurate

bk

Well if you were to get the bill that fell right on the start of a month, it should have been:

2m BB + Line Rental €40 x 2 = €80
BB Connection Charge €40 ****
Wireless Router €40
Total €160

So the €158 is about right, it probably covers a period slightly less then 2 months or maybe BT are actually losing money!!!

You seem to have missed the connection charge for Broadband.

Going forward, excluding call costs, your bill in two months time, for the next two months period should be €80.

**** The BT website says this charge is €45, but you seem to have only been charged €40 according to your bill.

dub45

Would it be all that hard to have a bill with the following categories on a first bill?

Charges to date since connection:
BB
Line rental
Call charges

Set up Charge:

Equipment Charge:

Two monthly advance for line rental and broadband:

Discounts:

Total:

rediguana

I feel your pain, JoeA3. I took one look at my first bill and promptly handed it to my Argus-eyed girlfriend to deconstruct. Mine was E189. We never use the phone either. Installment fee is the biggest farce ever, seeing as we'd to do that ourselves. Paying two months in advance is a bit rich too, seeing as everything about my BT experience so far has made me long for the days when there was no internet, or telephones.

Sponge Bob

you last bill with BT will not have any rental component however the install charge is a bit of a farce but

1. the big savings are on the calls . The BT €45 deal , for example, is still a great deal if you make a lot of landline calls and especiallly if you are home during the day to further benefit . Thats why my mother ( a pensioner) has it. She pays about €25 a month out of her own pocket and hammers the phone and the BB whenever she wants.

2. there will be no rental component in the last bill. they frontload the rental as does everybody else who offers a bundle. Its not unusual to get an €100+ bill from eircom if you order something either . Every bundle package also locks you into a 12 month contract nowadays no matter who the provider is.

The most objectionable bit is the sheer difficulty that any intelligent person would have in explaining and understanding a BT bill because they are such utterlyincomprehensiblebadlypresentedtotalgobbledegookdegookdegook .

If BT produced a bill you could easily understand their call centre would then cope far better with their customers who would not ring them up about their incomprehensible bills .

If BTs call centre could cope the customers would be a lot happier with them in general.

If BT had happier customers they would get a lot more business.

If BT call centres only had to deal with happier (generally) customers then silly issues could be resolved more easily if they did arise...as they do.... Nowadays they only deal with stressed out people who are sick of the BT hold music.

But I have often said all of this and BT have consistently ignored me over the years

bk

rediguana wrote:

Installment fee is the biggest farce ever, seeing as we'd to do that ourselves.

This charge isn't for installing BB in your home, it is a once off charge for setting up the BB in your telephone exchange for the first time. This is charged by Eircom to BT, who then pass it on. You would have the same charge signing up to Eircom or pretty much any Eircom reseller. If you move provider in the future, you won't have to pay this charge as it is a once off fee on your phone line.

rediguana wrote:

Paying two months in advance is a bit rich too

Well it is exactly the same as Eircom, who also have a bi-monthly bill.

dub45

bk wrote:

This charge isn't for installing BB in your home, it is a once off ..................................

Well it is exactly the same as Eircom, who also have a bi-monthly bill.

A lot of companies charge in advance for services - NTL, Smart would be two other examples.

rediguana

bk wrote:

This charge isn't for installing BB in your home, it is a once off charge for setting up the BB in your telephone exchange for the first time. This is charged by Eircom to BT, who then pass it on. You would have the same charge signing up to Eircom or pretty much any Eircom reseller. If you move provider in the future, you won't have to pay this charge as it is a once off fee on your phone line.



Well it is exactly the same as Eircom, who also have a bi-monthly bill.

Fine. It's just that in the context of overall useless service from BT from start to finish, these things grate. Eircom aren't great either.

Sponge Bob

ehhh no. the BB works just fine as does the phone service and their tech support has historically been good when you needed to contact them.