BT Screw Up

CptSternn

I was hoping someone could help point me in the direction of a group or organisation that could help me with a billing issue.

I was a BT customer for 6 years. My account was direct debit, so it always came out of my account automatically. In November, I got a bill from BT that was €4.90, for a week of service. This was odd because I had the 1 meg broadband/phone package which was €40 a month, about €89 every two months is when they billed. About the same time my service started to cut off. I rang BT to ask why my service was cutting off and why my bill was so small and so early.

I was told they sold my account to Vodafone, and thats why the bill was so small and I would need to ring Vodafone about any issues. So I did. A dozen times from November to January. I was told they had no record of my account. I rang BT during this period to complain my service was off for days at a time. They told me I had to ring Vodafone.

A couple days ago I got fed up and rang Vodafone and just setup a new account. I had contacted them numerous times, even on their own forum here, and had no luck in having them sort out my account.

Then I noticed €350 mising from my bank account today. I checked my online statement to find out BT had taken €350 out of my account. Since normally I am billed €80 every two month, this is like almost five months worth of service. I rang BT to have them tell me *again* to ring Vodafone. I told them Vodafone didn't take €350 out of my account today. After being on hold for around 45 minutes they tell me it was for 'arrears'. I aksed for what? They told me they didn't have any details, it was just listed as a charge for arrears. I explained I was a customer fo six years on direct debit, so arrears were impossible.

They said they would ring me back. Two hours later the same lady from BT rang me to tell me there had been a mistake, that I was double charged and half of the money would be given back. I again asked what the €174 charge was for, seeings how I had never missed any payments. They told me for service in December and January. I told them not only had my service been off for most of that time, that when it did randomly come back on that I had a Vodafone IP and that I have received no bill. In fact, I was told by BT customer care over a dozen times I was a Vodafone customer.

She said there is nothing more she could do, I would possibly get half the money back in two to three weeks, and then hung up.

I have to pay rent next week. I am short €350. BT claims I owe them €175, but charged me €350, half of which they say I should get refunded in a month or so.

My questions for them are:

1. Why did my last bill come to €4.90 and have a service time of a week? Should they not have billed me for the normal service period if I was still their customer?

2. Why did a dozen BT reps tell me I was not their customer for the two months I rang with issues?

3. Why did I get no bill? They just deducted the money from my account and even now they say no bill was ever sent and they have no record of the arrears, their own words, but somehow think I owe them €175 - about four months charges?

4. Why does it take a month to refund my money?

They say there is nothing they can do. They now claim they can keep half of the money they took without billing me for services they have no record of.

I want to know who I can call and what can be done about this. I am about to miss my rent payment thanks to BT.

Thanks in advance.

Big J

If you are not getting any sense from BT over the phone you could try a registered letter detailing your experiences and demanding a full refund and an explanation.

Once you have exhausted BT's complaint procedures you can go to Comreg and see if they will take up your case.

http://www.comreg.ie/

Usually the broadband companies will settle rather than argue with Comreg but as BT have bailed out of the residential broadband sector altogether they may choose to play difficult even with the regulator.

rameire

did you cancel the dd with your bank.
check out the banking forum in relation to dd,s
contact your bank and advise them you are making a challenge against the dd and get them to return it straight away.
then write a letter to bt and post by recorded delivery and ask them what the hell is going on.

rameire

its actually askaboutmoney where the thread is

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=126172

MOH

If they've taken the €350 without giving you at least 7 days notice, they've broken the IPSO rules - page 23:

IPSO rules wrote:

A Direct Debit shall be considered to be unauthorised in the following circumstances only:
No. Description
1 Payer has cancelled DDI with Originator
2 DDI cancelled by Paying Bank
3 Payer instructed the Paying Bank to refuse the Direct Debit payment.
4 No valid DDI held
5 Amount/Date of Direct Debit differs from DDI
6 Amount/Date of Direct Debit differs from Advance Notice
7 No Advance Notice received by Payer
8 No confirmation letter received by Payer

So I'd imagine your bank should refund the payment. Whether they actually do is another matter.

foggy_lad

rameire wrote: »

its actually askaboutmoney where the thread is

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=126172

from that thread in askaboutmoney this post is possibly most relevant for the op here

The right to a refund is now enshrined in legislation. If a direct debit is posted to your account and it is not in line with previous spending patterns you bank is obliged to refund. The timeline for requesting this refund is 8 weeks after the debit date.
In the same way you are entitled to an immediate refund of an unauthorsed direct debit once it has been established that the direct debit was unauthorised. The timeline for a refund for an unauthorised direct debit is 13 months.
With regard to cancelling a direct debit the rules are quiet clear that you should contact your Bank who must accept the cancellation. It is also recommended that you inform the originator though you are not obliged to do so.

jor el

Having been down this road with BT, twice, I can say with pretty much 100% certainty that talking to them about it is a complete waste of time. I would suggest first trying to reverse the direct debit, citing the rule breech that foggy_lad pointed out. If that fails (as a lot of banks don't have a clue how direct debits work, or what the rules even are), then go to the Small Claims Court.

If you do continue trying to contact them about it, it will be months before it gets resolved (if at all). It took me 8 months to get them off my back, stop with their nasty debt collectors and vague legal threats. They insisted I owed them 50 euro, when in actual fact they owed me money.

I had to write to the CEO to finally get it resolved.

foggy_lad

op as long as you can establish that they took the amount without authorisation then your bank should return the money immediately

In November, I got a bill from BT that was €4.90,

show your bank this and any previous bills you have from BT as this will show a pattern of payment culminating in a final payment for part of the month as you have obviously switched providers. thus they will have no authorisation to debit any further amounts from your account.

also you recieved no notice of this debit so this will be another way to dispute this direct debit payment, if your bank does not act on this immediately ask to speak with a manager or assistant manager and do not leave until they sort this out, as at the end of the day the bank simply take the money back from BT and let them chase you for it if they can prove you owe them anything.

MOH

jor el wrote: »

I had to write to the CEO to finally get it resolved.

Actually, this might be one way of getting it resolved quickly.

CptSternn

An update.

First, I took the advise of the lads above and went to the bank. I had the block all direct withdrawls from BT and challenged the charge. The had me sign two forms - one to authorise the block and a second for the challenge. I asked about how much it costs and the time frame and Permanent TSB told me there was no charge, however it could take up to three weeks for the refund to show up in my account.

Either way, that means I will be getting my money back.

I rang BT three times, spoke to three different people and finally got *some* information. The first two people I spoke with said they had to contact a manager and the billing department and ring me back. They never did. Finally I got a lady who got a few answers for me.

First I was told that my account wasn't switched over when they said it was. I was told by letter I was a Vodafone customer by BT in November. They said that was a misake and I still was a BT customer. Even though I got my final bill, which says FINAL BILL in large print that too was a mstake and my account was not migrated until January 14 2010, and therefore I oed BT for six weeks of service from November 24 to January 14.

I was told the charge of €295 was an error - that I was double billed for service and I should have only been billed €150. I argued that my normal bill which comes out every two month is usually between €80-€90, so how is it I am being billed for six weeks - two weeks less than normal and the cost is somehow double the normal costs. She put me on hold for another 10 minutes then came back and told me there was another billing error and I should have only been billed €100. I again told her that is more than I normally pay every two months, and again had her call out the totals from my past three bills over the past six months, each one never over €90. I was told €100 is as low as they would take the charge and that is what I owed them.

I then asked why I never recieved a bill for this. She told me since it was an error, there would have been no bill. I told them I want to see a bill for the service they claim to have provided from November to Janurary, the lady then told me there was no bill and nothing she could send. I asked how they could bill me for service they have no record of, and she said 'you had service, so you know you owe us that money'. I then explained to her I was without service for two weeks and even after those two week service was up and down daily up until last week. She again told me they had no records of my service being turned off and I owed €100.

I then hung up as I was getting nowhere.

I contacted Paul in the Vodafone forum to ask his advice - he is looking at it from their end. The thing is - I reported this problem and all the issues to Vodafone because BT refused to help me saying I had been migrated. Turns out they were right - when my service did come up occasionally, it was from a Vodafone IP, meaning BT was not giving me service and had not been since November. I have Vodafone who can confirm this, along with multiple posts in the Vodafone forum outlining my problems with dates dating back to November - so they can't say I am just now making all of this up.

I got a loan of a few bob from some mates to cover my bills for now until the charge is returned. I am looking forward to BT coming after me for the money (which I know I don't owe) instead of me having to hunt them down. The proverbial shoe is going to be on the other foot.

With Vodafone backing me up I hope to resolve this issue quick, but knowing BT it could drag out for months.