BT Review

Overall Rating

In February this year we took a telephone line and internet with BT. We have free evening and weekend calls with this package.

Since then we have had numerous problems. This first being that we were charged for telephone calls and line rental from the house my boyfriend previously lived in. The account for this house was cancelled and a new one set up for our address. We contacted BT and were eventually credited for this.

We have an ongoing problem receiving bills. We rarely get a bill in the post. We have received 3 bills since February 2009 and have never received a reminder. We have contacted BT repeatedly about this, they blame Royal Mail and are 'happy to resend bills at a cost of £4.50'. It is highly unlikely that it is a problem with Royal Mail as we have a contract with SKY TV and receive all their letters, payslips and other correspondance.

Originally we were told by a BT representative that the bills were being sent to the wrong address. This representative told us that she had corrected this mistake and that we should receive bills without problems in future. As the problem continued after this my boyfriend sent a letter of complaint to BT. We received a letter back from the customer services manager at BT who told us we were mistaken, the address was never wrong and suggesting that we contact Royal Mail regarding our post problem. I reiterate that we do not have a problem receiving other mail. I felt that this response was very unhelpful. Our letter made clear that we wanted to correct the problem and BT's response made clear that they were unwilling to help us resolve this.

As per my letter of complaint, we were unable to use the telephone or activate internet for approx 4 weeks in March 2009. We were never credited for this and did have to pay the line rental etc for this as we were given no choice.

During our calls to BT we have asked for an alternative way to receive our bills. The lady from BT advised us that she would not email or fax another bill to us. She told us the only way we could receive this bills was for her to post it at a cost of £4.50. We have asked BT not to charge us for resending the bill and on numerous occasions they have advised us that they would send them free of charge. We have subsequently been charged for resending bills, which we still have not received. We know this as when we telephone BT we ask them to break down the charges for us.

As we do not receive bills, BT regularly temporarily cease our telephone service and charge us £20 something pounds to reactivate it. If they look at their records they can see that when this happens, we immediately telephone them and pay using debit card. We are more than happy to pay for the service we are availing of but we are entitled to see a bill before we pay. We no longer trust BT and are therefore unwilling and afraid to give our bank details due to the lack of help, quality of service, not receiving bills and bills being wrong.

Due to this problem with bills/payment, BT cancelled our broadband service with them. We had actually used BT's automated payment line to pay for this bill, again without actually receiving or viewing a bill. The automated service informed us that the payment went through and that if there were any problems BT would contact us. We were not contacted and were not aware of any problem with the payment which in the end did not go through.

On this occasion we did receive a final bill and I immediately rang BT and paid this. We told the gentleman that we wanted to keep the broadband service cut off as we were unhappy with the general service received from BT.

Our telephone number was again disconnected on the evening of Friday 14th August. On Saturday 15th August my boyfriend again rang BT. They advised us we have a bill outstanding from May and one from August. This May bill was not mentioned last month when I personally spoke to BT and paid our final broadband bill. I asked the BT representative to check that that was our account for telephone and broadband up to date and he assured me that it was. We were advised on Saturday that we have approximately £80 outstanding on our account in relation to the above bills. The lady broke down the costs for us and told us they include reconnection fees, fees for resending bills, line rental and call charges. As above, we have free weekend and evening calls with BT for up to an hour, after 6pm weekdays and all weekend to landlines. We do not understand why we would have been charged for calls and are hoping that we have not once again been charged for someone elses calls.

Again the BT representative told us that bills had been sent out, she could resend them at a cost of £4.50 and that we would have to pay the outstanding invoices and a reconnection fee. I am sure you can understand our reluctance to pay these fees or the outstanding amount itself without actually viewing the bill as we have no trust whatsoever in BT. This is a direct result of the terrible, interrupted service we have received from BT.

We told the lady that we would pay the amount if she could make sure our line was not reconnected as we have just had enough of the stress, ignorance and unhelpfulness of BT. She told us she would have to take the payment and then put us through to the cancellation department and that there would be a charge of approximately £150.00!

I am just so sick and tired of all the hassle. My boyfriend and I have mobile telephone contracts, sky TV contracts, car finance etc and we NEVER miss our payments for these. We have tried endless times without success to rectify the problem with BT. We are at the end of our tethers and really need some advice as to what we can do from here. We are aware that a complaint can be made with Ofcom and are currently looking into this.