BT Telephony

BT charged us a £426 for simply moving a pre-paid line rental to another company!

This is how:

We've been using a BT telephone line for line rental only. We get all other services from third parties.

Then, BT forced us to pay our line rental by direct debit - apparently for refusing to subscribe any other service from them!

Next, BT started charging us the line rental in advance for TWO months etc.

(Don't understand why they needed money in advance - Fast. Might be something to do with the recent financial crisis).

To cut a long story short, we were having so many problems and very poor customer service with BT like everybody else if not worse.

After that, we decided to move our line rental to another company to provide us all-in-one service (line rental + telephone, Internet).

We then phoned BT so many times to inform our decision and we explicitly asked, asked and asked them in a Paxman-esque style about charges, penalties etc if we go ahead with our decision.

In short, we checked, confirmed and reconfirmed EVERYTHING with BT.

And they agreed - it is OK to move your line rental to another company.

They even added that we had NO contract with them, no equipment, items etc as we were only using their line rental for many years and no outstanding line rental either.

Next, we talked to our new company who, too, talked to BT to handle and complete the transfer including giving BT a 14 days notice (on top of our own notice).

Everything was settled by all parties and we even received a letter from BT saying, something along the line, "Sorry, for leaving...".

Now, out of the blue, we've just received a final bill of £426.49 from BT!

"For what?"

"Engineer", "engineer", other bills, 1471 etc it says on the letter.

"Engineer for what?" "When?" we asked on the phone.

Engineers with no appointment, no letter of appointment, no phone call, no e-mail... nothing?

Strange! (Ghosts, perhaps).

Nobody can tell us anything despite our constant enquiries to BT customer services.

In fact, nobody knows what this final bill actually is!

Some agents told us it was for an 'advice' charge given you by phone! loool. (Since when BT started charging their customers for phoning without telling them in advance! Perhaps, that is why everybody gets the wrong bill?

Others stick to 'engineer, 'engineer' etc by regurgitating the same stuff.

By the way, we had never arranged, been informed or needed any 'engineers' for any reason.

What's more, all the so-called 'engineer' charges (4 times in a single day, yes four) go back to May 2009 - which shows back-dated claims after we've moved in late July/Early August! It's a revenge. Nothing more.

All in all, call centre agents in India etc did a pretty good job by constantly keeping us on the line while reading from a script from screen/sheet - which was designed to put customers off!

If that does not work, they put us on hold for longer periods, pass our call from person to person or even cut the line off!

Also, every agent refused to give us their name (first or surname) for calling or reference purpose!

In addition, we can not get through to a senior person, manager etc at all - regardless of how many times we call or how long we stayed on their expensive 0845 etc phone lines.

This is purely bullying tactics to punish us for taking our custom to somewhere else after years of very bad experience with BT. And it had been going on for many years in one form or another.

So much so, even the letter gives us less than 4 days, including Sat, Sun, to pay this bill!

It was delivered on this Friday afternoon (today) and the deadline is by Tuesday!

In short, BT had always been bad but now they completely stepped the line and which is why we now want to take a legal action, as well as, reporting this matter to all consumer watchdogs, if it is not sorted properly and quickly.

Shame, SHAME and SH-A-M-E on BT.

As with the other household name utilities, BT are having great difficulty in accepting that there is competition out there. They rely on the ridiculous hype about someone coming back to BT ever few seconds. I think its meant to convince people that the competition is rubbish so don't even bother.

The fact that so many of these utility companies make it so difficult TO change, people don't bother and that's exactly what they want.

BT's customer service has always been dire and a few weeks ago, I had to write them one of the nastiest letters I've ever written in my life. My parents changed to British Gas for their phone service and BT gave them a final bill which was about £200 more than it should have been. As they pay by direct debit, they were worried that this amount would be taken from their account.

Despite being on hold for 45 minutes and explaining the same story to three separate departments, two of which were abroad, when I was eventually put through to the "relevant" department, the call was cut off after "Hi, how can I help you?"

After my letter, threatening them with TV exposure, the bill was adjusted but there was NO contact and NO apology.

There ARE other telephony providers out there and many of them do a better job than BT and are a lot cheaper too.

The days of monopolies are over. BT know that and the least they can do is keep up with the competition or pave the way for a smooth transition. They do neither.

Don't put up with it .. loyalty means nothing these days. Do yourself a favour and find a company that WILL appreciate your custom. BT in my case bviously don't.