BT Billing

Dub13

I have had a few run ins with BT over there billing being wrong and they are at it again.My bill is normally around 115 euro it does not vary much as I have packages such as Talk Plus,Broadband and my line rental.

So I was surprised to open my Bill during the week and see it was for 145,but their was a letter with the bill explaining that they had made a mistake.I did not receive my bundle discount.The letter went on to say don't worry only the correct amount will be debited from my bank account.I was happy Ireland had just beat Sweden 3:0,so I said fair play to BT for spotting that.Maybe they are getting there act together.Football is great for lifting your out look on life.

So on Friday I check my Banking 365 and good old BT were back to there old tricks.My opinion of them slipped so quickly back into disillusion...were was Stan and the Boys now to help my out look on the big bad world.I rang them up and I will give them one thing,the last time I had a run in with BT it used to take at least 45 min before you would talk to a "person".This time I was only waiting 2/3 min.

My account is now in credit and it should come off my next bill,but I have been here before with BT and you have to keep an eye on the and hold them to there word.You have been warned.

KeithMur

Ditto,

Was told i'd be credited on my Feb bill for over charges on Dec bill. False.

Got a letter saying we won't take out 133.37 we'll only take out 103.23. False

Complete shower of Bankers.

nlgbbbblth

They're a disaster when it comes to billing.

Never ever move house if you have a BT package - I did and I was double billed for almost twelve months. Despite notifying them by letter, fax and email that I had changed address a week in advance of moving.

Every time I got a bill I would ring up and complain. Every time they said they would refund my next bill (which they did). But they never stopped the double charge from repeatedly occuring. The solution was obvious - delete my old address from their system.

I had to email the CEO in the end to sort it out.
The problem re-surfaced a few months later when I decided to upgrade from their Netsmart package to Broadband. I asked them to send the modem to my work address.

Three weeks later I got home to see an An Post delivery note (we tried to deliver a package but you weren't in). I called to the sorting office and there it was, my modem. However I had a quick look at the address on the front of the package - it was my old address (!) :mad: - with a line through it and my new one scrawled onto it.

I later discovered that they had delivered the package to my old address and a guy living there had the presence of mind to write my correct address onto it and brought it down to the post office to be re-sent.

But like many other people I see no point in moving to a different provider.
Why?
Because I imagine they will be unable to cancel my subsciption and will repeatedly try and bill me for the service regardless.

EIN

i used to have broadband and line rental from bt.. last year in 05..

in july they charged me 300 on my bill ( should have been 40 euro) and since it went on direct debit i only noticed it a week later.... rang them up about 100 times, emailed them the same number of times ... was promised loads of times that a cheque would be in the post,...
never arrived.....


3 months later i eventually got a refund... from reading other peoples horror stories i will never again do business with BT.!! and will never pay by direct debit....

Dub13

They are at it again,this month they took out my direct debit twice.Now they noticed this before I did and paid it back straight away but be careful and check your statement's if you are with BT as there may be a few people they "forget" to re pay as has happened before.

cormie

Nooo, I hate hearing this. I just signed up to BT because they do offer good service at good value, but I know their billing is dodgy.

What's the best way to avoid it? I ordered on the phone through a sales person who has been good at keeping in touch, I've told him my worries of billing/customer care so hopefully there wont be any problems.

Is it advisable to set up a whole new debit account just for bt do you reckon and just put say 100 in every month from your other bank account so they can't take €300 from your normal bank account which could leave you broke for the month?

Dub13

I would say the best way to go is to set up a whole new debit account just for them,its a shame you have to do this but it is the only way now.They really need to sort out there billing as I have never had a problem with anything else and there packages are good and fit my telecommuting needs at a good price.

This shambles is going on years,they are a big multinational company they should head hunt the best and sort this out.

shoegirl

nlgbbbblth wrote:

They're a disaster when it comes to billing.

Agreed! Have had a lot of problems with them in the past and only for that I'd have transferred to them for everything.

I generally have to say that when I move address I simply close off the old account, and open up a new one at the new address. It simplifies things for the semi-retardarded people who seem to work in these kind of businesses. Have done it several times with both eircom and BT and its always worked well for me. They do seem to understand total dissociation.

Having said that customer service in most areas is particularly poor these days in most supposedly high tech industries.

nlgbbbblth

shoegirl wrote:

I generally have to say that when I move address I simply close off the old account, and open up a new one at the new address. It simplifies things for the semi-retardarded people who seem to work in these kind of businesses. Have done it several times with both eircom and BT and its always worked well for me. They do seem to understand total dissociation.

Didn't work for me.
.

ardmacha

I considering getting broadband from BT, all of the evidence suggests that they make up the bills for a significant proportion of their customers. In this context, is there any difference between a direct debit from a credit card account or from a bank. I am not concerned with the possibililty of paying interest as the credit card a/c is paid off automatically from the bank. I am more concerned with getting my money back if they help themselves to my money.

Sponge Bob

with a cc you can charge back

Scruff

yes i spotted the same thing in the last bill. See my thread here

EIN

well i had bt broadband in the past, and they made an error in my bill and helped themselves to 300 euros of my money.

took 3 months to get back , about 20 emails and 100 phonecalls and eventually got my money back!

didnt make the same mistake this time,

signed up with a credit card, then promptly closed the credit card account
so i will pay manually from now on.

better to pay manually, this stops this sorta stuff, mistakes in billing from happening, ie they dont get ur money unless u manually give it..

dont pay direct debit,

peckerhead

Amen to that.

When I started out with them, 18 months ago, I set up a DD to my American Express card. They stopped accepting Amex some time last year, so my bill stopped getting paid. No notice from BT about any of this, of course... :rolleyes:

Eventually got a call from them saying I owed €795 or something. Went back and checked the bills, found I'd been overcharged about €50-ish, so sent them a cheque for €745 plus 20 printed pages of the previous year's emails trying to sort out all the problems I'd had, and said I'd ring them to provide alternative CC details once they'd sorted out their billing errors...

The cheque was cashed 10 days later, but two months on, the total 'amount due' showing in the online system is now touching €1K, and of course I've heard nothing back from them,

I'm just SO glad I didn't set up another DD. Now I get free credit from them — until some poor CS monkey is sent after me again..!

Sponge Bob

€1k means debt collector. You better threaten them before they threaten you.

1. Write, registered post, to Danny McLaughlin their MD demanding they credit you now .

2. Use billpay.ie to pay monthly

ardmacha

"the data shall be accurate and complete and, where necessary, kept up-to-date"
- section 2(1)(b) of the Act

Has anyone tried the data protection commissioner with these people. Basically you are obliged to keep proper records, if someone cashed the cheque and didn't bother updating your account then they are in breach of this requirement.

Sponge Bob

good point that ardmacha , could you maybe add it to this thread here ??

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054903036