BT Ireland still charging for cancelled account - support number needed

Kone

Hey all,

Does anyone have a telephone number for BT Ireland billing that I can call from outside Ireland? (Can't use 1904!)

The feckers are still charging me for an account that was closed two months ago!

cheers,
Kone

jor el

Don't know a number, but have you canceled your direct debit to make sure they can't take the money? This is very common with BT, and can literally take months to resolve.

Kone

Unfortunately I took the customer service rep's word when she told me that everything had been cancelled from BT's side (schoolboy error I know!)

In fact I called them on four separate occasions over a two week period and each time I was told the account had been cancelled and no fees were outstanding.

I have now cancelled the direct debit with my bank so they won't be getting any more money out of me.

The thing that is really confusing me is that they are not charging the usual amount (it's usually €56 a month paid bi-monthly, this time it's €39), it's almost like they signed me up for a different package, I have no idea what they're up to but if I manage to find a number for billing I will find out tomorrow.

If it takes months to resolve so be it! It's the principle of the thing, they are not getting away with this! :cool:

jor el

€39 is the price without line rental, so it's like they've signed the line back to eircom (which means it's dead) but they're still charging you for broadband alone.

I'd ignore them, and ignore the inevitable debt collection letters too. They can't do anything with a made up bill, so let them waste time and money chasing you on it. Serves them right for being so utterly incompetent, on a continuing basis.

Kone

jor el wrote: »

€39 is the price without line rental, so it's like they've signed the line back to eircom (which means it's dead) but they're still charging you for broadband alone.

Ah it all makes sense! I really hope that's the case jor el, if so it's brilliant, I can't wait to hear the excuses tomorrow.

DECEiFER

You can get through to their billing department by calling 1904 from any phone, even a mobile, free of charge.

Best of luck!

dub45

Kone wrote: »

Unfortunately I took the customer service rep's word when she told me that everything had been cancelled from BT's side (schoolboy error I know!)

In fact I called them on four separate occasions over a two week period and each time I was told the account had been cancelled and no fees were outstanding.

I have now cancelled the direct debit with my bank so they won't be getting any more money out of me.

The thing that is really confusing me is that they are not charging the usual amount (it's usually €56 a month paid bi-monthly, this time it's €39), it's almost like they signed me up for a different package, I have no idea what they're up to but if I manage to find a number for billing I will find out tomorrow.

If it takes months to resolve so be it! It's the principle of the thing, they are not getting away with this! :cool:

Even though you did not cancel the dd with the bank at the same time that you cancelled your contract with BT you should still request your bank to reverse the dds that BT have since hit your account with. When you cancelled your account with BT you implicitly withdrew their authority to further access your account. The dd scheme clearly states that disputed amounts should not be debited to an account. And amounts that are not due for a service that is not being provided are clearly 'disputed'!
If you do not get anywhere with your bank contact those 'wonderful' people at ipso who are always claiming that the dd system is 'wonderful' and that they never get any complaints (this is due to the fact that nobody knows ipso exists and that there is no proper complaints system built into the direct debit scheme!) www.ipso.ie where they await your call and are only too eager to help:rolleyes:

This is yet another example of how appalling a system the dd one is. It offers the bill payer absolutely no protection in spite of the much touted 'direct debit guarantee' (which basically means you will get back (with a bit luck) what should never have been deducted in the first place!!). In reality companies can do what they like without any fear of sanction from anybody!

It really is astonishing how consistently incompetent BT have been over such a long period.

It is even more astonishing that the bill payers of Ireland tolerate this dd nonsense.

Kone

DECEiFER wrote: »

You can get through to their billing department by calling 1904 from any phone, even a mobile, free of charge.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply DECEiFER, however as you can see from my original post I need a number I can call from outside Ireland, I cannot use 1904.

Dub45, thanks for the link, I have a feeling I will be talking to ISPO very soon.

whosedaddy?

What I have done in the past when trying to call them from abroad was ringing business billing (+353 1 4328846) and asked them to connect me to the residential billing team.

Kone

Thanks, I ended up calling the main reception number (+35314325000) earlier and got put through to billing from there.

The billing rep apologised and gave me the following excuse "When your account was cancelled the phone line was remained active so we charged you" :D:D I found this so funny I didn't bother to argue, a full refund is due in 10 working days, I am not holding my breath....

DECEiFER

Oh, apologies, I did fail to note that you asked about an international number.

Glad you got them to cave, and I do hope that they keep to their word this time.

dub45

Kone wrote: »

Thanks, I ended up calling the main reception number (+35314325000) earlier and got put through to billing from there.

The billing rep apologised and gave me the following excuse "When your account was cancelled the phone line was remained active so we charged you" :D:D I found this so funny I didn't bother to argue, a full refund is due in 10 working days, I am not holding my breath....

You should write to them formally with a memo of your telephone conversation of today. Tell them that you want written confirmation from them by return that your bank account details have been removed from their system.

BT as you have found out to your inconvenience simply cannot be trusted. And they have consistently earned this lack of trust over a very long period.

Greyfox

dub45 wrote: »

It really is astonishing how consistently incompetent BT have been over such a long period.

How is it astonishing? Sure all telecom companies provide rubbish customer care anyway so they can get away with it, also most Irish people are willing to put up with a good bit of incompetence and billing errors and never getting a call back befor they'd cancel a service. As well as that many Irish people forget who they were speaking to (rule no.1 of calling any companies customer care department is to get the persons name) when they call without realising that in telecom companies land this a lot of times means the conversation never took place!

dub45

Greyfox wrote: »

How is it astonishing? Sure all telecom companies provide rubbish customer care anyway so they can get away with it, also most Irish people are willing to put up with a good bit of incompetence and billing errors and never getting a call back befor they'd cancel a service. As well as that many Irish people forget who they were speaking to (rule no.1 of calling any companies customer care department is to get the persons name) when they call without realising that in telecom companies land this a lot of times means the conversation never took place!

It is astonishing because BT have been so consistently awful. And it is not just about poor customer service or people forgetting who they were speaking to.

Billing is a fundamental part of any company's operations and while it is inevitable that mistakes will be made in even the best run companies BT's consistent awfulness in this area is astonishing. As I have written before - it cannot be that easy to be so consistently bad.

Just some examples:


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054923405

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=17811

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055055464

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054952665

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=303618

Greyfox

Some very entertaining reading in their, almost makes me miss the days I worked in customer care. Never worked for BT though, their staff probably also struggle to understand their billing system.

The main problem I'd say as with most customer care departmants is their majorly understaffed and the people you speak to don't actually have the time to complete queries properly and just get use to giving the answer that gets you off the phone, I'd say their also far too busy to call people back

Another problem is people tend to go with whichever company they "think" gives the cheapest deal and not take the customer care provided into consideration

dub45

Greyfox wrote: »

Some very entertaining reading in their, almost makes me miss the days I worked in customer care. Never worked for BT though, their staff probably also struggle to understand their billing system.

The main problem I'd say as with most customer care departmants is their majorly understaffed and the people you speak to don't actually have the time to complete queries properly and just get use to giving the answer that gets you off the phone, I'd say their also far too busy to call people back

Another problem is people tend to go with whichever company they "think" gives the cheapest deal and not take the customer care provided into consideration

What has always baffled me about the BT situation is that apart altogether from some of the more basic issues that you mention there was obviously some very serious inherent flaws in the design of the actual billing system itself.

This caused misery for many customers (and of course staff in dealing with the consequential complaints) Senior management had to be aware of the issues if only because the Chief Executive was consistently getting emails as a result of advice given here.

And yet there was obviously no will in BT amongst senior management to sort it out. I know several people who paid money they are adamant that they did not owe just to get debt collectors off their backs. I don't know how the internal audit people could stand over such a system which over a long period was demonstably not fit for purpose.

It is quite incredible to read back over those threads and read where people were pleading with BT to actually issue them with a bill!

And this was supposedly a reputable mulitnational not a struggling start up company.

vibe666

keep an eye out for that DD re-apearing. i know it doesn't sound possible, but BT took money out of my account via a cancelled DD 3 times over a 6 month period.

i'm not sure if they still hve it, but i was told (eventually) that their paperless DD system is pretty much automated and can re-issue a cancelled direct debit with little or no human interaction if it decides you owe them money and has your bank details on file.

despite several complaints to my bank (PTSB) they maintained that the were powerless to stop it. i've since been told that this is as much b*llsh*t as the lies BT were telling me every time i called to complain, but either way the money kept on flying out of my account every 2 months until i managed to get hold of the GM (Bill Murphy who's since left, unfortunately) via email who passed it to their head of CS (who is also now gone) who then expunged my bank details from their systems and wrote an apology to my bank for the 3 times i'd been left overdrawn as a result of their thefts.

anyway, make a note of the day that they have previouslytaken money off you and check your bank a few days before to see i they have presented the DD again just to be sure. and i wouldn't hold your breath about getting your cash back in 10 days either, they are a shower of muppets and i'm glad to be rid of them myself.