BT billing me after I moved to Vodafone, Advise

TheDriver

Just wondering what happened when people switched. In mid AUg, I got switched from BT to VF. VF assured me in writing that they would take care of everything, including cancelling my broadband. However, I just get my BT bill and firstly no refund of my line rental and package price I paid in advance for mid Aug to now and also they have billed me for broadband for the next 2 months in advance (44 euro).
Has this happened to anyone else?

jor el

It's happened to just about every customer that BT have ever had. Cancel the direct debit by writing to your bank. After that, write to, or ring, BT and tell them to cop on, and to give you your money back. Better still, ring Vodafone, since they now own BT.

TheDriver

Thanks Jol, emailed BT and requested the 2 items. Will pop to bank tomorrow.
VF don't own BT though, just the customer base being handed over, my money is still issued with BT.
I presume I am correct in that I don't have to cancel my BB with BT and it was automatically done when Vodafone requested a service transfer?

dub45

TheDriver wrote: »

Thanks Jol, emailed BT and requested the 2 items. Will pop to bank tomorrow.
VF don't own BT though, just the customer base being handed over, my money is still issued with BT.
I presume I am correct in that I don't have to cancel my BB with BT and it was automatically done when Vodafone requested a service transfer?

With BT you should never assume anything when it comes to billing matters.

AllGunsBlazing

I'm a BT broadband customer and I'm dreading this change over.

If the original post along with BT's track record are anything to go by this is going to be an absolute disaster. And in my case I'm paying by credit card so no direct debit to be cancelled. Which will probably make it even more awkward if BT starts messing me around as well?

With a bit of luck I might be one of the few that gets away unscathed, or maybe not.:(

homer911

TheDriver wrote: »

Thanks Jol, emailed BT and requested the 2 items. Will pop to bank tomorrow.
VF don't own BT though, just the customer base being handed over, my money is still issued with BT.
I presume I am correct in that I don't have to cancel my BB with BT and it was automatically done when Vodafone requested a service transfer?

I'm in the process of transfering from BT to Vodafone and i got a call the otehr day from BT saying Eircom had been in touch about the account transfer and they wanted to confirm it - they were happy when I said I was moving over to VF.. "..All the one company now.."

So they do talk to each other...

TheDriver

the saga continues, BT say the bb was never transferred from them yet VF says its all set up from them, speed and all so stuck in middle!!!
EDIT: VF now suggests to tell BT that bill is not justified and the ring VF again is I am getting nowhere with BT. Talk about stuck! Anyways, my ip address on speedtest says vodafone so presume its all set up with VF

TheDriver

you are going to love this one, rang BT telling them that VF had switched etc and they now claim they lost their notification and someone didn't cancel it on their system. Naturally they are going to sort it out etc. He also said about refunding my advance BB payment that they don't refund BB money???? Surely this can't be allowed, or maybe Comreg is to be contacted once this billing saga is over with.

jor el

That's right, if you look at the T&Cs you'll see that they don't refund payments made. Not sure if they are entitled to put that in the T&Cs, but it is never the less in there. They should refund the line rental portion, as that's eircom's money, and BT won't be paying that to them now. You'll be paying it to Vodafone for the same period.

Really, since this was a move brought about by Vodafone's buying of you (as a customer) from BT, then any money already paid to BT should be transferred over to the Vodafone account.

I'd get back on to Vodafone, tell them to sort it out, or you'll be leaving them.

TheDriver

thing is i moved to vf of my accord so won't get bb money back but will fight for my line rental and also the money billed for next 2months. Thing is if they take this money before they can sort it out, will i ever get it back??

jor el

Cancel the direct debit, and they can't take any more. You won't get back what you already paid, except maybe the line rental.

TheDriver

thanks Jorel, only problem is that I also owe 1.50 in call charges on the bill so thinking if I cancel my DD, would they also not be able to take money I actually owe them and hence be in debt with them? I don't mind loosing the BB as its actually only 2 weeks worth but the line rental is a whole month exactly.

jor el

Pay that using Billpay at the post office.

TheDriver

shock horror, BT have now admitted by email that my BB was indeed transferred on 26th Aug and hence are creditting my account etc, so lets see how that goes (I am sure I have spelt creditting wrong!!)

dub45

jor el wrote: »

That's right, if you look at the T&Cs you'll see that they don't refund payments made. Not sure if they are entitled to put that in the T&Cs, but it is never the less in there. They should refund the line rental portion, as that's eircom's money, and BT won't be paying that to them now. You'll be paying it to Vodafone for the same period.

Really, since this was a move brought about by Vodafone's buying of you (as a customer) from BT, then any money already paid to BT should be transferred over to the Vodafone account.

I'd get back on to Vodafone, tell them to sort it out, or you'll be leaving them.

The Terms and Conditions issue really needs looking at but of course there is no one who will do it:rolleyes: This idea of not refunding money is simply treating customers with total contempt and no company with a shred of integrity would dare put such nonsense in their Terms and Conditions. It is of course a total contradiction of the direct debit scheme and of course BT would no doubt claim to be in total compliance with that. It appears that companies can put anything the like into Terms and Conditions and increasingly they read like a list of instructions for the customers and are very scarce on the companies own obligations.

For example here are some clauses from UPC's current Terms and Condtions:

6.2 Late Fees: If you do not make your payments on time we may withdraw any discount we may have given to you for payment in advance or for any other reason and we may also charge you a Late Fee as per the Price List.

6.3 Other Charges. We may also charge you for the following, in advance or otherwise, where applicable, including but not limited to: Connection Charges, Initial Payment Charges, Usage Charges, Access Charges, Cancellation Charges, Paper Bill Fee, Itemization Fee and other Miscellaneous Charges. If you want to change any of the Services agreed to, we may charge you a reasonable administration fee. Any such fees will appear in the Price List or in the other documentation that we provide to you. To
the extent permissible by law, we may charge you a fee for not using a particular payment method or provide you with a discount for using a particular payment method.

6.4 Direct Debit: Unless otherwise determined by us in our absolute discretion and notified to you, you will be required to pay your bills by direct debit. This Agreement gives us authority to alter your variable direct debit instructions according to the Charges from time to time applicable to the Services. We shall notify your relevant bank or building society each month of the sums due to us from your account. We are entitled to charge you a reasonable administration fee if your direct debit order fails or you
otherwise default in making payments to us. If your bank or building society is unable to make payment in any one month we reserve the right to immediately suspend any direct debit facility and demand a different method of payment.

If you make it through all that you will notice that UPC are expecting the customer to submit themselves to all sorts of charges without knowing in advance what they are. I had always thought that such clauses were not permissable as they can then literally charge you anything they like. For example they charge people 12.50 per failed direct debit. Surely customers are entitled to know that in advance? (Incidentally such a charge makes UPC a nice tidy amount every billing period for example if 10% of their customers did not meet their direct debit UPC could make over 500,000 euros for doing nothing!!!! I have asked them where a customer can find this so called Price List but they cannot or will not answer me!

For example from a reply I received to asking where I can find this price list:

In regards to your query of our Price List. When you log onto our website www.upc.ie and select our products, this shows up the packages and the cost for each package or product, this is our price list as noted in our Terms and Conditions. We do not have a set page with the cost of each package shown as a full price list. For example, if you select TV this will bring up the products that we have available and the cost for each package. My apologies that this was not made clear to you earlier

I know that I am diverting the thread to UPC but is meant to illustrate what companies are now inflicting on customers and there is no one to resist this. It is simply outrageous to expect people to commit themselves to unspecified charges or in as in BT's case to agree to not having your money returned promptly.

Moving on to the so 'direct debit guarantee' can I point out to people that the so called 'direct debit guarantee' which IPSO put so much emphasis on is nothing more than a 'branding' of the basic right to get back what should never have been taken in the first place! Nothing more.

In relation to the direct debit scheme the only thing guaranteed is trouble for the bill payer sooner or later:rolleyes:

There is no guarantee that the correct advance notice will be given.

No guarantee that disputed amounts will not be deducted.

And worst of all there is no guarantee that a direct debit will not be reinstated after cancellation.

There is no provision for compensation when a company messes up your account with a wrongly debited amount. No emergency number to contact if your account has been cleaned out and you discover this say at the beginning of a weekend or when you are away somewhere.

There is no one to enforce compliance with the scheme. Companies have nothing to fear no matter what they do or how they abuse the scheme.

A customer representative of a supposedly responsible utility company recently admitted to me that they would be far more careful if there were any sanctions to fear while an employee in their billing department summed up the direct debit system when answering my complaint that they had just double dd'd me for the third time in four months ''But sure we have your bank account number...............'''

Incidentally when I inquired why it had taken 11 days for them to refund one of the amounts I was told that they normally wait until they have a few refunds and do them together!! So much for urgency and concern for the customer!!!