Esat IOL Anytime Bill

Slaanesh

Oh dear,

Woke up this morning to an envelope sitting at the door. It was from BT addressed to me. "What the hell ?" were my initial thoughts.

I open the letter and nearly have a heart attack. €685 euro bill for the use of IOL anytime. I went with this service about 2 years ago and signed up via direct debit. I don't check my account much and just assumed the money was getting taken out each month. Of course today I went back through my bank account history and they hadn't billed me at all over the last 2 years and suddenly decide to whack me with a bill for €685 euro after 2 years ? No bills in the post, nothing, just this one massive one.

I was in Australia for a year and the service was hardly used by my younger brother. I had forgotten all about it because I wasn't getting any bills.

Anybody know what I should do ?

Slaan.

Slaanesh

Ah lads,

Can anyone give me any advice at all ? Aside from just paying the whole amount

Or suggest an alternate board where this may be more noticed/appropriate ?

Slaan.

oisin

I can't offer any advise Slaanesh, but if you search you'll find a long thread on this very topic - you're not alone. All I can say is maybe plead poverty and since its their fault you've now got this huge bill, ask for a reduction. Same thing happened to me. I got a bill 2 years ago for almost €700 going back nearly four years for Anytime and Netime (or whatever they called it before Anytime). They admitted they had never presented the direct debits to the bank. I told them I needed time to check with my bank to get statements. They agreed, but 2 weeks later I started getting letters from a debt collection agency. I chickened out and paid up because I was afraid of having my credit rating screwed up.

I cancelled my account with them on the phone and in writing two years ago, but guess what? last month I noticed €300 paid by my bank to Esat. They found the Direct debits and sent them to the bank. They tried to claim I never cancelled the account. Luckily I had copies of my letters. I threatened them with solicitors, comreg, God and anyone else I could think of and got a refund. BTW my bank also offered to refund the money since they had paid out on DD four and five years old. I wouldn't have anything to do with them ever again.

Good luck with it.

irishgeo

they never presented any of my direct debits to the bank either but i have got a bill every 2 months with it adding up all the time. I am just going to wait ill they take money out of my account and then ring the bank and complain.

Slaanesh

I just rang them. I explained the situation and was told that they never signed me up for direct debit and that there was a "payment reversal", whatever that means. In the end I was told that the total still stands.

I got an address off her to send a letter stating my case. I have not received any communique off BT for the last 2 years, the least they could have done was contacted me saying that my Direct Debit was not approved and that another form of billing would be approved.

Shoddy,

Ro.

bloke

You're not alone! My parents had IOL Anytime up until around 3-4 years ago, when we got broadband. The IOL was in my name, although I'd moved out. No bills at all from IOL/Esat/BT for over 3 years (they were using eircom BB).

Brother called me today to say that a BT envelope had been waiting for me for a couple of weeks... €950!!! for 3 years of a service which they weren't using, and had cancelled (though I don't have a copy of cancellation letter :-( ) My initial call today didn't get me very far, it's being referred to a manager tomorrow.

Now, I think most people would agree that even if they never got a cancellation, to allow an unpaid bill to build up for over 3 years without billing or contacting the customer in any way is beyond negligent! Anyone know the legalities of this situation?

Seems BT gave their old billing server a kick and it resurrected some mothballed billing records... why should we have to suffer for their negligence? grrr...