pslewis

Just been cheated by, lied to and stitched up by BT!!

I won't go into details as its long .... suffice to say, when I went onto BT Broadband in early December I needed to cancel my Surftime package.

Rang them up, please cancel, OK Sir - we would recommend Option 3 for you, you get FREE calls!! ..... how much? I said, "£26:50 Sir, you are paying £29:95 at the moment".

Good grief said I, if thats the best for me and will save me money I'm IN!!

14 minutes later, yes 14 minutes!! I look through some BT adverts and stuff and it dawns on me that its £26:50 a MONTH!! +VAT!! - I pay £29:95 a QUARTER!!

Realising I had been stitched up I rang back and tried to change BACK to Option 1 ......... no can do Sir - WHAT!? blah, blah, blah, OK Sir I will do that as I agree you have been mis-sold.

Now I get a bill that shows me on Option 3!! AND 3 months Option 3 UP FRONT too!!

Ring them up, talk to trainee, talk to supervisor, talk to manager, talk to Senior Customer Services Guru .......... each person in the sequence could see less and less on the screen records .... then, apparently, on 5th January 2005 I was called and 'Customer accepted Option 3'!!! WTF? Pure LIES!!

BT has turned into a corrupt, lieing, cheating co-orporation and the quicker we can chose our own line rental the better!!

Be WARNED!!

Pete

boxst

Hello

Their phone calls are recorded. Ask for a playback of the call(s) where you supposedly accepted the agreement.

Steve.

pslewis

I did, they said they have a record of the call where I accepted Option 3 ...... but NO records of the call 14 minutes later

The Trainee I spoke to today could see ALL the correspondance, from my request to change back to Option 1 to my next day call to confirm the change back!! She read them out to me, with times that co-incided with my times!!

THEN, as if by magic, when I started talking to the upper levels all the details weren't there!

Its PURE CORRUPTION!!

Pete

Hanslow

Welcome to REAL BRITAIN Pete arrives at last, all trains stop here....there is no way back

Jye

It's only money. There's no pockets in shrouds old boy.........

Chip

Which he'll be wearing soon I would imagine.

Chip

Graz

I blame it on the government

Anyway don't use them anymore . Telewest - phone, cable TV and 1Mb broadband. Ace

Hanslow

Yes remember Pete, you have a CHOICE. You CHOSE to try and save some pennies and get scammed

Big Daz

If they recorded your call without asking for your consent they have broken the law - Inform them you wish to press charges !!
Daz

Hanslow

Change to another provider if you aren't happy.

TDT

Pete,

See http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=392906

You're not the only one having grief. If only someone could provide us with the number of someone that can get these things sorted!

Diesel

Yes sorry Pete; I grassed you up to them and told them you were vaguely New Labour. As the 'chav' call center chap cant get a footold on the housing market ladder he was happy to fulfill your frustration deal.

Maybe it will give you a mini taster of the frustration of those that work hard each week not being able to have the fiscal depth to buy a home in the area that they were born in and grew up. Bloody waster chavs ehh???? Pahh!!!

chrome

cancel your direct debit, and get a decent mobile deal

paulr

It seems companies will resort to anything now to make money,you just have to be so careful,old fashioned standards are just out the window.
The only answer is to stand up for your rights,but that usually means loads of phone calls,ringing back etc,etc.They seem to rely on the hope that most people just give up.

Good luck Pete,lets hope its sorted.

paulr

Is it so bad we have to record our own phone calls....surely not??

Buckrogers

For someone that, supposedly, designs nuclear weapons, you are a bit dim to be conned by a numptie?

pslewis

YES!! I know!!

Thats what makes me madder than mad!! But, I WAS lied to - so it doesn't count.

Just got a letter this morning from BT Customer Services - all sorted, all in writing, .............. please don't go to the Onbudsman!!

They are still stitching up those who are not as clued up as me and its a disgrace!!

Pete

RussP

For once, and just once, I absolutely agree with you!

BT are the biggest bunch of ****e i've ever had the misfortune to deal with. My year long row with them was because they came round my house, pulled out all three extensions, decided that wasn't the problem and refused to replace them becuase "we're not allowed to work on anything after the main box"

A year, 23 phone calls and a dozen letter slater, they backed down.

Prix B@stard bloody prix!!!!!

dharbige

BT are a total rip-off for anything to do with call charges. Pay them for line rental if you have to, but NEVER pay them for calls. Even local calls. They're too expensive.

Have a look at www.18866.com - connection charge of 1p, then NOTHING for the call, for all UK landline calls (not non-goegraphic numbers). They're also dead cheap for mobiles and international calls.

BT charge a minimum of 5p per call, then an extortionate amount on top. I can't understand why anybody pays this.

DISCLAIMER: Not connected with the company in any way, just a happy customer.

VaTaNeN

LOL – Speaking from experience, those letters are actually sent out by the highly effective 'BT Miss-Direction Team' and should actually read;

Dear Sir,

Although we have told you your account is now all sorted out, it is in fact worse than ever before. We have put our best numpties on the job and can happily confirm that you are now being charged for all available options, especially those you never asked for, and also a few new ones which we’ve just made up in our lunch break.

Be assured that when you ring up to complain (again) after receiving your next bill, we will deny all knowledge and do our best to put you through to at least fifteen different people, all of whom will claim they ‘have no clear recollection’ of the events leading up to your last billing.

Yours with mismanagement,

Etc, etc,

ChrisB

You don't have to be billed by BT for anything these days.

Companies like Internet Telecom take lines from BT Wholesale and bill you for line rental & calls.

The new service from the Post Office (HomePhone) works the same way.

It's still the same BT infrastructure and the same engineers fix any problems.

OllyK

Does anybody know of a company that uses the BT lines (so my broadband still works) and charges little or nothing on line rental. I don't mind paying over the odds for the calls as we are lucky to rack up £5 a quarter as it is on calls.

EvilKyote

Hey pete, Sounds like your descibing new labour!!! LOL!!

Thats what ya get for being blair bossom buddy!!! after all it's their fault!

ChrisB

Yes - IT who I linked to above charge £5.25 per month, so half the price of BT Option 1. From their FAQ:

pslewis

Why is it then that all the ISP and broadband blurb I've seen says that a BT Line is needed??

I am signed up to BTBroadband for 12 months with the Yahoo! package so looking at the above statement I 'should' be able to swap away from BT on my line?? AND pay half the charge?!

My calls cost about £5 a quarter ..... with the massive charge for line rental ... I don't give a flying fukc if calls cost me 10p a minute!!

I HATE them!!! I HATE ORANGE too!!! I hate every company with more than 1000 employees ............ no-one gives a damn!

Its all Labours fault!

Pete

pugoetru

hey pete you have seeeeeen the light

Buckrogers

NEWS FLASH - Pete finally sees the light "New Labour r ****e"!

BT / NTL / Sky and many other big companies will always be ****e. They are too big, care little about customer service as they have a monopoly.

BT - I've had endless run ins with them when I was an IT Manager.
Sky - If you want more channels then the freeview offering what choice do you have them or NTL....
NTL - Couple of years ago big losses. Which jobs do they cut first, customer services / support and hire more sales people.

I have the services of all three in my house, you could call it fault tolerence!

GaryK

Because all the lines are still owned by BT, regardless of your broadband or telecoms provider. BT wholesale providers like the one mentioned are just that 'BT wholesale' so although they are first point of contact it is still BT who do fault fixing. BT wholesale and BT retail are two separate divisions and BT are prevented by OFCOM from offering a favourable deal between the two. We deal with BT wholesale and they hate BT retail with a passion!

Gary

ChrisB

Also, the ability to do complete billing for a line from BT Wholesale is something relatively new. Hence most ADSL blurb still says BT line.