RLE

iTrader: (2)

A brief background...

Been with BT for three years. Pay monthly direct debit and I am always in credit. Highest call charges were £6.55 for a period of three months. (consistently between 2.00 and 5.00) I just dont use the thing.

I receive a letter in July confirming my direct debit mandate needs to be adjusted from £17.00 to £112.00 to cover usage. WTF I think and get straight on to them. Long story short been dialling some form of premium rate number since May 05 and bill for the quarter is just short of £400.00.

Needless to say I sort the problem with the computer out within a few hours and continue to pay BT the usual £17.00 until they investigate. They come back and say the full bill is payable.

Every month I receive notice that the mandate will be adjusted but BT refuse to address the debt. I ended up cancelling the dd in an attempt to achieve some form of settlement. BT send their final bill on the 05.12.05; I issue a letter on the 10.12.05 recorded delivery outlining my arguement; BT block all my incoming and outgoing calls on the 14.12.05.

BT have now said they will terminate my line on the 15.01.06 unless full settlement is received. I have offered to increase my payments to either £30.00 a month or £100.00 a quarter but no nothing they want the lot. My arguement is as follows:

1. My bills were always less than £40.00 a quarter hence the credit balance. In May this spiralled and they failed to alert me. This continued throughout June and in to July. Surely they have some form of responsibility to their customers and have to accept liability (in part) for their negligence.
2. Their own web site confirms they will agree to payment plans if their customers have been subjected to this form of fraud. They're now saying this doesn't apply as my line has been blocked despite my best efforts to resolve from July of this year.
3. I'm willing to repay the arrears just not in one go. I've outlined a reasonable repayment plan offering the same.

My calls go through to India; my letters go unasnswered. I've tried the official approach and asked the ICSTIS to investigate and even found a case this year where BT sued for a £700.00 bill and the judge ruled that only part was payable by the defendant.

I'm at my wits end with it all. If they cut me off they say I will be liable for the reconnection fee. I really cant believe that they take this attitude with an individual who is willing to pay them even though my principles say otherwise.

Any ideas guys?

Billbill

Move to The U.S. of A. !!!

mart360

two lessons to be learnt..
never leave your pc connected and turned on when your not using it...

and never go with bt they are the most expensive telco ever..

i ahd a 400 bill back in the eightys!!

and who,s been surfing **** then

surely you heard the dialer as it was dialing out??

Mart

RLE

iTrader: (2)

My adult dvd collection is far too big and graphic to require the need to surf the net Mart

On a serious note traced the virus back to a pop up from downloading a game.

Been promised a call back today so who knows might finally get somewhere.

EddScott

So has this bill been derived from your PC dialling a premium rate number?

If thats the case then I would assume its your responsibility to ensure your PC doesn't do it. Not saying anything to you its easily done and I'd be just has pi$$ed off.

You say you don't use premium rate **** dialers and its not always **** that sneaks in these dailer. However, my neighbour got caught out by his misses becuase he wasn't aware that he'd downloaded these autodialers and they had a bill for about £500.

He went to work and by the evening she'd sold his brand new PC to a friend for £500 to cover the bill

Southern Guy

These so called dialers are quite noticeable, when downloaded. it is a different number and most the time a different looking dialler than you would normally use for dialling up internet from your pc.

I think you have been caught out son, bite the bullet and admit it, or is it too late for that as you have already argued with BT so much they would probably charge you more if you admitted it.

Switch to NTL!

Shonen

I thought that broadband and modems were supposed to stop this happening? I turn my pc off when i have finished using it. I will also disconnect the DSL cable after reading this!!

Holy Ghost

get a firewall and anti-virus; ensure you use them as they will prevent and clean out diallers; switch to BT broadband if you can as diallers cannot operate over it; check your dial-up settings regularly for changes; don't leave your PC on overnight; check your phone balance weekly - you can do this over the phone.

dunno if you've done this but call BT on 0800 800170 and write to BT Customer Service Investigations, Postpoint S, The Warrington Contact Centre, 110 Europa Boulevard, Westbrook, Warrington, Cheshire, WA5 7FZ. i've done work with BT on PRS diallers: these are the people that deal directly with this problem and you may have more luck and understanding here.

T_H_E__c_R_O_W

dont accept libility, ppl have got off with this b4. You never made the calls, your computer was used by some1 else to do this. If bt want there money they can find out who made that program and sue them. Its just a form of hacking.

suprabeast

disconnect your pc from the phone line and start using broadband... it appears it would be much cheaper !

RLE

iTrader: (2)

True Edd. The main issue I have with BT is the ignorance to the issue. Every one of the help desk reps agree that my bills were between £1.00 and £5.00. For it then to jump to over £300.00 in one month should have raised an alarm and once again they agree If it would have been for just the one month I'd have paid whatever was owed but they allowed it to go on for a full second month and part way in to a third. I find that type of ignorance a joke! Imagine someone using your credit card for a similar period and I'm sure you'd raise an issue with the bank? Likewise your bank has measures in place to monitor irregular spending why wouldn't a multi million pound company like BT have something similar in place (£2b pre tax profit this year!!!) BT have now rolled out a system to alert their customers of unusual usage......a little late for me but it may help others.

I'll end up paying them with it being a relatively small sum. Heard yesterday that someone had a £1500.00 bill so it could be worse. On a more positive note found that BT took one of their customers to court for a £700.00 debt (rogue diallers again) and the judge ruled that BT were negligent in their handling of customer accounts. He ruled 50% of the bill and costs should be paid by them. Well done that man for fighting them.

Little hard to swallow that BT only see 5p in the £1.00 for this scam. If you dispute the bill they donate that portion to charity. Talk about not wanting to have dirty hands!!!

I should be thankful that I have the means to pay. Ignoring the principle of the whole thing I really feel for those who dont have a disposable income.

Anyway back to the ****

Big Daz

had the same thing last year, 1st off, get premium & overseas calls barred from the phone. Write to again & quote some of the "proceeds of crime act", They are actually breaking the law but know an individual will never take them all the way to court. Pay if you must to get phone kept connected but insist this bill is under dispute noted on your file. inform them in the letter copies of all correspondance is being kept for use in future court case and it also being forwarded to newspapers for their use. Eventually they will back down ( before the law comes down on them big time) but it will be classed as a goodwill gesture - I hate BT with a vengance, they are ripping off millions of people with this and they could stop it easily if they wanted to.
Oh and the line about giving money to charity does not negate the fact the are helping in crime

*My opinions and experiences only*

Daz

RLE

iTrader: (2)

If you are on braodband you will be ok mate. This was via the dial up connection. Had the anti virus and Firewall. Added call barring via BT to ensure there is NO way this can happen again.

Added irony...................downloaded a new antivirus programme and got a trojan virus for my troubles. Think I'm just jinxed.

Thanks for the comments so far....will try that number Holy Ghost.......no one willing to make a decision and all tell me I need to talk directly to the Credit Manager. Shame no one of them is ever available.

Frosty The Snowman

If he's still using a modem switching to NTL won't make a blind bit of difference. The only thing I believe you can do is negotiate with BT. Try this website, although I don't think ou will have much luck getting your money back.

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Cheers Big Daz that makes sense. In honesty I have a solicitor friend who says you can sue them if they cut off the line with the bill in dispute. If it was only my house/ credit that would be affected I'd run with this one all the way and have my day in court. Unfortunately the mrs is "scared" and the mother in law wants to pay it for us as its affecting their xmas with all the worrying (I think its great that she cant ring us all the time!!)

Anyway I think I'll pay before they terminate the line completely and continue to harass them. Even if they goodwill my account with a small gesture I'd consider this a moral victory.

Big Daz

This is exactly what they rely on. Huge company versus little man. I succeeded in getting most of my money back but I had written it off. I have heard rumours that if you fight hard enough, they will give money back as a "gesture" because there is new legislation coming into force which will leave them open to huge claims from consumers.

Daz

T_H_E__c_R_O_W

please dont pay them the money. It wont help them fix the problem.

Crazy Chick

As long as you have offered them some sort or repayment plan to cover the arrears which you have they have to accept it. Put it in writing and make a copy of the letter you send them and also tell them you have gone to citizens advice and they have told you the same. I had a problem not so long ago and went to the CAB and they got on the phone for me to speak to the 'problem' people - problem sorted.

T_H_E__c_R_O_W

And if u live in scotland i beleve (most prob wrongly) that the min u can offer is 1p (could b £1) a week, that should keep them happy

EddScott

Trust me, all big companies are quite oblivous to any abuses going on with your affairs.

Slightly off-topic but an indication of how little these companies care, I cancelled a DDM with wanadoo for my broadband account as I migrated to another provider. 5 days later wanadoo just set up a new DDM without my say so. Halifax didn't do anything about it and once 5 months later I found out what was going on the Halifax didn't want to know. IMHO they should have quesitoned why I would want to set up a new DDM having only just cancelled one.

Most large companies nowadays don't give a flying flip about "The customer" irrespective of how or why you've ended up out of pocket.

EvoBarry

Just offering my sympathies dude, I thought I'd got a dialler a few years back while on dialup so I told BT to block premium calls from my line, that way if ANY diallers did get through and start calling there was NO 'KING way I was coughing up the dough.

I beleive BT has a moral obligation to not allow these rogue diallers to continue, instead of burying their heads and accepting the money. Its just wrong and they know it, they just can't ignore the money coming in. <mad>

Get broadband as others have said, piece of mind at least from diallers, and install Ad aware, spybot, MSN Beta Spyware, and a decent AV checker... and stay away from **** sites in future

T_H_E__c_R_O_W

and then what would u do on the net??? (we all know y u got b.b :P)