BT are trying to completely screw up my business!!

[basil3legs]

I am posting this here as I don't want other people to fall into the same trap and to try and actually get some attention from BT.

I run a small business and at the end of November last year, the details on our phone bill needed changing as it had been in the name of the manager who had just left.  I was informed by BT I had to take out a new contract for 5 years!  Having scoured the internet for good deals as I tend to prefer Talk Talk (now Opal) I found several recommendations for the One Plan Plus package which would include more or less all our calls and call diverting etc.. If you look back in this very forum, there is a thread regarding this plan and whether the limits were multiplied by how many lines you had as you were charged per line apparently, which at the time was a very recent thread.  This was one of the write-ups I found for this.

Anyway, this package was taken out and all was hunky Dory.  Come February we got a bill for £130.00 with a few itemised bills from the beginning of December (up until the 6th) which looked about right so nothing was thought of it and the bill was paid.

Come the end of June/beginning of July we suddenly get a reminder from BT to pay our May bill (which we never received) and the bill was huge!  Not knowing why, we called BT and were told we could view the bill on-line and hence set up on-line billing.

This was set up on 23rd July as the site address (then the billing address) is not the same as our address and we needed the customer account numbers etc. and to our horror we found they had suddenly decided to charge us for ALL our calls from 6th of December on the May bill and were continuing to do so.  We were advised to immediately go through to the Sales department and make sure the plan was set up now so no more charges were incrued whilst they investigated this and arranged a credit.

The next spoke to BT on the 23rd August (probably after receiving another reminder), was put on hold and somehow connected to another very irate customer - nice one BT!

Anyway I rung them back having hung up on said irate customer (I did politely try and explain I wasn't BT first!) and spoke to (removed by moderators) from BT Business Billing Offshore (not sure quite why offshore, or is that just what they call their foreign call centres?) and was advised the bill would be put on hold until a credit was raised and that someone would get back to me within 7-10 days.  In the mean time I was to ignore any reminders as they were system generated.

About 2 weeks later I was called back by a lady from I guess India?  I don't have her name or the exact date of the call as I did not have access to write anything down at the time.  Anyway, we then spent about 30 minutes with her doing a very good impersonation of a parrot saying the plan wasn't set up until 26th July (strange that as I was TOLD to redo it on the 23rd and calls stopped being charged from that date) and did I have a signed contract from December?  I repeatedly explained that BT are a phone company and contracts are done over the phone so I doubt a very high percentage of their customers have a SIGNED contract and that BT certainly didn't have one from me for my 5 year contract!  She still insisted I needed a signed contract and this went on and on until she finally said she would talk to a supervisor and they would get back to me.

The next I hear from BT was yesterday when they put our line on incoming calls only!!

I have again phoned BT and this time spoken to (removed by moderators) in the billing department.  I was again told that I didn't take out the plan until 26th June and that I wasn't told a supervisor was going to call me back at all but apparently I was going to call back with contract details, which isn't true.  Also, the chances of me finding a scrap of paper from December with these details on are pretty remote as I tend to believe people when they tell me they have done something, especially when it comes from a company like BT.

I am now told this will be passed back to the Back Office team and the block will be taken off within the next 24 hours and the bill again put on hold for another 14 days.  I was told they will call back in the next 7-10 days and to expect a call from them in the next 14 days (yes, that's what she said!).

I would hazard a guess I will get a call from someone spouting the same thing about the plan being taken out on 26th July and that they will do nothing about it.

At the moment I am sitting on a bill for well over £2,000.00 worth of calls that I should not have been billed for as on top of the May bill, they are still billing for all the calls between then and 23rd July.  I'm sorry BT but we are a small business and we really can't afford to pay you over £2,000.00 extra due to your **bleep**-up.

As I am getting nowhere talking to people on the phone about this, maybe this will get a more immediate response as this is really dragging on now!

[Tracey]

Hi Basil3legs,

Thank you for your private message. I have passed you details over to the billing team to have a look at further.

They will be in contact with you as soon as possible.

Thanks

Tracey

BT Forum Moderator

[Tracey]

Hi Basil3legs,

I have passed your issue to the billing team who are dealing with the issue.

Sorry for any problems you have had with your BT service.

As such we shall close the thread.

Thanks

Tracey

BT Forum Moderator

[basil3legs]

Well, the saga continues...

Many thanks to Tracey for getting the original problem sorted out.

However, this left us with a year's worth of bill to sort out, which we couldn't do in one go but we were slowly chipping away at it, and further problems over Christmas (weather, boiler needing replacing and such like) caused further delays with this.

We have been on and off incoming-calls only repeatedly through this whole saga which wasn't too big an issue but did cause problems when there was a fault on the line which they didn't fix for about 6 weeks, although with calls being forwarded, still not too big an issue, although this didn't help the bill situation as we exceeded are inclusive minutes to a mobile because of this.

On 2nd March, we were sent a Termination Notice stating an amount that had to be paid by 12th March so I managed to borrow that off a relative and paid that on the 10th.  This left us just with February this year's bill outstanding so we were now only one month behind.  Before paying the amount on the 10th, due to BT assigning payments to newer bills, we apparently still had amounts outstanding from May last year.

So, what happens today?  They have terminated the account and cut us off completely.  So apparently we were fine up until last week to be 10 months behind according to their records, but today, now that we are only one month behind they cut us off.  According to the really helpful customer services (what country are they in and do they ever actually listen?), the termination order was put through on the 10th before I paid the bill as per the Termination Notice.

I am also now being told I will need to settle this bill completely and then get sales to raise an order and we might have the phone back on in about 31 days!  I can probably again borrow the money to cover the outstanding bill (which is less than £200.00)  but it really isn't worth it if we aren't going to have a phone, or broadband, for 31 days!!  Oh, and of course it will be a new contract so I will be tied in to 5 years again!

Maybe it's time to get rid of BT and move to Talk Talk!!

[Fiona]

Hi basil3legs,

I am really sorry to read that your service has been terminated. Reading yuor post it appears that this is in hand with the Billing team and I am unsure what we can do on the forum to intervene. However, if you Private Mail me your information I would be happy to go over the case to make sure everything that we can do to help is being done.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator