Ceased Lines, still paying by Direct Debit - Compensation owed?

[scottanderson]

Hi All,

My woes with BT have been going on for sometime but the latest issue is at another level of complacency and I believe we are due compensation, thoughts?

We have been porting numbers over to Microsoft Teams and as part of this process BT should cease the existing line. Having spent much of last week on the phone with BT, it turns out they failed to cease the lines and have been charging us as normal via Direct Debit. As a not-for-profit, every penny counts so £1300 is important to us.

While they are holding their hands up and are ready to pay back the money as a credit to the account, they don't feel there should be any compensation. Their words "the service wasn't impacted so we don't owe you any  compensation" . The was no service... they basically remove funds from our account without us receiving a service. The even know the dates when they should have been ceased!

I find this astonishing that BT feel it's acceptable to take what they want from our account without any form of punitive damages when they get it wrong. 

I have better things that to be doing than spending a week on the phone with BT call centres and feel they should be refunding the charges with interest (interest not offered) and also compensating us for the inconvenience we’ve suffered. It's a week of my life I'll not get back.

...and they wonder why we're moving over to Teams and away from them!

[AdamC]

Hi,

Compensation from BT Business is based on the customer service compensation scheme (CSCS) which can be viewed here BT customer service compensation scheme | BT Business. It explains all the scenarios in which BT would pay out compensation and details how it would be calculated. Compensation would only be due in a scenario in which you have lost service.

Thank you

Adam

[scottanderson]

I think you may be forgetting this is paid by Direct Debit.

As there were no services being delivered but BT continued to take money from a DD, then it's covered by the DD guarantee. In light of that it's the Financial Ombudsman we should complain to. 

BT can't simply take money from people when they aren't delivering a service and then fail to correctly compensate them once they have seen the light.

[AdamC]

Hi,

I understand an error has occurred here and the billing team would advise of what they would do in this scenario. If we an assist with any ongoing issues please privately message me and I will support you.

Thank you,

Adam