I had another email from the idiots at BT today. This wasn’t a reply from my email yesterday, I’ve been trying to contact two different departments at the same time, this reply was from my query dated November 1st. So this reply has been 30 days in the making.

Considering I’ve waited 30 days for this, it’s funny then that they reply saying changing the direct debit takes 7 days, so it won’t go into effect until January 2008! I last asked 30 days ago. It takes 7 days. What about the other 23 days they’ve sat with their thumb up their arse?

Anyhow, read the letter…

Dear Mr Daz

Thank you for your e-mail dated 26/11/07 regarding changing your direct debit amount.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

In response to your email, I would like to inform you after going through your account in detail that BT requires 7 days advance notice to make any changes to your direct debit. I can change your direct debit amount to £40.50 but that would take effect from 01/01/08.

In the future, should you wish to change your Monthly Payment Plan you can do so yourself via our automated service. Please dial 0800 44 33 11 and follow the prompts.

I trust that this email will have helped to provide you with the information needed and I hope that it has also demonstrated to your that your concerns have been looked into thoroughly and professionally.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience you may have been caused and my thanks for your patience and co-operation in this matter.

If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Anjelina Morre
eContact Customer Service

Obviously this isn’t good enough. I’m not paying another £68.50 when I’ve requested this direct debit be changed so many times lately. I’ve had enough. I have now cancelled the direct debit and I want nothing more to do with the thieves and liars at British Telecom.

My reply:

I’m afraid that is too little too late. I requested this months ago and you chose to do nothing about it. I have cancelled the direct debit already and will be cancelling my BT broadband this weekend.

I have two recorded phone calls where your operatives told me my direct debit would be £38 when I signed up, then someone else telling me it will be £33. It was instead increased to £68.50.

I was lied to, twice. pure and simple. Your delaying this so you can reduce my direct debit AFTER you have stolen another £68.50 from me is unacceptable.

If you would like to call me *********** to explain yourself, feel free to do so. Otherwise I consider my involvement with BT at an end.

Good riddance to the lying bastards.

Share on Facebook

My deadline to BT of this Friday to sort out the mess they’ve made with my billing is approaching fast, and they’ve responded with yet another irrelevant and incompetent email.

Dear Mr Jamieson,

Thank you for your e-mail.

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

I am sorry that the offer has not been made clear to you. The offer to reduce the cost of your broadband service applies credits to the account. On each statement or bill the amount in credit (£5.00 per month) will be shown in the credit section of your bill. Excluding vat this will show on your bill as £4.26.

Your broadband charge remains the same at £26.99 or £80.97 per quarter. Therefore, minus your £5.00 credit you are paying £21.99 per month for 12 months. Please note that the loyalty discount includes a further commitment of 12 months.

Should you require additional information please call 0800800030.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Hutchinson
eContact Customer Service

Interesting, but not what I asked the moron

You have not answered my question, but then am I surprised? No, not at all.

I asked for my direct debit to be reduced to what it should be. I am paying £68.50 when that is more than I need to pay. BT have failed miserably to understand this simple fact, as you have once again failed.

Congratulations. I commend you for your useless response. You have just lost yourself a customer.

As for my having a further 12 month commitment… No, I don’t. I did not sign for a 12 month commitment, nor was I notified of one. The discount given to me was because you cocked the whole thing up in January this year when I tried to get broadband from you.

I am cancelling my direct debit as of Friday 30th November and refuse to pay BT another penny until someone sorts this woeful mess out. If you think I’m going to phone your customer service number and receive more insulting feedback from you you’re very much mistaken. I’ve already had one idiot pretend he couldn’t hear me and then hang up midway through the conversation.

That’s on my website by the way, soon to be added to YouTube as well.

Good bye and good riddance.

I think I’m better off without them to be honest. Considering the trouble I’ve had even getting broadband installed I should have learned there and then not to proceed with them. They randomly increase their charges without warning, lie about costs and take weeks to respond to emails.

Time for operation Web Assault.

Share on Facebook

MrDaz gets cut off by BT [ 2:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1371)

I’m pleased to say that it’s not just me who finds British Telecom an utterly useless bunch of morons. This extract comes from the blog Norton42.org.

At one point, two days before actually moving house, I was actually transferred from a BT operator to some guy in his living room at home. He was watching TV at the time and seemed quite annoyed that another person had been put through to his phone. I obviously wasn’t the first! He said I should tell BT about this, but in order to do this I had to hang up. But after spending another 45 minutes on hold I gave it up for the day.

This is shockingly bad. Passing someone through to the wrong department seems to be the BT policy, but transferring them through to another customer at their home? This must surely represent the worst example of customer service ever.

The rest of Phil’s blog explains in great detail his seemingly endless struggle to become a BT client. I wonder if it was all worth it?

Share on Facebook

As you may know I’ve been paying £68.50 per month for Broadband with BT, which is outrageous. I emailed them about it again on November 1st with the following:

I see I’ve just been debited another £68.50 for my broadband service. This has to be the most expensive broadband available on the market today. Much more than the service was originally sold to me at.

I’d suggest you reduce this monthly payment to what it should be or I’ll cancel my contract and go with Vodafone.

18 days later and they still haven’t bothered to reply. Furthermore I received a letter from BT billing to my OLD address in Wales saying I was £25.06 in credit.

I can’t frickin’ believe this. These idiots know I have moved. They fitted my bastard phone line! I’ve had enough, so emailed them about that today:

Account Number: GB*******
Bill Reference: GB*******

I have already told you of my change of address, you have sent me correspondance there, yet for some reason you sent this bill to my old address saying I was £25.06 in credit! I am not surprised by this basic error on your part. I have tried for the last few months to get my direct debit for broadband down from £68 to what it should be, £33, yet you can’t seem able to do that either.

My address is NOT

190 ****

It is, as you well know:

17 ****

Recredit my account with the £25.06 and reduce my direct debit or I will leave BT. I cannot tolerate this incompetance any further.

Please call me if you like on ******

Regards

A soon to be ex BT customer
Mr Jamieson

Again I doubt they’ll reply. I also forwarded my previous email back to the broadband department for them to answer as they’ve ignored it since November 1st. I have incidentally been chasing the reduction of this bill for months, as you can probably imagine.

Well, the direct debit is due on December 1st. If I don’t get confirmation of its reduction before then I will cancel it. I’m not tolerating incompetence like this any more.

Share on Facebook

I’ve finally received a reply from BT about my previous complaint, but once again they’ve been wholly inadequate with their response. They haven’t even mentioned my being debited twice or why I never received a call back several weeks ago when I was assured I would get one.

What’s worse is they STILL cannot understand that my broadband is £21.99 per month.

Dear Mr Jamieson

Thank you for your e-mail dated 30/9/07 regarding your monthly payment.

In response to your query, I would like to inform you that on your latest bill a services charge has been raised from the day you got your line activated and also charges in advance for the next coming quarter.

Your quarterly rental is for £113.95 Incl VAT. This include a charge for BT Together option 1 for £33.00 Incl VAT, BT Total Broadband option 3 £80.97 Incl VAT.

Your services charge is £120.91

BT Together option
11 July – 31 July New charges for BT Together option 1 £6.45
1 August – 31 October Charges in advance for BT Together option 1 £28.07
Total £34.52

BT Total Broadband option 3
11 July – 31 July New charges for BT Total Broadband option 3 £15.85
1 August – 31 October Charges in advance for BT Total Broadband option 3 £68.91
Total £84.76

Calling feature
11 July – 31 July New charges for BT Answer Personal Greeting £0.88
1 August – 31 October Charges in advance for BT Answer Personal Greeting £0.75
Total £1.63

Your total bill was for £222.55. As you have direct debit monthly payment arrangement on your account, the recommended amount to adjust your quarterly bill was £68.50. Your Monthly Payment Plan is subject to a credit limit, which is equivalent to three and a half times your monthly payment. Once your account reaches this limit – either in credit or debit – we automatically reassess your payment amount.

If your account is in credit, we will reduce your payment accordingly and refund the credit to your bank account. If it is in debit, we will increase your payment amount. We will tell you about this increase on your statement before we do it.

Since your last bill date, your account is in debit for £116.05. Accordingly, the recommended monthly amount has reduced to £56.00. If you wish to reduce your monthly amount to £56.00 a month, I would request you to give your consent in your reply.

Further, as you have cancelled BT Answer Personal Greeting, the adjustment of the payment taken in advance will be there in your next bill. Your next bill will be produced on 19/11/07.

I trust that my response has helped to provide you the information required.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused and my thanks for your patience and co-operation in this matter.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Lency Thomas
eContact Customer Service
Ref: ********

I emailed back with the following:

No, no, no. My BT Total Broadband option 3 is NOT £80.97 per quarter, that works out at £26.99 per month. As I have previously explained, via email and podcast, my broadband is £21.99 per month. This works out at £65.97 per quarter.

As you are still unable to get this most simple of sums correct I suggest you listen to the podcast phone calls where even the customer service rep managed to eventually find the letter sent by BT saying my broadband was £21.99 per month.

I am cancelling the direct debit, bill me monthly and I will pay by cheque if I deem your bill is actually accurate, which I doubt.

Pleas do not reply until you have checked the facts.

Maybe they’ll understand, maybe they won’t. I’m not holding my breath on this one.

Share on Facebook

I’ve just had an email from British Telecom, who I gave 48 hours some time last week to resolve the fact that they’ve debited me £68 when it should be £33. It took them a while, and they’re still stalling for time. The thing is, despite having my account details, and obviously my name… look what they address me as:

Dear Mr Daz

Thank you for your e-mail dated 5.10.2007 regarding your complaint.

I am sorry for the delay in replying to you and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

In response to your e-mail I would like to inform you that I have escalated your issue to the department concerned and they will contact you at the earliest.

In the meantime, I would like to thank you for your patience and co operation and to assure you of my best intentions at all times. However if you have any further queries regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me directly via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Sanjay Sohal
eContact Customer Service

Heh, I think maybe the folks at BT have had a look at MrDaz.com. I wouldn’t be surprised, we do rank in Google for searches like ‘BT are bastards’.

Share on Facebook