British Telecom Tossers

At 10:55:59 on 06/01/2006, Adrian Smith delighted uk.finance by announcing:

Personally, I'd inform them in writing that the account is in dispute and invite them to discuss the matter with their clients.

Tried that. It's a waste of time, they say it's nothing to do with them and they just act on behalf of BT.

BT operators effectively say it's too bad and I should pay it. Or they blame the Debt Collection company and suggest I speak with them.

Adrian Smith

At 12:26:42 on 06/01/2006, Adrian Smith delighted uk.finance by announcing:

They either want the money or they don't. If they do, they'll speak to BT. If they don't, they'll eventually pass the account back to BT. You won't be sued for £6.78, especially when it's in dispute.

This appears to be part of a bigger problem of firms passing alleged debts to collection agencies then washing their hands of it when in fact the customer does not appear to be at fault. I don't know if this is any help in your case but a friend of mine has had a similar problem (for a larger amount than in your case) with his bank. The bank eventually verbally admitted it was their error but would not stop him being harassed by a debt collection agency. He was so stressed because the debt collection agency were not interested in any discussion, insisting that he paid them. He did so to get them off his back. He has now formally invoked the bank complaints procedure which means that if not resolved within a certain time he can refer to the banking Ombudsman. To look at BT's complaints procedure see BT.com and search for Complaints. Fortunately in your case the amount is small so you may consider it not worth the hassle. Annoying though.

Peter Freeman

In message , Adrian Smith writes

Only a day??? You've got months ahead of you.

That's what they rely on...

Thats a good idea thanks, I'll do that, get them working.

Normally I would pay it, it's such a small amount.But I think more people should stand up and fight this kind of thing, it's becoming too common occurence.

You MUST not give in to these bastards. You have done NOTHING wrong. They have. We are hearing all the time how large organisations now have no time for the little guy and do not care whether he is screwed over or not. Even if was only one penny you should fight them with all means possible.

Firstly, do not just telephone. Phoning is a complete waste of time. What these companies do not like is a paper trail. So write letters. Write lots of them and send them off in all directions. Several quality newspapers have consumer pages where people get the paper to use its clout. Write to all the newspapers. Make sure BT knows you are contacting others. Contact Trading Standards, the CAB, anyone you can think of. When the little guy doesn't have much ammunition, he must use the scattergun approach. Keep badgering BT until they throw in the towel. Contact your MP as well. Write to your local newspaper, as well as the nationals.

Don't let the buggers grind you down! And the best of luck, as you'll need lots.

MM

I would write a letter, recorded delivery, to the MD of BT. Be sure you are factual, not emotional, in the letter. State that you will raise it with various consumer organisations, and OFCOM, if you don't hear within 14 days.

Some people don't think this works. I just tried it, and it works very efficiently. I had a dispute with a high street store, so rather than going through the management chain, I sent a letter to the top. 3 days later, problem solved.

Richard Faulkner wrote

It took me about five months, umpteen phone calls and several letters to EnergyWatch before I got my lady friend's gas account sorted.

Powergen had farmed their meter reading service out to a team of apes who read her meter as an Imperial one, instead of metric. The result was that her bills were multiplied by a factor of just under

1. The real insult was that they would only talk to me via her! The quality of staff on their general customer service line was appalling, having obviously been restricted to training in receiving meter readings and entering them in the system.

One question she was asked: "Does your meter have an M and a little 3 on it"? I bellowed "Of course it does - that's how I know it's a bloody metric one"! The operator said to her: "I can tell he's getting angry"!

Then I got a name from EnergyWatch, and pestered him until he got it sorted, and agreed to waive her gas bills during the period of dispute.

OfGas would have been a better place to start, in retrospect.

Absolutely it works. Over the past forty years I have sent so many letters and had so much success complaining that it is like second nature to me. You just have to make a fuss - in writing - and then the particular bastard concerned (I see them all as 'the enemy') starts to wonder about his pension and employment prospects. Forget the monkeys and find out where the organ-grinders are. They are very secretive. But Companies House can expose a lot.

MM

Tell me about it! Southern Electric is my particular bête noire at the moment. Trying to get them to start my account properly was like getting water to flow uphill. Talking of water, Anglian Water is/was another one. The customer 'service' lady was moaning at me that 'surely I didn't believe that their engineer had read the wrong meter?' even though I had stated that of the two water meters in the pavement outside these properties mine was the furthest one away (curiously) and I had verified that by turning the water off at the stopcock next to the meter and observing the cessation of water from my kitchen tap. "Oh," she said, imperiously, disbelievingly. "Well, we'll HAVE to send out another engineer!" And when the engineer turned up, he was about to drive off under the assumption that the meter closest to my property was mine, whereupon I would have had to go through the whole rigmarole again. Bunch of chuffin' idiots, if you ask me.

MM

Absolutely not! What you should do is just write to the debt collection agency explaining the circumstances and saying that you have no intention of paying. They then have to decide whether to live with it or take you to court. I can't believe they'll do the latter, because it sounds like you'd crucify them in court if they did.

The trouble is that these things are mostly dealt with by morons. Believe it or not, there are one or two people at BT who are not morons, and I'm sure that one or the other of them will be asked to review the case if they are thinking of going to court.

Good luck!

Absolutely not! What you should do is just write to the debt collection agency explaining the circumstances and saying that you have no intention of paying. They then have to decide whether to live with it or take you to court. I can't believe they'll do the latter, because it sounds like you'd crucify them in court if they did.

The trouble is that these things are mostly dealt with by morons. Believe it or not, there are one or two people at BT who are not morons, and I'm sure that one or the other of them will be asked to review the case if they are thinking of going to court.

Good luck!

This is my complaint (short version.) to both BT and OFCOM

I have a BT bill stating I was disconnected on 11/11/05 then reconnected on 14/11/05. I have been charged £20 for this. I have no recollection of being cut off and have been making regular payments on my payment card. When I spoke to BT on 0800 800150 they stated that I was contacted about the situation, But I can assure OFCOM that I wasn't. My phone bill is quite unusual in that despite payments to BT on my payment card that these payments do not count? I find this most confusing. My Actual phone bill comes to a total of £62.63p and call charges are only a total of £9.64p for the quarter and £20 for a reconnection fee (I wasn't disconnected.) £10.59p VAT and £31.63p for service charge's. My call charges are less then the VAT and I have been paying between £5 and £10 per week toward my quarterly bill, How can this not count toward my bill for a phone that is rarely use.

BT really are Wankers!