I have been with bt for nearly a year. During which time have been paying for my broardband option 3 and option 2 for the phone, in monthly paper billing.The bills were always on average about £60 even though i have free evening and weekend calls. However i stupidly made the mistake of going paper free with the online facility in my account, and paying my bills through direct debit. After a few months (near x-mas) i had bank charges for unpaid direct debits to bt. So i cancled the direct debit to bt and waited for my usual monlthy paper bill. A while after it was due, a bill had arrived for january to march for £177. I immediatly rang customer service and after half an hour managed to speak to an adviser. I explained my predicament and i can only presume he cut me off!
I phoned back and had to explain myself again. After trying calmly to persist i am on a MONTHLY payment plan and not a quarterly, we eventualy came to the agreement of paying through the direct debit way with a first payment of £96 for the 9th of feb. and paying less each time to pay off what is outstanding. A few days later an agreemnt came stating i pay £96 each month for 12 months. I am supposed to sign this and return it. I phoned again and spoke to an adviser in india. I told him i was'nt going to sign the contract as it is an excessive amount and it extends my sign up contract of 18 months. As soon as my contract is up with bt i want to drop them you see. The adviser insisted it was a one off payment but i dont trust a word they say the contract says something quite different. He eventually said he'd speak to his manager and he'll phone me back in the morning before 9am.
He did'nt call and now after reading the experiences on this site suspect this is what they have been told to say when dealing with situations that cannot be resosolved.
I am an out of work single parent with two kids we need communication with the outside world. Treating people like they're money bags is appaling. Surly the government are be obliged to stop corpperate industries like BT to stop exploiting their rescorces and make it affordable to everyone. It goes beyond money and wealth it marginalises families who have very little. I am soooo angry with it all. Are there any campaigns to stop this? If so i'd like to join.
I now wait to see what happens!