Anyone having problems with BT billing for broadband?

checked my emails last night and low and behold another bill from bt for €65 for two months bb. Still no sign of the line rental. So I sent them a yellow card stating that as they were only currently supplying bb that I was entitled to the €15 per month 'introductory offer' and not as currently being charged ie €80 for the first two months and €65 for next two.and if they didnt get their finger out I was going to report them to comreg for misleading advertising etc. got an email tonite inviting me to ring them to sort out the line rental issue and also informing me that €60 ( 4 months x €15 introductory offer was being credited to my account ) and apologising for not applying it before the 2nd billing. I will ring the number given and see how I get on with the line rental issue. Must look for a reasonable and plausable explanation how the first four introductory months (bb+lr should be €25 and bb alone should be €15) have so far cost me €80 +€65 with a refund now of €60 thus making total of cost of €85. Not a million miles away I agree but still need to find out where the extra bit is coming from. ie this two months bb comes to €65 , when allowing for the non applying of discount it should be only €60 according to their own website.
Getting there. Slowly. like the irish rail adds.
cheers

Don't expect the refund in a hurry.I booked BB online, and they hadn't waived the installation charge. I phoned up to query this, and was told I would get a credit to my account. The account arrived, and the credit wasn't there. Phoned again, and they were very apologetic, the credit will be applied to your next account. In the end, it took them 3 billing periods before I finally got the credit.

Yes my two monthly bill was wrong again...and I haven't been credited for previous mistakes. I'm really at a loss..

Keep bugging them. The credit should (hopefully) arrive in the end.

Yes I will keep bugging them and will go to the top. I'm moving house so I'll be cancelling the service with them. Its a pity the billing is so screwed because the actual service is fine. Even if it was easy to fix the billing problems I think I could live with it but its such an effort to get on the phone explain the saga, stay on hold for ages etc etc.

I don't have the line rental with them but my bill always mentions line rental although it is not itemised as a specific charge. The itemised amounts don't seem to match totals no matter how you look at them...

I think I will recommend that if they should get hold of some of those clever Young Scientists out at the RDS and ask them to design a new billing system for them. (They are sponsoring this year I hear!)

i tried signing up for their dial up at the beginning of last year when they were Esat I think. after numerous phonecalls to get the account open and being constantly told by service agents it would be operational that night, it never worked! after a few weeks of this i eventually gave up. then cancelled my phone line last june and actually moved out of the rented house last august. surprise surprise i've just been forwarded BT bills for the last 6 months!! wrote to them to explain that i didn't even have a phone line at the time so how on earth could i be using their dial up.

this is the reply i've gotten in an email from them

Please be advised that this service as requested and cancel all charges

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what does this mean?



absolute rubbish company. steer well clear!

I have let them know that the 6month contract still has 3 months to run and if they dont get it sorted by may then I am out of there, but that comreg will be hearing from me. I live in hope. their bb is ok though.

Bt

My problem is smaller in that, I signed up for online billing In August and have a printout confirming same. Therefore they have owed me €5 for the last 3 bills. It took a reminder and 3 weeks later to answer 1 of the 3 questions I posed. Still awaiting a reply.....

Had difficulty with the line, rang them, they said they would ring back and they did and they sorted me out in 15 minutes. Tech. wise they are very good but as for the billing and answering emails. I also find that there website was never in touch with latest offers etc etc.

yet. can see that €5 overcharge on my one too, even though I am online for billing from start. I am only 2 bills in so they owe me €10 for that, awaiting reply to my last email. if you go into their website and look up you old questions you will see that that have them marked 'solved'. they will have us all on nodding terms with sanity.

decided to check with bt today to see if they were any further in transferring my line rental from eircom. surprise suprise. they claim they know nothing about it. despite admitting on 16/12 that they originally 'missed' my application for bb+line rental and going over the process again by phone on 16/12 and then forwarding me onto a 'verification agency' for further details. I am beginning to doubt that the €40 offer for line renal and bb actually exists. maybe a few get it ( like the free child places in the holiday brochures) and once the quota is up - that's it.
I am now emailing them now for a complaint reference number ( on advice from comreg) will see out the next two months and switch to smart or utv. got a very nice operator on the line today ( cannot complain about their friendliness or courtesty) who promised to refund my €60 immediately ( first four months x€15 discount per month) and also the €10 overcharge ( my bills are by email but naturally they never applied this discount)
just decided enough is enough.
will post on how my complain with comreg proceeds
cheers

Better contact them (yet again )on friday to make sure she was not simply trying to get rid of you . An Immediate Refund (as in reverse direct debit) normally means the money should be in you account by friday , but hey , its ESAT BT we are talking about here. I'll bet if you ring friday the CS android will know nothing about any of this

Hi 2Pack. You are probably not a million miles away from the truth ( or reality) I have received an email today from our friends at BT requesting me to formally email complaints@btireland.ie with my complaint and to request the aformentioned complaint reference number.
I am beginning to think that BT are employing more than their fair quota of staff who are not quite the 'full shilling' as my father would put it.
besides comreg does anyone think I have a case to take to the advertising standards authority ie non supply of goods as advertised ( I am in possession of an order confirmation from bt dated 20/10/2005 where they state that the details of my order are line rental and broadband etc
also they have twice billed me for paper bills despite their own statement that all new accounts default to online billing. And they charged me for full broadband rental despite their advertising that new customers get a special discount for the first four months. Trying to think outside the box. If anyone else advertised for a product and then didnt supply it and when they partly supplied it- charged more then the advertised price I suspect the ASA would be on their case pretty hard. all advice greatly appreciated.
Finally I dont want to be disconnected , before I am ready, by a disgruntled bt so providing I continue paying I presume they cannot automatically cease providing the service?
I hate to admit this next bit. I am starting to enjoy this.
Memo to self: get out more.

the name of director of customer service or commercial will be on nice letter that comes with the bill (not Bill, he wont take your mail) - email her @- firstname.surname@bt.com
I did it and am now at -€180 bill and increasing and will switch to smart when hits zero.....

nice one need2build. I now have a name from bt custom complaints section . actually I have received TWO emails from bt with this same name but one of them has since been withdrawn. (not surprising really as it was for another customer.) I am beginning to suspect that an awful lot of bt customer care time is spend issuing emails to disgruntled customers. Pity really. their broadband is excellent. their tech support is very very good. their pricing is better than the rest except Smart.( only €5 more than smart). And we know that Smart are discounting to build market share. So why all the hassle? BT advertise a product ( line rental and broadband) for a certain price and confirm by email that the application is to be regared as a contract and then deny ( one 3 occasions) that line rental was part of the agreement,they advertise email billing as being €5 cheaper than paper billing and then charge the €5 anyway, and finally they advertise the first 4 months at a special discount rate but charge full whack anyway, and then are absolutely gobsmacked when you complain! what planet are they on? . All I want off them is that they supply what they spend thousands advertising .nothing more and nothing less. cheers.

any joy with ESAT BT since , its nearly Feb

Have had absolutely no satisfaction with Btireland since we availed of their €15 broadband service on the 8/10/05.I can readily identified with the total frustration others have experienced trying to resolve the overcharging that appears to be endemic with BtIreland.I actually called into their building on Grand Canal street to try to speak to someone to stop them overcharging our account, but they told me none of their managers were available.
Unfortunately we're tied into a 6 month contract with Bt.Bank of Ireland have told us that they(BOI) cannot cancel our direct debit on our credit card(mastercard) to prevent Bt overcharging us.We must cancel the direct debit with BtIreland who appear to be intent on screwing the customer at every available opportunity.Quite extraordinary.

everyone I know who should have gotten €40 a month deal were ripped off so far, soem were billed twice for November (Or October) and have had no satisfaction from BT or correct bills or refunds, I am so embarassed I ever recommended them to anyone for line rental and BB

I await the outcome of their compaint enquiry,buts its early doors yet.What I have noticed though is that they have not taken the 2nd bill off my credit card yet and it should have been deducted on 23rd Jan. I also have the name of a girl in com reg who I spoke to twice about this and she is the one who gave me the advice re the customer complaint reference number. So if I get no satisfaction I will transfer the bb back to eircom ( now the same price for broadband only) make a copy of the original agreement which I have downloaded, print off my emailed ( written) complaints and send the whole lot to a) comreg b) advertising standards authority c) complaints section at bt informing them of what I have done. have to say I don't really mind this at all. almost stress relieving. (as long as you remember that most of the staff with bt customer care are obviously under pressure and at this stage are only on nodding terms with reality)
cheers
just checked credit card balance and the €65 charge is there. (Should be either €25 for bb+ lr or €15 for bb only.)
checked the eircom bb page tonight and they charge €20 for 20 hours only €30 for always on but according to their on page its only 1mb for both of these services, which is pretty steep compared to the price BT advertises ( Dan Brown could probably write a novel on BT using their figures as codes )

I originally signed up with bt for phone and broadband and all I got was broadband. They then enabeled the wrong telephone number for DSL so I had to pay for somebody elses broadband for a month until they connected the right number.
My first bill arrived with none of the discounted rates that I singed up for ie €25 for the first 4 months. Contacted BT and they said I would be credited on next bill. 2 months lates bill arrives, didn't pay any attention to it as I took there word until I noticed that they debited €182 for 2 months broadband from my account. Contacted them straight away and there response was to give me " store credit" but I declined preferring to have the money back as I would be cancelling my account with them. They said that I would have a cheque in the post in 4 - 6 weeks
We'll see

cuchulainn said:

I hate to admit this next bit. I am starting to enjoy this.
Memo to self: get out more.

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I thought the same to myself when emailing but despite number of calls and emails I gave up on my tenner. What is has done has made it quite clear that I do not want to give them telephone calls (bundle) too because of the probable hassle. I was told that if I disconnected to move elsewhere that I would have to pay a disconnection fee as Eircom charge them eventhough I have had BB for about 2 years - and that was not in the terms and conditions. Had dealings with Dell too but you know what life really is too short and my life too valuable to be chasing these people in call centres, some of whom do not understand my accent or dialect let alone turn of phrases. I can only assume Smart, Imagine, Clearwire etc are all the same. I see Dell are outsourcing even more jobs in India which doesn't augur well for Ireland. There really is a lot to be said for reducing stress by paying that bit extra to the local shop who can advise and help you how to turn your pc on, clear your viruses, fix your hard drive etc etc. Unfortunately, we have driven out a lot of these small businesses by shopping in Tesco, Dunnes, Lidl or Dell. When profits go down, watch Dell bail out, like Gateway.