Anyone having problems with BT billing for broadband?

Well done !! I know how you feel. It's terrible trying to fight an organisation like BT when you know they are ripping you off but you might as well be talking to the wall ...! I had great satisfaction lodging my refund to the bank today, then checking my online balance and seeing it there... It took me three weeks to actually get the cheque after they admitted they charged me twice, so contact them for updates, you know what there like ......
 
I'm half-tempted to rename this thread 'Anyone NOT having problems with BT Billing for Broadband?'

As posted elsewhere, I've had an ongoing billing issue with BT since last July/August. Without going into boring details,
(a) BT fecked up my transfer to single billing w/'Talk Plus', so that I ended up being overcharged for a bunch of 'free' calls. The bill was paid by DD from my credit card, so, after protracted correspondence, I finally managed to get an apology and a promise of a refund.
(b) Refund failed to materialise.
(c) Without any action from my side, the DD to my credit card mysteriously stopped working. Every month or so, I'd email them a reminder and ask them to sort out the problem. Nada. Zip. Zilch. But now I owed them money instead of the other way round, so I let it sit...
(d) As my unpaid bill mounted, I suddenly received a stiff letter from them with all sorts of dire threats about disconnection, re-connection fees, referrals to debt collection agencies, etc.
(e) Wrote back and gave new meaning to the word 'stiff'... Fulsome apologies all round, assurances that there would be no disconnection and that the problem would be resolved. This was in December.
(f) Last week, got a call at work from another poor sap to say that this had landed on her desk, that everything was OK now and would I please pay up. Looked online again — no refund, no change of any kind. Only online option was to overpay what I didn't owe.

Having checked carefully where and to whose attention it should be sent, I've now posted them a cheque for what I reckon I actually owe them, together with a copy of all the correspondence. I wonder what'll happen next...
 
DrMoriarty said:
I wonder what'll happen next...
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Intrum Justitia are usually called in to threaten people once the billing system reckons you owe them €500 and are 6 months behind on yoru payments.

Intrums phone droids are as ignorant a bunch of thicks as you will ever have the dubious pleasure of encountering. They will remind you forcibly that you owe the money, in full and that they intend to sully your credit record unless you write them a cheque for that €500, and a 'fee' of €50 to cover Intrums costs and post it within a week.
 
Well Doc, esat BT bring a new meaning to the phrase your left hand doesn't know what your right hand is doing. Actually in their case the brain doesn't know what either hand is doing. Assuming the presence of a brain of course There are just so many of these types of stories out there with them, it's staggering. My DD with them also suddenly stopped working, then all of a sudden a few months later it started working and double billed nearly €600. I'd advise you to contact your bank putting a stop to your DD with BT until they can bill you correctly. The idea of customers having to estimate what they owe BT is funny. What happens next is that they have no record of your cheque and bill you some more ....

Even though I got my refund, when I log in to view my online bill it still says I owe esatbT over €800!! My online bill has been incorrect since the first day I signed up for online billing last October I think. The worrying thing is I wonder how many people are just paying BT without really checking their bills? Methinks a lot, it's possible the overcharge could amout to a nice tidy sum ......
 
I signed up to credit card payments as it suits me better. So far I have been debited the first two bills but not the third one ( which is showing €55 in credit) assume the next bill will take this credit into account. Wonder am I in a better or worse position paying through credit card as I feel that should I move from Bt later I can instruct the credit card company that I no longer wish to have bt debit the card. also I know from my last IP that when mbna renewed the card (due again next year) that they were unable to make deductions without finding out the new credit card number from me. I still can't get an answer from them why they won't provide line rental and broadband as advertised by them. definitely think this is a 'smuggle' to get new customers to sign up. like a loss leader in a shop but when you go looking for it, there was only 1 for sale and its gone, but the sign is still in the window.
 
Hello Guys & Gals. Please have a look at these forum pages. They are All about ESATBT horrendous bad billing. We are also looking for help and 'submissions' as a 'dossier' is being sent to the top man in BT HQ in London. If anyone wants to help, and join in please post here and I will get back to you. We already have a large 'dossier' but from reading the posts on this site I think you guys have also had an horrendous time, so join us please. The more the merrier, but in this case its 'more the heavier'. ! We have all tried the 'local' route for complaints but it does no good, and never will. The only answer is BT in London. Right to the top...Thanks.
My BT broadband nightmare... turns out it should never have happened
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=51086572&posted=1#post51086572

ESAT BT Dossier - Documents, complaints, wanted
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=51058182#post51058182
 
jackfoley200 said:
nobody should be on direct debit with bt, they will screw you

there are hundreds of broadband comapies that are much cheaper and offer a better service

http://www.finfacts.com/Private/bestprice/broadband.htm
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I think people are very attracted to BT when you bundle the line rental in with them, they then work out much cheaper than most and because they're reselling eircom, they have a much higher availability than someone like Smart.
 
nicelives, they may advertise this bundle but try and get it. different story. three times now I have signed up for this package. even have copy of their email thanking me for signing up etc. Grumpy is in the same boat. they let you sign up and after supplying broadband only they say they have no record of your application for bb+line rental. have to admire them for cheek though. nice little earner they have thought up.
 
Fair enough, no good if that's been your experience. I managed to sign up for both a couple of months ago, I had to chase it on the phone afterwards, don't believe their site application has ever been properly tested. Fair enough I was overcharged about €30 on my first bill but so was half the country according to boards.ie and expect to be refunded this coming bill, who knows. It is annoying when you have to chase people and it would save BT a lot of work if they could juct get their automated application and billing sorted, bizarre that a company would want to receive so many complaints each month.
 
i signed up for their 40e all in package last sept. Fair play to them, I got set up within a week. Overbilled the first time, as it seems was everyone else, but no problems after that.
Or so it seemed until this morning I decided to check my BT billing, its being DD from an account i dont check often. Talk about over charging. They bill for every 2 months which should be c80e plus whatever calls which would be minimal. However, the last 2 bills have been over 200e, theyve been charging me for extra options I never asked for. On the phone to them straight away and theyve promised me a refund but having gone over this thread Im not hopeful so Im documenting all correspondence. Is there a building you can call in to and face them over this?
 

I found out today I have the exact same problem. I rang and they said they can't give a refund as I'm an existing customer. They can only credit my next two bills.

Has anybody ever gotten a refund into their account from BT?
 
last saturday morning I was leaving Aldi and I saw a chap loading his groceries into a dublin reg white van with BT logo etc. As I was passing I just remarked that I was a BT broadband customer, found the service good, found their technical help brilliant but had he ever heard of anyone complaining of their bills. ( at this stage if he had told me to eff off I would have done so knowing that it was not really the place to tackle a BT employee, especially a lineman/installer etc) anyway his story was better than mine. Told me that he didnt get billed for ages and when he did it was for hundreds of euro. called into HQ to investigate and discovered he was being billed for 13 broadband lines. He said the staff member he was talking to then insisted he witness her deleting the bills for the 13 lines and asked him to check that she had done so. following month he got a bill for the 13 lines again. next month he was CUT OFF for not paying his bill, even though he was a BT employee. agreed that the billing was unreal. Said that he still wasn't sorted out .I left him at that and when I was loading my boot he gave a big wave and toot of the horn as he drove off. I dont actually know of course if it was big white one or not but with BT billing anything is possible. I have more or less made up my mind to stick with Eircom talk time for line rental and calls for moment and maybe switch back fully when they finally get around to offering a bb+ line rental package. which of course won't happen until there is a bigger number of disserters from them for broadband.
 
car said:
so Im documenting all correspondence. Is there a building you can call in to and face them over this?
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The contact details for complaints are listed on this site here

[broken link removed]
 
DrMoriarty said:
I've now posted them a cheque for what I reckon I actually owe them, together with a copy of all the correspondence. I wonder what'll happen next...
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Well, ten days later, the cheque has been cashed — although the full amount still appears as unpaid online. I'm just glad I held back the amount I felt I'd been overcharged, 'cause I'd sure hate to be waiting for a credit. They initially promised me one of those last September...
 
Josey Wales said:
I found out today I have the exact same problem. I rang and they said they can't give a refund as I'm an existing customer. They can only credit my next two bills.

Has anybody ever gotten a refund into their account from BT?
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I have. It took 3 billing cycles to come through, with a reminder to them each time they hadn't credited the account.
 
Got on to them again last night and got them to stop the direct debit . They initially said they would only accept payment this way but when I argued that theyre just taking whatever figure they feel like from my account and as its the third time its happened I was going to get on to guards about theft, which which when I think about it, isnt a million miles away from what theyre doing. The full overcharged amount is (the guy couldnt tell me when) getting credited back to my account, but NOT refunded.
 
I had horrendous problems with BT when I dared to move house at the end of 2003.

For 12 months I was charged for two internet connections. Each time I would ring up and complain and I would get a refund on the next bill. But the double-charging wouldn't stop until I emailed Bill Murphy one Sunday night. It seems that they found it impossible to delete my old address from their records.

There have been subsequent cock-ups.

Signed up for broadband in late 2004, requested modem be delivered to my work address. Three weeks later I arrive home to a note from the postman - 'we tried to deliver a package etc'. Took time off work to go to the sorting office to pick it up. When I got home I looked at the address on the front of the package - it was my old address. With a line through it and a 'please try <new address>' written below. Despite everything they had contrived to deliver the modem to my old address. Thankfully a guy living there had the presence of mind to re-direct to my new address.

Paid nothing for the broadband for eight months. Upon calling them they claimed to have attempted to take the direct debit but it was returned by my bank. Given that I have worked in a bank for the last 12 years it was very easy to check that their story was completely inaccurate and no direct debit had been requested. I then asked them to verify the bank account details they held for me and they admitted they 'didn't hold any' (!)

Eventually sorted it out and the billing is now going through bi-monthly.
 
I switched to the 40 euro - 2MB BroadBand and Talk package a year ago.
Despite having complained on numerous occasions, and having received two refunds from EsatBT, I am still being over-charged a year later. I've even been over-charged on the invoices in which they've credited me with refunds.

Don't expect anything to change tomed.
 
i canceled with bt in december got charged for jan 2 march got on to them and told them i cancelled they told me i didn't but i did eventually they told me they will pass it on to their boss i've being on to them a number of times since told i will be refunded but i still haven't any ideas
 
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