BT want a deposit!

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babaduck

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I decided to change the phone & BB from Eircom to BT because it should save me at least €30 p/month. All was well until I got a letter today from them wanting €125 deposit for service! My credit rating is superb - I've no glitches or anything re. missed payments to any company & although I have the money, it's the principle of the thing that's making me mad

Am I overreacting - has anybody else had the same experience with them??
 
Are you a homeowner? I know that 'utilities' sometimes seek deposits when you are renting.
 
Homeowner 5 years, no debt apart from mortgage & great credit rating... I'm in two minds whether to stick with Eircom & give BT the 2 fingers, or not. Where we are, we don't have a huge amount of choice for phone/bb providers (Arklow)
 
Strange. Is it part of their standard terms and conditions? If not, on what basis are they asking for €125? When is the deposit refunded?

Are UTV an option in Arklow? We have been using them for over a year without any issues and no need for a deposit.
 
We DID sign up for DD - it's how we pay every single last one of our bills!!!! From doing a bit of digging on the Boards site, there's plenty of horror stories so I am pretty hesitant now about committing to BT...
 
usually with utility companies they ask for a deposit if you've never had an account with them before..they only hold on to it for 12 months and then you can request it back
 
grizzcol said:
usually with utility companies they ask for a deposit if you've never had an account with them before..they only hold on to it for 12 months and then you can request it back
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Generally not if you're a homeowner etc.
 
BT have a terrible billing history - they double charged me. I also know a friend who worked in the call centre and was appalled by the amount of billing mistakes. Things like charging for telephone rental where no telephone was ever supplied.
I seem to remember with BT that if you sign DD no deposit was required, and I was renting at the time.
Could there be history on the house/apartment of previous tenants not paying?
 
i've moved to Smart now. I will say this though, BT have great customer support and I really like the QueueBuster thingy where you can keep your place in the queue and it will call you back when you're next. If there is no better option BT is okay as long as you check you bills.
 
BT is okay as long as you check you bills.
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Totally agreed. I was over charged on every one for my first 4 bills with the over charging steadily getting worse. I eventually asked them to take me off DD as I felt they were just stinking(sic) a finger in the air and making up an amount to deduct each time. They said they couldnt so I threatened them with calling in the gardaí as what they were doing was tantamount to theft as they were taking money off me I hadnt authorised despite repeat attempts to get them to stop. The DD was lifted and account credited.

Its a pity their billing is so fecked up, as I find their service great and the prices are the cheapest for what they offer, its the only thing keeping me with them. Oh, and theyve never complained about download limit either despite me regular breaching. :)
 
Strange that...I switched from Eircom to BT this morning for both calls and broadband and was not asked for a deposit...weird how inconsistant they are
 
Have a query (no point starting a new thread) regarding BT cancellation.

Am moving out of my rented apartment in the next couple of weeks and want to stop my BT Direct Debit and close my account.

I had to give the €125 deposit for my 6 month contract.
Am now in my 7th month ( having received no notice of finishing my contract).
I was told I'd be entitled to my deposit back after the 6th month.
My next DD is in mid June but I'm going to the bank tomorrow to stop my DD's and will be posting a letter to BT requesting my account be stopped by a date in mid-june and requesting my deposit back.

Any advice on what I should do or be prepared for?
 
They will say it's okay to set a date to cancel the phone line but they can't accept a date to cancel the broadband! You just need to call up a few days before you want it disconnected and ask them to disconnect. Isn't that stupid? How can you get BB without a phone line? Anyway that's what they told me.

Also be prepared to write a letter asking to cancel the phone line as per their FAQ. Then they will reply with a form you need to fill out which is pretty much exactly the same as your letter other than it's on BT headed paper.
After you fill this form in they will cancel the service.

I'm sure there's no reason for all this bureaucracy other than to frustrate the customer.
 
We've had internet connection with BT ever since they were Esat. The bill has always been paid by DD but they stopped sending any invoice/statement many months ago. I haven't noticed any difficulty with payments - so far. Touch wood.

I'm curious how much others are paying for anytime internet connection without broadband. I'm thinking we're paying almost as much as if with broadband. Inertia has meant we've not done anything about it although I have noticed some negative stories about broadband services here. We have an Eircom phone line package with more off peak minutes than we can use which means virtually no call charges. Then the BT anytime ordinary connection.
 
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