Bt are a bunch of thieves, bullies and incompetent...

Question

Here we go guys, this is my story with my encounter with the infamous BT.
After a year of acceptable service it was unfortunately time for me to move house. As my contract with bt was coming to an end we decided to renew our contract and set up a home move after being told that our new house had a bt line. We found out the next day the new house did not have a BT line. We then called BT to cancel and was told it was about 30 pounds to cancel the contract which I thought was ridiculous as the contract had only been agreed 24 hours ago. I reluctantly agreed to pay this and all was well. At the end of the month 30 pounds came out of my account and all was rosy.
After moving house and setting up our new services with Sky (who are excellent by the BT), my wife and I decided to merge our accounts a couple of months later. Lo and behold we saw that we had been paying money every month to BT for our old house. Unhappily I called BT and after lengthy conversations with incompetent customer service advisors it was found the only thing that was cancelled was the home move not the contract.
I then asked them to listen to the phone call that they claim to record and listen to us stating we wish to cancel our contract and the advisor confirming this. BT then sent us a bill for over 150 pounds to settle the contract. After complaining about this I got passed from pillar to post with many incompetent fools repeating we agreed to the terms and conditions of the contract therefore had to fulfill it. After letters and e-mails asking the company To reconsider as I believe they have broken trading laws by not informing me on how much the cancellation charge would be which could affect my decision to cancel and the original advisor LYING telling me my contract had been cancelled not just the home move, myself and my wife felt intimidated to pay as they started mentioning debt collectors and defaults if we refused to pay. All we asked for was to be released from the contract free of charge, not even a refund for the 3 months we paid at a empty house, not much to ask really as it was their fault.
Well BT this is for you now. I have consulted legal council and they agree we have a case against yourselves and will be pursuing legal proceedings. We will not be bullied by a thieving company like yourselves. We are also in contact with trading standards and have passed all correspondence to them who are currently investigating as stated in our unresolved letter to yourselves. To stop you doing this too other people I have also given all information over to watchdog researchers so make sure you smile when your on the bbc if your not to cowardly to go on.
For everyone reading this if you feel like you have been wronged by companies like this, don't just allow them to bully you. Contact legal teams or ombudsmen and we will stop these thieving bullies. Thanks for listening and we will see if anyone from BT dares to comment.

Answer 1

Got to say that I completely understand. I was a long standing (10 year plus) customer who has just had the experience that I had always dismissed from others as "over egging it!".
My experience was with asking BT to help with nuisance calls.... They put me through to a foreign call centre (pretty standard so far) and explained that they couldn't help me unless they charged me for a service, I was unhappy about the charges and was escalated to a manager who had spoke to me and 100% confirmed that there would not be any charge on my account.
3 months later when by bill is produce I have 50 in charges for a service I never authorised to be charged to me. I called the customer service teams and spoke to UK Customer retention teams etc only to be told that they pulled the call, and did not have a recording of the conversation with the manager, therefore I must pay?....
After multiple calls and after the 4th evening spent pulling my hair out with the teams trying to explain why I want the charges removed I finally said ok I want to leave..... I am then put through to apart another team.
During the ensuing conversation the gentleman put in a cease service request and then explained to move I would have an issue if the service was stopped. Realising the this would be a mistake I asked him to stop the cancellation order and give me the Mac code - I was told this was done and all was fine.
Last night I called the customer services team again reference the erroneous charges on my account and finally get to an official complaint being raised. However this morning at 10am I return home to find my phone and internet service has been cancelled!!!
I have called BT asking them to put the service back on until we resolve the billing issue, only to be told they cannot until I commit to another 12 months (effectively holding a gun to my head!)....
I have now decided to leave these bullies and move my broadband / tv and phone to another we'll know provider. I will keep up the fight with their customer service teams until they recognise that they have contravened every consumer protection regulation I can think of in this space, and they have lost a loyal and supportive (and lucrative) customer in to the mix.
I will be ensuring that all of my staff (for whom I pay their b.band as homeworkers) migrate off the service and any business premises I work with in the future avoids this target driven, un sympathetic and incompetent customer service team!
I understand BT received Money Week's WOODEN SPOON for their readerships voted Worst Customer Service of 2013 (managing to beat the tax man by dole the number of votes!)...... How times change eh! What happened to Busbee!
Disappointed....