I am sick & fed up with BT. This is my latest lett...

Question

Complaints Department
BT Correspondence Centre
Providence Row
Durham
DH98 1BT                                                                                                                        7th April, 2012
Dear Sir
COMPLAINT ABOUT BT – Account number GB
I write wishing to make a formal complaint about the service given me by BT.
I am a retired police officer and being well known in the community, now host two programmes on local radio as well as being a columnist in the local newspaper. One of my programmes has a consumer affairs section and I have been telling my listeners about the terrible service I have received from BT. I now give you this opportunity to correct matters.
A check of my account will reveal that I have been paying BT the sum of £34.50 per calendar month for some length of time now for the provision of unlimited calls and broadband.
Last year, I started to receive BT bills informing me that I was not paying enough and so I rang BT and ensured that the £34.50 pcm was sufficient to cover the contract. I was assured it was but the bills continued.
I then had my radio producer ring BT on my behalf and live on air with my consent to ensure that my contract was in place. An Indian accent assured me, my producer and all our listeners that it was. A text was sent out to confirm this.
The bills continued and have now reached £90.11.
I have lost count of the number of times I have phoned your India office to ask to be placed on a contract and on each and every occasion have been assured that I am.
My most recent call was on 5th. April, 2012 when it was suggested that I recall the £90.11 unlawfully removed from my account and that the package had increased now to £35.60 pcm.  (reference VOL011- refers). The direct debit has been recalled and I have the £90.11 back.
All I want is a monthly contract to cover unlimited phone calls and broadband. This is all I ever wanted.
Does BT want me to move to Talk Talk which offers this service at half the price offered by BT?
Rest assured I have the means to pay you the outstanding amount but I refuse to do so. Dozens of phone calls later and now emails received from BT give me no grounds to be confident that BT in Delhi actually knows what they are doing. Today I received a telephone called purporting to be from BT and asking me for my details before I could be addressed. I refused to give them out and asked the individual there to make careful note that I only intend to deal with BT in writing from hereon in.
I am utterly fed up with attempting to sort this issue out via the labyrinthine telephone system but I wish to clearly reiterate that I will NOT be paying BT any other than for a contracted phone service which I have made countless attempts to renew. BT can go and whistle for the £90.11 because I refuse to pay it.
I shall be reading this letter out live on air and your response. I might even cold call BT live on air as well to show all my listeners the utter nonsense I have incurred.
If BT cuts their service to me then I shall move to Talk Talk.
Now, please check your records which if Delhi have bothered to properly update will show the utter confusion, plethora of offers I have been told about and so on and be informed that should BT take any more than the latest agreed sum from my bank account by Direct debit then I shall simply recall it again as already advised by yourselves.
All I want, all I ever wanted was a monthly contract for the provision of unlimited telephone calls and broadband. Is BT up to this please? Next stop the Telecommunications Ombudsman I suppose and I shall broadcast that as well!
Yours faithfully,
Michael 
PS. Since BT is now Indian Telecom apparently, would you like me to have this translated into any one of the languages in use on the Indian sub continent? It can be arranged.

Answer 1

Thanks. I have done as you have suggested.
The paper copy of my letter will be with BT next Tuesday.
I have spent hours and hours on 150 trying to sort this out and it has become something of a standing joke on my radio programme. We even get emails from listeners now asking for updates on the 'BT saga' as it has become known.
I was never made aware that my contract had ended. All I ever wanted to do was to renew it. I have renewed it at least half a dozen times and been advised by BT themselves to recall the large sums of money being taken from my bank account which I have done.
I refuse point blank to pay this latest sum of £90.11!
All I want and have ever wanted is a monthly contract, as cheap as possible to allow for unlimited calls to landlines and broadband. All went well for two years then suddenly nothing has gone right.
BT prices are high compared to Talk Talk and this is literally the last chance for BT. My sister has been with Talk Talk for years and never had a problem!
If you can sort this out then I should be pleased to reflect that on air and in the newspaper I write for.
Thankyou.