No fault found so we are going to bill you £99 and...

Question

Déjà vu yet again with BT.
For a while I had people telling me that they have been calling me several times but I have not been in.
I had been in but never heard the phone ring. I then get a call from my Brother on my mobile, he said "are you not at home?"
"Yes" I replied. He said he had been calling me but there was no answer. I asked him to call me again on the landline, which he did. The phone eventually rang which I answered. He said it had been ringing for 8 to 10 times before I answered it. I said I answered it staright away.
After ringing several times from different landlines to my landline and elliminating any internal equipment or wiring fault (I am an ex telephone engineer so know what I am doing) I called BT. The woman on the other end did a line test but that came back clear. I then asked her to ring me and count the amount of rings up to me answering. she did so and told me it had rang 6 times. We did it twice more and it ranged from 4 to 6 riings before ringing this end.
She asked what did I want to do about it. I said you need to fix it as people are hanging up before I the phone rings.
She promptly went through the process off booking an "Openreach" engineer to visit but promptly read off a script that if the engineer does not find a fault or the fault is located on my equipment or internal wiring, then I will be charged £99.
I said to them that I have no internal wiring, just the dropwire coming into a master socket which my broadband router and DECT phone plugs into. I have also swapped phones to prove the DECT phones are not causing any issues.
They just seemed to ignore what I just told them and then repeated that they will charge me £99 if the fault it in my internal wiring. I thought this was highly suspicious so I asked her to log on the system that they confirmed they called my number several times and it rang 4 to 6 times their end before it rang my end. She said she would, so at least I had record of the proof.
The next day the openreach engineer called me from the exchange and asked me what was wrong with the phone. I asked him what was his fault log with my number. He said I have no information, just a problem with your phone line.
I explained everything to him and he said he would reset the line card in the exchange then come visit me, which he did.
He tested the phone from his mobile and it rang straight away. I asked him ring it a few times which he did and again it rang straight away. I said to him, the fault was probably on the linecard as you had reset it, it probably has cleared the fault. He agreed, but also did his scrpited speel about charging me £99 for a no fault found. I said you had reset the line card and agreed it probably fixed the ringing delay. He said BT are trying to recover costs so are starting to charge customers for visits where no fault is found. He told me not to worry as I won't be charged, then left.
A few weeks later, I get an unusually high bill, apon inspecting it, I see a £99 charge. I immediately rang BT and they said it was for the call out. I said the engineer reset the lincard and fixed it? She said no, on screen it says, fault due to customers internal wiring. I said no way, I have no internal wiring. She said she would escalate this complaint and get back to me. 2/3 weeks later i get a call from BT saying the £99 charge still stands as the eningeer said the fault was in your wiring. I again told her I had NO internal wiring and to remove the charge. She said she could NOT waive the charge.
I am left with no alternative but to terminate my contract with BT for false accusation and gross incompetence.
Two earlier ongoing issues regarding my broadband and failing to port a number over when my Brother joined BT have still not been resolved, so what chances do I have with this?
BT I will be taking libel action against you. The lies are on record!
LOOK NO INTERNAL WIRING!!!

Answer 1

Hi apulmax,
My experience of the mods on this forum is that they are very good - yours is obviously different. However I agree 100% that the other support centres have a reputation of lying and not fixing much if anything.
I wish you the best of luck with the courts, but to be honest I don't think you have a leg to stand on. You can write on here whatever the engineer said to you, but all he has to do is deny saying it and then it's your word against him.
Also, in your last post you claim to have been having broadband problems for over 2 years, but your first post in these forums was in November 2012 and stated that you first reported the problem in July 2012 - only 8 or 9 months ago. Any good lawyer will highlight inconsistencies such as these so you need to make sure you have verifiable evidence of when you reported the problems, how you and/or BT went about trying to resolve them etc - hearsay from an engineer won't cut it.
If you do decide to leave BT and not pay the early cancellation fee, make sure that you send a written dispute of the charge to BT and discuss with them how this fee argument is to be resolved, otherwise they are in their right to put a black mark on your credit file. Telling them that you are going to take the matter to the courts IS an acceptable reason to stop the credit black mark but you then MUST either pay or go to court within a short time. If you lose the court action then the black mark again becomes valid.
I genuinely wish you the best of luck and I will be interested if you can post the results here, but I think you will need very deep pockets to take this approach.