Stung by BT

[SueEllen]

I always cancel my DD's manually my side now, because of crap like this.

Doesn't work unfortunately.

All the tulipty companies, which are mostly broadband providers, set them up again.

You really have to keep an eye on your bank statements for the next year as they will randomly try and set them up again even to get 50p from you.

In the case of EE their "customer service" has learnt not only to lie but to be completely useless. They reset one up and took two months money out before I noticed.

I Googled them and found this behaviour was the norm. So I cancelled the direct debit again, got a direct debit refund from my bank and told the bank not to set it up again. I then contacted their customer service by email and phone receiving idiotic responses basically stating I was still in a contract with them and couldn't leave otherwise they would send debt collectors after me. (Oddly my aim to record dodgy agents on the phone has meant I've recorded dodgy companies instead. )

As I could have got out 4 months earlier I found a top execs email via Google. I emailed that person with details of the responses from their "customer service" making it clear that if they caused any trouble e.g. damaged my credit record I would take them to court and go public.

I got a couple of phone calls then finally an email apology about their poor service from someone UK based. They paid me back the money they took from me which as the bank had already refunded me, the bank took back.

[minestrone]

BT are a horrible mix of old school monopoly arrogance and off shore cost cutting strategy.

I found the continual junk mail they sent when I was a customer annoying, and when you used the portal to watch a football game the page load times were over 10 seconds because of all the ads for services you were already on.

I moved to sky and while they ain't perfect they are light years ahead on product and service level.

[BoredBloke]

BY are tulipe - It's also worth noting that all these errors seem to be in favour of the company producing the bills. You never hear of things being the other way round!

[SueEllen]

BY are tulipe - It's also worth noting that all these errors seem to be in favour of the company producing the bills. You never hear of things being the other way round!

Tiscali, when they existed, randomly sent me a cheque for about £15 because I apparently had over paid. I actually calculated I had under paid them by about £20 to get out of the contract.

However 6 months later they set up a direct debit and took about £2. My response was to use the direct debit guarantee to get the money back. I then got letters threatening debt collectors because my bank blocked all their attempts to take money from my bank account.

My response was first to ask them to prove I owed the money, then when they didn't but continued to threaten me I told them I would go to court and make the case public. Oddly they backed down*...

Oh and the broadband ombudsmen are useless. The firms get around it by randomly causing problems, rectifying it then doing exactly the same thing again. Each incident is then considered a separate case and unlike in a court can't be linked together as continuing behaviour.

*Now just quote the British Gas case and firms back down even faster.

[minestrone]

BT are a horrible mix of old school monopoly arrogance and off shore cost cutting strategy.

I found the continual junk mail they sent when I was a customer annoying, and when you used the portal to watch a football game the page load times were over 10 seconds because of all the ads for services you were already on.

I moved to sky and while they ain't perfect they are light years ahead on product and service level.

Their marketing really is utterly shocking...

BT Sport criticised for 'insulting' spoof pub letter - BBC News