british telecom..

I`ve just had a call from B.T.

me; Hello.
bt; Hello, yes, am i speaking to miss Goodfellow?
me; Yes, speaking.
bt; Yes miss Goodfellow, can you just confirm the first line of your address and your postcode please.
me; Why, don`t you know it, you rang me?
bt; Please, miss Goodfellow, can you just tell me the first line of your address please?
me; Ok, 29,.......
bt; Thankyou. Can i just tell you that B.T. will be reducing your bill by �£3.00`s miss Goodfellow?
me; You just did. Thankyou.
bt; Miss Goodfellow, the payment scheme you now have.You pay your bill at the post office, yes?
me; I don`t have a payment scheme.I pay �£5.oo each week voluntarily, so as to reduce the total amount,which i pay, in cash, at the post office, when i recieve the red letter.
bt;Yes, well, can i just tell you miss Goodfellow that if you continue to pay your bill this way, B.T. will charge you �£4.50 for doing so. Alternatively, B.T. are offering you the option of paying by direct debit and if you choose this method of payment, you will not have to pay �£4.50.
me; So, what you are saying is, BT will not be reducing my bill by �£3.00 but my bill will be increased by �£1.50 because i pay my bill in cash?
BT; That is correct Miss Goodfellow.
me; Tell B.T. i said thank`s for nothing. Goodbye.

 

Ef -What an absolute con! Whoever thinks up these scams? but they are all at it aren't they- trying to get more money out of us! and if we don't agree to their schemes then we have to pay. It ought to be against the law but the odd few pounds here and there don't make much difference to the well off MPs, company directors and the like.

:eek:

 

We already had a thread on this, you might find it useful to take a look

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000671

 

Yes, you're right Diziblonde - I knew we had discussed it recently :rolleyes:

 

My MP wrote to BT's chief executive on my behalf about this matter. On the day I received the letter informing me of this ....mirabile dictu!!!..I also had a personal 'phone call from BT as a response to a letter I had sent querying what I thought was the less-than-transparent reply to my original letter of complaint (the standard one at the BBC watchdog website).
Even if you don't think much of your MP I would urge anybody being ripped off by BT or any other organisation by this charge to get them involved. It seems that Oftel are already investigating whether or not it's fair. (not much to investigate IMO!)

 

I thought I might update this thread.
My MP sent me a copy of the reply she had received (not from the chief exec. who is apparently swanning around abroad) which goes on about the money that BT has to fork out to collect cash and pay the charges of organisations like the Post Office. As none of this relates to my cheque payment I wrote back to my MP stating that I did not think the penalty charge I had to make had been justified. I want to see figures proving that it costs �£4.50 to process my cheque. The trouble is, if nobody in authority is prepared to pursue this matter to get BT (and others) to justify this charge it looks like we have no option but to pay it if we don't want to switch to direct debit.

 

Thanks for updating us, keep on at them, I can't believe it cost �£4.50 either, if everyone stands by and pays the charge then they will keep coming up with these rediculous (is that how you spell it?) things to up their profits with