Major Telecoms Co taking the pee/breaching Con Prot Regs?
Discussion
Remember the old Beattie ads with Maureen Lipman, yes that lot!
Somewhile ago they added a ''free" Sports channel to the package I have which I believe was given to anyone that had their broadband. Fine so far except apparently last August they started charging £5 a month for it. It is a service I have never used.
I have complained and their sub continental call centre are saying that we wrote to you saying we were going to charge and apparently there was a deadline to respond or it was going to happen. I haven't ever seen such a communication. They are refusing to refund me. It is only £50 but their I'm big your small attitude has got me in fighting mode. I've told the agent I don't accept their refusal to refund me and they had better refer to a senior manager as in my view they are breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations.
I have never positively opted in to this contract at any stage. The woman said we've given you notice and that's enough. I turned it back on her and said if I write to Auntie Beattie and say you agree to give me £1M and if I don't hear back by a certain date then you owe me the money and is that fair - no answer. I maybe wrong on this but I think this is a form of Inertia Selling which is I believe illegal. It certainly breaches CPRs as you are legally entitled to be treated fairly and not be financially disadvantaged by their trading practices.
I wonder how many thousands of others have fallen for what I regard as a pretty underhand practise. How can you be held to have accepted an amendment to a contract that at no time have you agreed to? Check your bills folks. They must be making millions out of this.
If any of our resident legal eagles have a view on this please contribute.
Somewhile ago they added a ''free" Sports channel to the package I have which I believe was given to anyone that had their broadband. Fine so far except apparently last August they started charging £5 a month for it. It is a service I have never used.
I have complained and their sub continental call centre are saying that we wrote to you saying we were going to charge and apparently there was a deadline to respond or it was going to happen. I haven't ever seen such a communication. They are refusing to refund me. It is only £50 but their I'm big your small attitude has got me in fighting mode. I've told the agent I don't accept their refusal to refund me and they had better refer to a senior manager as in my view they are breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations.
I have never positively opted in to this contract at any stage. The woman said we've given you notice and that's enough. I turned it back on her and said if I write to Auntie Beattie and say you agree to give me £1M and if I don't hear back by a certain date then you owe me the money and is that fair - no answer. I maybe wrong on this but I think this is a form of Inertia Selling which is I believe illegal. It certainly breaches CPRs as you are legally entitled to be treated fairly and not be financially disadvantaged by their trading practices.
I wonder how many thousands of others have fallen for what I regard as a pretty underhand practise. How can you be held to have accepted an amendment to a contract that at no time have you agreed to? Check your bills folks. They must be making millions out of this.
If any of our resident legal eagles have a view on this please contribute.
What you said is correct in that they did change things unilaterally, though they did write to give notice as well.
I notified them that I wasn't going to pay. I then moved to another supplier at the end of my contract, last November. At that point they offered to reinstate the free channels, cut my cost for BB and even offered £50 of M and S vouchers.
I still moved because I too had had enough of their tactics of constantly changing terms and imposing increases with no proper agreement.
I doubt any authority will be interested in your complaint but if you leave them, you will no doubt be offered whatever you want.
Having said all that are other suppliers any better?
I notified them that I wasn't going to pay. I then moved to another supplier at the end of my contract, last November. At that point they offered to reinstate the free channels, cut my cost for BB and even offered £50 of M and S vouchers.
I still moved because I too had had enough of their tactics of constantly changing terms and imposing increases with no proper agreement.
I doubt any authority will be interested in your complaint but if you leave them, you will no doubt be offered whatever you want.
Having said all that are other suppliers any better?
Not sure any local Trading Standards department would want to take on a giant corporation, though they should. If I don't get any joy direct I may well report them.
What we need on this is Money Sooopermarket Martin Lewis to campaign against them - he doesn't seem to be afraid of anyone even having a go at government. Where are you Martin?
What we need on this is Money Sooopermarket Martin Lewis to campaign against them - he doesn't seem to be afraid of anyone even having a go at government. Where are you Martin?
Edited by elanfan on Thursday 12th May 07:51
BT got their hands publicly rapped for this a year ago.
In short, the BT Sports was free for broadband customers, then they decided to charge £5. The warning that they have for this was that they sent a single email, looking very much like any big companies spammy weekly update, and you had to click or contact them by a date to cancel.
There was an outcry because understandably this caught a hell of a lot of people out - you'll find it by Googling.
In response to this they agreed that people who did not want BT Sport for £5 could cancel and get a refund. If you are not speaking to the UK yet, ask them to escalate the issue to Customer Relations. They are the highest tier complaints and based in the UK. Of course they don't like sending you there first as the UK staff get paid more.
If you need leverage to get them to escalate if they refuse, the best tactic I have found when dealing with the big corporations with tricky staff is to inform them that if your complaint is being ignored, your only option is to file a County Court claim. So you feign asking them for the address of their UK registered office, and their own name and department so that their choice of refusing to escalate is made part of the claim. Understandably, without fail, you get escalated.
In short, the BT Sports was free for broadband customers, then they decided to charge £5. The warning that they have for this was that they sent a single email, looking very much like any big companies spammy weekly update, and you had to click or contact them by a date to cancel.
There was an outcry because understandably this caught a hell of a lot of people out - you'll find it by Googling.
In response to this they agreed that people who did not want BT Sport for £5 could cancel and get a refund. If you are not speaking to the UK yet, ask them to escalate the issue to Customer Relations. They are the highest tier complaints and based in the UK. Of course they don't like sending you there first as the UK staff get paid more.
If you need leverage to get them to escalate if they refuse, the best tactic I have found when dealing with the big corporations with tricky staff is to inform them that if your complaint is being ignored, your only option is to file a County Court claim. So you feign asking them for the address of their UK registered office, and their own name and department so that their choice of refusing to escalate is made part of the claim. Understandably, without fail, you get escalated.
Edited by JustinP1 on Thursday 12th May 08:52
elanfan said:
Remember the old Beattie ads with Maureen Lipman, yes that lot!
Somewhile ago they added a ''free" Sports channel to the package I have which I believe was given to anyone that had their broadband. Fine so far except apparently last August they started charging £5 a month for it. It is a service I have never used.
I have complained and their sub continental call centre are saying that we wrote to you saying we were going to charge and apparently there was a deadline to respond or it was going to happen. I haven't ever seen such a communication. They are refusing to refund me. It is only £50 but their I'm big your small attitude has got me in fighting mode. I've told the agent I don't accept their refusal to refund me and they had better refer to a senior manager as in my view they are breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations.
I have never positively opted in to this contract at any stage. The woman said we've given you notice and that's enough. I turned it back on her and said if I write to Auntie Beattie and say you agree to give me £1M and if I don't hear back by a certain date then you owe me the money and is that fair - no answer. I maybe wrong on this but I think this is a form of Inertia Selling which is I believe illegal. It certainly breaches CPRs as you are legally entitled to be treated fairly and not be financially disadvantaged by their trading practices.
I wonder how many thousands of others have fallen for what I regard as a pretty underhand practise. How can you be held to have accepted an amendment to a contract that at no time have you agreed to? Check your bills folks. They must be making millions out of this.
If any of our resident legal eagles have a view on this please contribute.
The joke of it was that you *still* had to go through an authentication process to actually get the BT channels.Somewhile ago they added a ''free" Sports channel to the package I have which I believe was given to anyone that had their broadband. Fine so far except apparently last August they started charging £5 a month for it. It is a service I have never used.
I have complained and their sub continental call centre are saying that we wrote to you saying we were going to charge and apparently there was a deadline to respond or it was going to happen. I haven't ever seen such a communication. They are refusing to refund me. It is only £50 but their I'm big your small attitude has got me in fighting mode. I've told the agent I don't accept their refusal to refund me and they had better refer to a senior manager as in my view they are breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Practices Regulations.
I have never positively opted in to this contract at any stage. The woman said we've given you notice and that's enough. I turned it back on her and said if I write to Auntie Beattie and say you agree to give me £1M and if I don't hear back by a certain date then you owe me the money and is that fair - no answer. I maybe wrong on this but I think this is a form of Inertia Selling which is I believe illegal. It certainly breaches CPRs as you are legally entitled to be treated fairly and not be financially disadvantaged by their trading practices.
I wonder how many thousands of others have fallen for what I regard as a pretty underhand practise. How can you be held to have accepted an amendment to a contract that at no time have you agreed to? Check your bills folks. They must be making millions out of this.
If any of our resident legal eagles have a view on this please contribute.
I got the (originally) free channels, ignored it until I decided to watch the rugby premiership finals on it so signed up which I recall was quite involved, proving all sorts of identity etc.
Shortly after (a couple of weeks at most) I actually saw the email which said that they were going to start charging £5 and that having signed up I would be automatically charged. Unsurprisingly the process to un-subscribe was far less simple.
Good luck getting your refund, let us know how you get on. Given the authentication process required to actually get the channels, charging customers who were in "limbo" such as yourself (not opted out, not opted in) is underhand to say the least.
bad company said:
They tried this with me so I called them when the bill arrived and they removed the £5 charge, no problem. If you have BT Broadband you should still BT Sport Light free of charge. This includes Sport 1 but not in HD.
I have the HD option on BT Sport Lite as part of my BB contract and have just received an email telling me to renew my contract by the middle of June or the cost goes up to £6.75 a month. I think a call is necessary 
To conclude I elevated my complaint to the CEO's office. The young lady tried to offer me. 3 month refund but I refused and a bit of standing up for my rights chat in a polite but firm manner has got me all my money back!
Also learned they are finally listening to customers regarding offshore call centres and are returning 90% to the UK n
In the next year. Hurrah!
Also learned they are finally listening to customers regarding offshore call centres and are returning 90% to the UK n
In the next year. Hurrah!
Went through all this myself as well as having to deal with some cocksocket who tried to upsell us into a service that I 100% knew wasnt available to our property (Infinity 2) Handy working for another ISP using BT's lines sometimes
I got fed up of speaking to the other side of the world and used that CEO email site.
Phone-call the same day from his office informing me I didn't have to pay and that the whole thing was being looked into. Ended up with some free Broadband If I recall.
Glad its sorted OP
I got fed up of speaking to the other side of the world and used that CEO email site.
Phone-call the same day from his office informing me I didn't have to pay and that the whole thing was being looked into. Ended up with some free Broadband If I recall.
Glad its sorted OP
Just currently looking at telephone pricing. Partly due to getting an email from BT about price rises, and partly due to an issue with our number being spoofed by a cold calling firm doing the "You have been involved in an accident" calls. Now not only do we get those calls but we also get calls from people phoning to complain about them!
However does seem difficult to work out the prices and benefits of each package from each supplier. As I understand it the reality is that whoever I get my broadband from it will be supplied by BT (through Openreach I guess) and therefore speeds will be the same. The difference therefore being to bolt on services and customer service. However I suspect the latter is just as bad irrespective of the supplier you use.
Looking at my BT bill it turns out I am paying £63.50 a month: -
Line Rental £17.99
Voicemail £1.97
Caller display £1.75
BT Infinity 2 £31.50
Anytime calls £6.23 (how on earth do you work out if this is value for money or not)
BT Essential TV £5.30 (not sure what the benefit is-it originally came with a Humax box to record TV)
Swapping to Vodafone seems to cost
Line rental £16.99 a month
Broadband Superfast + £10 a month for 12 months then £20 a month (18 month contract) or superfast free for 12 months then £15 a month
£49.99 connection fee
Voicemail (up to 10 messages) free
Caller display Free
Anytime calls £5 a month
Hmmm well thanks to this thread looks like my mind is made up! Although suspect changing is a nightmare!
However does seem difficult to work out the prices and benefits of each package from each supplier. As I understand it the reality is that whoever I get my broadband from it will be supplied by BT (through Openreach I guess) and therefore speeds will be the same. The difference therefore being to bolt on services and customer service. However I suspect the latter is just as bad irrespective of the supplier you use.
Looking at my BT bill it turns out I am paying £63.50 a month: -
Line Rental £17.99
Voicemail £1.97
Caller display £1.75
BT Infinity 2 £31.50
Anytime calls £6.23 (how on earth do you work out if this is value for money or not)
BT Essential TV £5.30 (not sure what the benefit is-it originally came with a Humax box to record TV)
Swapping to Vodafone seems to cost
Line rental £16.99 a month
Broadband Superfast + £10 a month for 12 months then £20 a month (18 month contract) or superfast free for 12 months then £15 a month
£49.99 connection fee
Voicemail (up to 10 messages) free
Caller display Free
Anytime calls £5 a month
Hmmm well thanks to this thread looks like my mind is made up! Although suspect changing is a nightmare!
Switching from BT isn't too difficult - it's getting your final bill they seem to struggle with...
We've just switched to Sky, Sky sorted it all and within 2 weeks it was all switched, really straight forward - our BT broadband stopped working on the evening of the switch so I hooked up the Sky router and was back online within a few minutes.
Our issue is that BT bill for the full month in advance (despite having plenty of notice for when we were terminating their services) and we were leaving 6 days into this billing period. Now cue the aggro of having to pay for a full month, wait for a final bill to be produced and then another week for the refund to be applied. It's ridiculous that such a large company doesn't have the systems in place to produce a bill that can take into account if the customer is leaving part way through the billing period.
We've just switched to Sky, Sky sorted it all and within 2 weeks it was all switched, really straight forward - our BT broadband stopped working on the evening of the switch so I hooked up the Sky router and was back online within a few minutes.
Our issue is that BT bill for the full month in advance (despite having plenty of notice for when we were terminating their services) and we were leaving 6 days into this billing period. Now cue the aggro of having to pay for a full month, wait for a final bill to be produced and then another week for the refund to be applied. It's ridiculous that such a large company doesn't have the systems in place to produce a bill that can take into account if the customer is leaving part way through the billing period.
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