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This post has been removed as I found out I was wrong. The itemised bill documentation exists but I found out I was simply contacting the wrong people: i.e. Customer Services do not have direct access to the itemised documents, neither do Customer Services Supervisors. I was expecting BT to produce the documents in an unrealistically fast way... which I now understand it was very unrealistic timeframe (I was very anxious before!). Unrealistic, in that my request for my bills involves communication between different Departments, which simply has to take some time. My bills are on their way and at last I'm satisfied. That English is my 2nd language hasn't really helped me to communicate my request as I wanted etc. I will keep you posted about the result.
To CAGModerator (I just realised I cannot PM him!):
Hi CAGBot
I'm sending this to tell you that I'm sorry about all this and about the stressful situation (including many lengthy phonecalls to BT customer services with no results) - I now understand that my 1st post was libellous, and following further correspondence with BT I want to have the title of the BT post changed. BT has now responsibly promised to give me itemised copies of my bills in the next few working days, and I realise what I was asking within the timeframe of my request was unrealistic (see above).
Can you please change the post title to:
BT is now taking responsible action to resolve bill-related issue.
At last, I spoke with BT staff who perfectly understood my request!
Re: BT stealing people's money through bill classifications and relevant terms/conditions. Help and/or be informed...
I also have not been able for over a year to access my BT account online because "There was a problem in processing your request. Please try again later."
I find their bills are confusing and sometimes misleading in many respects.
IIRC, they "re-aligned" their charging periods late last year, claiming that the line-rental period charged for on each bill was somehow out of sync with the period of call charges (or some such) and that charging a bit extra on one bill would sort it out. I think this was a note on a bill or a leaflet enclosed. Either way, can't find it now.
My previous experience with writing to BT suggests you should expect a reply after Easter but probably before Whitsun.
Halifax (current accounts, credit card, old mortgage, secured loan) thread here
Re: BT stealing people's money through bill classifications and relevant terms/conditions. Help and/or be informed...
Originally Posted by mfpa
"There was a problem in processing your request. Please try again later."
Me too but I also get it with vodafone. I've simply come to the conclusion that phone companies cannot operate web sites. As most of them seem to have difficulties with phones, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Re. your argument with BT billing zedres, I think you need to follow their complaints procedure, putting everything in writing & mailing Rec. Del. & then reporting it to Ofcom as you will, without doubt, get nowhere with BT even by Whitsun in the next century!
Sorry to be negative - IMO they're useless.
Any knowledge I possess or advice I proffer is based solely on my experiences in the University of Life. Please make your own assessment of legality, risks & costs before taking any action.
Re: BT stealing people's money through bill classifications and relevant terms/conditions. Help and/or be informed...
Strange, I also get the "There was a problem in processing your request. Please try again later."
We have now requested that we recevie paper bills which are just as confusing. Unfortunatley qwe are stuk with BT until May 2009 when I will be looking for another provider. We use Skype for International calls and mobile phones for local and national. Only reason we have BT at the moment is for broadband.
Re: BT stealing people's money through bill classifications and relevant terms/conditions. Help and/or be informed...
BT's system defaults to only itemising calls of 50p and over. I did ask them for 'full itemisation' at one stage, but I got swamped with 20 p-age bills, so I gave up and went back to the 50p cut-off.
Thank you for your replies, that I think are inspiring. I also hope my post was inspiring for you, too, as I'm really convinced there's things going on here (which I understand and will be able to show on the basis of evidence in a few weeks).
Whether they have a 20p, 5p or 50p cut-off or not (and so, whether they switch between them as they wish or refuse to as they wish), is their own problem or fault. There is no such term or condition or information on the contract I signed with them, and the contract is the only legally powerful document that represents the content of our agreement.
I'm also convinced their online account service does not work for a purpose. I refuse to accept that a multinational company with services and branches in approx 180 countries in the world cannot maintain a website. I have also been working as a web-editor of a commended sports/betting website since 2001 and I know very well how easy it is to fix problems of that kind. I believe that the online system doesn't work in order to make unavailable the detailed 'billing/charges/rental etc' information we're asking for.
But that doesn't matter at this stage. I'm furious to such an extent that I am now quietly determined to go to court with this. After 2 (recorded for training etc?) promises made by 'customer service supervisors' which haven't brought the goods home (i.e. just an itemised copy of a particular bill...!), their customer services are now arguing that they don't have access to the direct contact details of the people I must contact to send a Subject access request. All they could give me was a fax number and a postal address (to which I posted my SAR 1-1.5 week ago), claiming that this is the only information held by their customer services (related to my request).
I posted (registered) and faxed (using a copying/faxing services point) a SAR and kept all receipts, while I have also been saving logs with dates/times/names and contents of all I've described here so far in what is now a detailed and organised file.
I will ring the Community Legal Advice service to get advice about what I should do now that they're not issuing a confirmation of receipt of my SAR. Any ideas or help would be really appreciated here!
No wonder multinational sharks of this size manage to grow by being fed in our difficult times. We're so many, that sucking our blood makes wonders...
Sorry - forgot to mention that before sending out the SAR, I also:
a) tried to produce a complaint by phone, but the custumer services staff I talked with consistently refused to understand as a complaint what I was explicitly defining and explaining as a complaint;
b) written up and posted a formal complaint to BT by post (receipts etc);
c) written up and posted a formal complaint to OTELO by post (receipts etc), explaining that BT refuses even to confirm receipt of my complaint; OTELO has replied (asking for some further but uncomplicated details), BT hasn't.
d) had a general discussion with a solicitor who is interested to work with me on this once I get the evidence (SAR).
their customer services are now arguing that they don't have access to the direct contact details of the people I must contact to send a Subject access request.
It is possible that they don't have internet access at work. (-;
I typed "bt privacy policy" (without quotes) into a well-known search engine and found:-
How can I find out what personal information BT holds about me?
If you want specific information please tell us and give us any relevant information to enable us to locate the information about you because this will speed up our reply. We may be able to provide the specific information you want without you having to make a formal request.
You can make a formal request if you want to know what personal information BT holds about you. In this case, please put your request in writing and send it to us enclosing a cheque for the administration fee of £10 made payable to British Telecommunications plc. The address is:
Data Subject Access Manager, PP LF11, Libra House, Sunrise Parkway, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, MK14 6PH.
although I looked at more than one link and some gave the address below:-
Data Protection Manager, Box 17, BT Centre, 81 Newgate Street, London. EC1A 7AJ
and some simply said:-
Access to your personal information
You have the right under the Data Protection Act to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected.
Halifax (current accounts, credit card, old mortgage, secured loan) thread here
Hi Zedres et al.
Please keep us updated with your quest, I also have a strange final bill from BT. I was about to give up and just pay it but reading your thread has encouraged me to take a further look at it. Thank you.
As an aside I went online in Dec 2008 to look at my orange mobile account. where I noticed that my bill for the month upto Dec 8th 2006 was £173 (it had been paid by my wife, as I ask her to keep my bills upto date when I am not at home). This was surprising as I had been out of the country from Sep 26th in a country (Angola) where there is no Orange service. I was unable to access this particular bill online - always a problem with accessing it - so I rang Orange and pointed out my concerns and asked for this particular bill sending to me, and the two months previous to this - nothing! Your post has encouraged me to press this home.
Thanks Hocus
Sorry for the delay, the past weeks have been terrible... But I do have some good news re: how the BT case developed!
After making sure that there's something wrong with your bill, it's all a matter of ending up speaking with appropriate BT staff, and going through the customer services staff, then their supervisors, then the complaint procedure is a complex procedure that needs a calm and focused approach - and then doing things fast, before more and more bills and stress pile up - something that many of us (including myself of course) lack these days... So I went through the entire process and ended up having the issue resolved by the BT CEO team. And I must say that I was impressed by their approach.
I was impressed by the patient, sensitive and humane manner in which my complaint was treated, as despite my focus, my approach was stressed and quite angry. The issue was a result of a combination of events and bad timing:
I had received (and paid) an interim bill which I treated as a quarterly one, then 4 weeks later I received an ordinary quarterly bill. Both bills weren't itemised, which was a result of a temporary system failure. In the meanwhile, I was not happy to pay twice in 4 weeks, which meant that charges and modifications (e.g. outgoing calls barring, dis/re-connection charges, late payment processing fees etc) started adding up. But as soon as my complaint reached OTELO and finally the BT CEO team, everything was resolved. My requests were sent to the appropriate departments, then I received fully itemised bills (interim and quarterly) and then I discussed these bills and all itemised charges in every detail with the BT CEO team.
So the situation was explained, my irritation was tolerated, and the BT team were as kind as it takes to recognise the time I spent on this - i.e. they removed the dis/reconnection charges and late payment processing fees and they also offered me three months' line rental for free.
So... for what this result is worth, be as patient, focused, fast and prompt as it takes to go through the procedure until its end. The early stages of the procedure are difficult but the final result is that a significant part of the charges were taken off. I'm very satisfied by this result and by the professionalism and sensitivity with which my complaint was treated at the final stage and I'll even consider switching to BT broadband as soon as I sort out some other issues I have with 'debt' collectors...
BT billing problem identified and resolved
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Originally Posted by mfpa
