BT Restricted

[GuidoT]

BT billed me for an engineer that came out to fix a fault and he did not resolve it and did not know what he was doing.

I disputed it, but BT said they would take the sum in the next direct debit, so I cancelled the direct debit and paid the bill with a card less that engineers charge.

After some effort BT subsequently agreed to withdraw the charge.

Because of this I am now incurring penalties for not paying by direct debit that I refused to pay, but pay the rest of the bill. I wrote to BT on this point and received their standard reply.

BT have now placed a restriction on my phone line so I cannot make outgoing calls.

Spoke to call centre and as usual pointless.

Can anyone give me some advice, if I switch to one of those providers that you can route your outgoing calls through will this overcome my present problem?

Thank you BT.

[GuidoT]

Bump

[GuidoT]

Bump

[Mark_Blackpool]

I presume if you fail to pay the, ahem, payment processing charge, they would eventually cut the line off altogether.

We were wondering if we could get out of our contract with BT in this manner: by overpaying the current bill so as to pay next quarter's as well, and then if the "Payment Processing charge" is billed, to point out there's no payment, so there's no charge, allow it to fall into dispute and them to cut it off.

[GuidoT]

They said they would not cut me off as I paid the remainder of the bill on time.

[GuidoT]

I have decided to switch to Talk Talk. Before you say anything I know this may result in problems but I presume I will be able to make outgoing calls with them.

I did not realise this but Talk Talk can pay BT direct for the line rental and then Talk Talk charge me for the same and the calls on top of this, i.e. one bill and BT cannot hold me to ransom.

This should resolve my initial practical difficulties, it just leaves me with having to deal with the final BT bill.

BT imbeciles.

I could not have managed it without your help.

[GuidoT]

Transfer to Talk Talk very smooth, all working as from today no thanks to BT.

Still have not paid BT, so the easy part left of having to deal with them. I bet they do not commence legal proceedings for DD penalty.

[GuidoT]

I complained to BT on their website, received a fob off email response, I emailed again yesterday saying no more than I expected from BT.

They phoned me today (someone from this country) offered to write off the outstanding bill and apologised for not catching the matter sooner.

It looks like the best way to resolve matters is to complain by email.

A satisfactory result at last.

[loz]

Well done for perservering Guido, I also had a call from BT this morning (following up my email) apologising for restricting my line instead of replying to the complaint I made previously. The lass said she would also zero my bill, result!

[Son of Shoestring]

Well guys, be careful. What they say on the ol' phone and what they do isn't always the same thing. BT people lie on a daily basis and/or are to lazy to do the things they say they will (in my opinion, of course ).

If it works out for you fine, if not know that you have been forewarned -- and thus forearmed.

Shostring

[GuidoT]

I received written confirmation from BT by email 10 minutes after the telephone conversation so that is good enough for me.

[loz]

Ditto but I won't be 100% convinced until I get a new bill