Miniconverter V BTs £4.50 ripoff

[miniconverter]

On Friday night I rang BT to ask for a revised bill less the £4.50 payment processing charge. After speaking to various people and being on the phone for about 1 hour I finally realized all there staff had been brain washed into believing this charge was fair reasonable and lawful. I have therefor written the following letter which I will post in the morning

 

Mr miniconverter

Our House

Some street

Somwhere

24 September 2007

 

BTCustomer Services

BT plc

Correspondence Centre

Durham DH98 1BT

Account Number SL**** ****

Bill Number Q*****

 

Telephone Number 01*********

Your complaint Reference 21*****

 

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

I am writing to complain about your penalty charge (named payment processing fee) you have forced me to pay during various telephone conversations on 21 September 2007 with threats of having my line restricted or late payment charges added to my account if I refuse to pay.

At no time have I contracted with BT to pay by any particular method and as such retain the right to pay by any method including but not restricted to cash or debit card. If you believe I have contractually agreed to this charge or a specific payment method please forward me a true-signed copy of the contract in question.

 

Further more this charge is punitive in nature and is not a true pre estimate of your liquidated costs, as it does not reflect the true cost of processing my payment. It is simply a method of increasing your revenue. You will be aware that the law states very clearly that a penalty charge of this nature is unlawful and as such unenforceable, and request that you provide me with evidence to the contrary if you refute this.

 

 

In the absence of such evidence, I require the immediate return of the charge along with my costs which equate to Charge £4.50 plus signed for postage of £1.04 total £5.54. You will notice at this point I have added no charge for my time or stationary in an effort to be fair and to ensure I do not profit but reserve the right to add these costs at a later date if you fail to refund my money within 14 days.

If you do not issue a refund, or you do not respond positively, within 14days, I shall send you a letter before action giving you a further 14 days in which to reflect. I believe that these targets are more than sufficient for a large company such as yours with dedicated staff and departments.

 

After that, there will be no further communication from me and I shall issue a claim in the county court at the expiry of the second deadline.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

Mr miniconverter

Has any one had a refund and has anyone taken them to court yet?

What do you think to the letter?

[Simon7685]

Excellantly worded letter..........

 

I am persueing the same action against SKY TV and also now my insurance company. I did however convert to DD with BT, this was only because having taken out broadband with them I decided a monthly payment plan was better for me, elsewise I too would go down the same route with them.

 

Keep up the good work and once again.....brilliant letter!

[buzby]

 

Has any one had a refund and has anyone taken them to court yet?

What do you think to the letter?

 

 

 

Yes - I took Sky to court for this and they settled 1 week before the case called. The letter is fine, but I doubt it would be understood by the recipient. With Sky I simply got a 'we do it because we can' and you'll have to lump it. See here:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/29691-sky-subscriber-services.html?highlight=sky+subscriber+services

[AnimalMagic]

Any update on this?

 

I was cut off today after disputing this charge, so I'm on the warpath...

[miniconverter]

Bt haven't even acknowledged receipt of my letters sent the letter before action just over a week ago. Will go down to the court tomorrow or Friday and get an N1 which I will take in on Monday when there second 14 day period expires.

 

Interesting to note they have cut you off animalmagic for none payment as I am sure this has much far reaching implications. If I go to court would you be prepared to let me have proof they cut you off as they threatened this action with me and I am sure this has got to be some kind of harassment forcing you to make an unlawful payment.

 

I'am sure sombody will be allong soon that can tell us if this is harresment or somthing simalar.

[AnimalMagic]

Don't know how I can 'prove' we were cut off - we received no notice - when we try to make a call we get diverted to BT's automated system where we eventually get a message saying we haven't paid our bill. My wife was so distressed, I went in an paid it online, then discovered later that I had already paid it less the 4.50 charge back in August. I'd be happy to provide you with a letter confirming this... Don't know when we'll get the line back.

[luvpeckham]

how did this go ?

 

Did you get a response from BT??

 

This may also be of interest to people

 

An intersting issue has now arisen concernig the £4.50 payment processing fee and my account (ex) with BT.

 

I have now changed from BT to Tiscali for both phone line rental and broadband, whereas previosuly I was being charged £11 and £27.99 per month by BT for rental only (plus call charges) and the dreadr £4.50 a quarter fee for paying by cheque.

 

I now pay £19.99 a month for line rental, (upto) 8mb unlimited broadband and calls to 01 and 02 numbers with Tiscali.

 

However I have refused to pay BT the £4.50 charge on my last two bills (including the final bill) and sent the letter as shown previously in this discussion.

 

Today I received the following reply

 

"Dear Sir

 

Many thanks for your letter. Your views are important to us and we take all comments seriously. I'm sorry to read that you feel strongly about the changes to our payment options.

We very much appreciate the fact that you always pay on time

BT is committed to offering great value for money. We recently sent you a leaflet explaining why we've made changes to our payment options. On May 1st we reducedthe price of line rental by £3.00 and briadband by £3.00 a quarter for customers who don't pay by direct debit.

There ia an amount outstanding on your final bill of £9.00, this payment is required and I would need to highlight that if an amount is left unpaid then normal follow action is taken which may result in the amount being referred to a debt collection agency. We are sorry to lose your custome however, we would like to remind you that as part of your terms and conditions you are required to pay your bill in full when you receive it

 

Many thanks

Yours sincerely

K Hussain

Customer Services Advisor"

 

NOW

My question is, has anyone else received a letter of this nature, threatining to pass their £4.50 or £9.00 of unjustified charges to a debt collection agency, and what shoudl my next steps be in this battle of unfair charges.

 

I have moved away from BT (with a saving of £19 a month in basic charges), sent the appropriate letters and also withheld payment at the same time.

 

Any suggestions

[buzby]

Does your new provider charge for non-DD ?

[luvpeckham]

The new provider offers DD or Credit Card payments as the only option, so that is not an issue in this case and also as all calls to 01 and 02 numbers are free (my mobile has 1000 cross network minutes a month) then all I will be paying is 19.99 a month (whereas bt add on not only line rental but call costs, equipment rental (funny how they haven't asked for the old phone back after 14 years of chargeing for it) and then add vat on top of it all (yes even including vat added to the £4.50 Payment Processing fee)

 

I have no problems with Direct Debit, but I do have a problem being told that unless I pay by direct debit I will be penalised (I have paid on time by cheque for the past 14 years so why should I now be penalised by an unfair charge)

 

Would like some advice concerning how to respond to the letter from BT as I haven't paid the charge and therefore can not sue them for it's return.

 

Many thanks again

[buzby]

I see where your coming from, but your option still doesn;t get to the root of the problem (ie you are being forced to pay by DD or plastic) the fact they don't offer any other payment method is highly relevant. They don't charge you more, not because they're being fairer to the consumer, but because they restrict your payment methods. On balance, I take the view this is discriminatory because it means their service cannot be used by those who may shun credit cards and don''t want to use (or trust) banks.

 

If they are there to offer a service in the UK, it is the customer who decides to pay for the service, not be told HOW they should pay!

[AnimalMagic]

Any news on the court action or did you give up?

[miniconverter]

Sorry i haven't posted regarding this for ages but have been very busy helping a friend claim back his bank charges which we won on Wednesday this week. Yorkshire sent some clever solicitor type person to court and the first thing he said was it was uneconomical for his client to defend so the case has been stayed for 14 days to allow the bank to pay up.

 

Anyway i will start my action against Bt next week now this is out of the way and I have a bit more time. Bt also charged me another £4.50 the week before Christmas so the amount is getting bigger all the time

 

I will post and let everybody know what I am doing over the next few days.

[AnimalMagic]

Any news on this?