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Last Jan. I received a phone call from a woman at BT.
She said she had made a mistake on the computer and she was not allowed to correct it, and would I send her £10 and it would be deducted on my next quarterly a/c.
Muggins me, I trusted her, and sent it.
On the April a/c it had not been deducted, so I deducted it from the total owed, and wrote on the a/c why.
On the June a/c the £10 came up as ‘balance owed from previous a/c. So I deducted it again. Then I received Stage 2 of their Scam. Another woman phoned me, said the £10 was a credit, my bill was for £64, and with the £10 deducted the total of £54 was correct. I said it was not correct, went through what happened in Jan.
Next thing the debt collectors in Mumbai phoned. I went through it all again, they said they would deal with it.
Then BT got the big stick out, phone calls came saying if I didnt pay the £10 my phone would be disconnected. Went to CAB. On second visit an older member of staff listened to it all again. Phoned the Ombudsman talked for half an hour. Said it was all cleared up, for which I was very grateful.
The September a/c was correct. Problem solved !
The Dec.a/c came and the £10 was on it again, as ’owing from previous a/c’, so I sent a cheque for the £44 I owed, and wrote on the a/c what happened and I did not owe this £10, they owed it to me.
On Thursday another phone call from lady at BT, she said the £10 was a Credit, my bill was £64, therefore with the £10 Credit the total of £54 was correct. (They must be trained to do this, as it was the same as the first time. I wonder how many people are taken in by it.)
I lost my temper and shouted at her. Ten minutes later my phone had been disconnected. I just had to go out for a walk to calm down.
At 8 p.m. it had been reconnected. They must have found out that the matter had been referred to the Ombudsman and I didnt owe them anything. If this happens to you, remember me, dont fall for their tricks.
I am changing my supplier.

17 Dec, 2011
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Comments

Linda235

It is so maddening when you have to deal with companies like this. Good idea ....change your supplier.

17 Dec, 2011

Drc726

I am confused is this a scam or BT?

17 Dec, 2011

Sprog

Oh I am sorry you have had to go through this. I'm not too well at the moment and if I had to deal with something like that would be too much for me. So many con-artists in this world now. Sickening. Hope you are getting over it now. Have a nice Christmas.

17 Dec, 2011

Simbad

How distressing for you, glad it eventually got sorted but what a performance !!!! we changed from BT to Talk Talk a while ago no problems since.
Sprog love your avatar what a lovely cat, thought it was a birman like ours at first, is he/she yours?

17 Dec, 2011

Clarice

So sorry for all the problems, i've been with Sky for quite afew years and not had any problems with them at all.

17 Dec, 2011

Andrewr

I changed my ISP back in September but the old company are still attempting to take debits from my account despite phone calls ("yes, we confirm your account with us is closed") and letters. I feel the Ombudsman could be busy again!

17 Dec, 2011

Dianebulley

Thank you all for your replies. Its easy to get confused over figures. The amount she asked me for was £9.60 and if I would send a cheque for this amount she would credit my a/c with £10. I should have said there was nothing on my a/c for £9.60 and refused.
Actually the cheque book stub for this amount was proof I was telling the truth at the CAB.
Always check your accounts, always check your meter readings, always add up in the supermarket as you go round with the trolley, even if its just the £s. When I get to the till I know roughly how much my shopping has cost.
We gardeners are too trusting.

18 Dec, 2011

Franl155

I've not often had a call like this, but if I'm not sure, I ask them to send me a letter: what's in writing is on the record and can't be denied later. Also, I can phone the company on a different phone number to any given by the person, and check that it really did come from them.

I used to use AOL, till they humped me up to a higher rate witout asking or telling me. When I got my PC fixed, I looked round for who else to go with: I found a comparison site and checked out the various ISPs. I explored, and eventaully went with o2 - it had only twro reviews on the site ,but both gave it 100% across the baord, the only compnay that had that - all the others had high marks in some areas but not in others.

I chose o2 for other reasons as well: their help line calls were free, were 24/7, and they had UK call centres. I went off AOL when they suddenly moved their help centres to India, and started charging for the calls. I resent being forced to help them exploit low-paid workers in India, who aren't trained to do other than read off a screen - billing probs were redirected back to the UK.(In fact, I told o2 that if they moved their help centres aborad I'd consider that a breach of contract on their part).

After a couple of months, they contacted me: they'd checked and my local exchange wasn't giving me the speed they'd said, so did I want to drop down to a lower (cheaper) level? I was ok as I was, so stayed on the package I had. But for a company to offer to give up money ...

26 Jan, 2012

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