Hello all, I feel the need to share my BT experience, because it's been so bad for me.
For a number of years i have been a Broadband customer of BTIreland. Last August I received a phone call from BT billing informing me that my account was in deficit to the tune of €563.44. Apparently a problem had developed with my Direct Debit with I had set up and was paying with BT. For over a year BT had not been taking payments for the Broadband service out of my account. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed that the payments were not going out of my account, but once I investigated I found that they were correct, I did actually owe them the €563. That was fine; I have no problems paying my bills. I rang BT billing and gave the operator my credit card details and he told me, that’s great, your account is now clear. The payment went through on my credit card early September.
At this point I forgot about BT until I applied for their online billing option in early October, about a month and a half after I paid the bill by credit card. When I logged onto BT's site and viewed my online bill, I noticed that the €563 was still down as owing on my account. I immediately contacted BT billing, who said they would have to initiate a payment trace to find the payment, as they had no record of it. I provided BT with details of the credit card payment, my card type/bank and the date and reference number of the transaction. They told me they have all the information they need. This payment trace is down on BT's system as having begun in mid October '05. I was told I would be informed when it was finished.
Over the next few month's I contacted BT regularly to see if they had found the missing payment. On each occasion I was told that the case was high priority and somebody would ring me back very shortly. They never did. In actual fact, they took the payment out of my account via Direct Debit again on the 13th of February '06. So, to clarify, I made the payment of €563 in August '05, this payment was not applied to my account with BT and by the start of February '06 this bill had risen to €818, which includes the €563 which I had already paid by credit card, and the rest is made up of the legitimate broadband bill for the months between August '05 and February '06.
At this point one of BT's operators suggested to me that I contact BT's complaints department, because the credit trace was just not being done. On the 15th February '06 I emailed off to
complaints@btireland.com . I received a reply telling me my complaint has been logged, an investigation will take place and that I will be informed. In the email im also told that if I require any information on the case to ring a number listed in the email. However, the number is constantly on voicemail
I have rang BT's 1904 number several times trying to speak to anyone from Residential customer complaints, but was unable to speak to anyone. I forgot to mention earlier I was promised a managers call back twice on the lost payment issue, but no-one ever called me back. One of BT's customer service operators actually hung up the phone on me and was extremely rude.
BT's customer service is disgraceful. I am unable to talk to a person who can sort the mess out. BT is not returning my calls and I am ringing BT's 1904 number and then being put on hold by an operator who checks if their is someone available to deal with the call and then being told their is no one available. Obviously I have cancelled my Direct Debit with BT with my bank. However, AIB tell me that in six months BT may still be able to take money out of my account again. To me that sounds incredible, surely if I don’t want somebody to take money out of my account by Direct Debit they simply they can't do that.
I long for the day when I’m rid of BT for good. I have literally made 20 phone calls to them (and the same amount of emails). If I see anything with a BT logo on it I will run a mile (no joke here).
I get the feeling that this is well-oiled machine BT have and the machine is definitely not customer focused. BT does this because they can get away with it. What's to stop them?
I contacted comreg by email, who replied telling me they would contact BT on my behalf. I have also sent a letter by registered post to BT's chief operating officer and chief executive explaining the situation. I'm going to keep at them and at them until the money is returned .....
BT Billing Nightmare 
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