Receiving bills from BT debt collectors months after account has been closed

[MLaing]

We had an inactive BT account for years at my home and when we finally closed it after never using the account we have now, 7 months later, received a £402.71 bill via BT's debt collector 'DRS.' This is after we were assured over the phone around October last year that the account was closed and there wouldn't be any further billing.

I don't know whether BT just lied and didn't close the account when they said they did, or if they have just stuck on charges despite what we have been told on the phone.

On receiving this aggressive notice from debt collectors I rang BT customer service who were supremely unhelpful not offering to look into it or even direct me to someone who could, and just saying that the account is closed and that they weren't going to help.

Its infuriating because we have had assurance over the phone that all is done and settled and now these charges come out of nowhere, without any explanation or even a breakdown.

If anyone with a similar experience (I imagine there are a few) can advise at all,- or even some help from a BT agent would be hugely appreciated.

Sincerely

MLaing

[Keith_Beddoe]

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers and will not be able to deal with any issues relating to your account.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators, who may offer to help, when everything else has been tried.

Its possible you were still in a contract, and it may be the cancellation charges. Did you receive a final bill from BT, and do you still have a copy?

If you did not receive a final bill, then you should have chased it up, as the account would not have been closed.

Normally once its been passed to a debt collector, its difficult to make any progress.

[MLaing]

Thanks for your reply @Keith_Beddoe  - Distinguished Sage 

That's the horrendous thing, I can't now access our account and am told it is closed with no possibility to review the notes that we were assured were copied from our phone conversations and which we were told clearly indicated there was no residual bill left over and we were clear to close account.

I understand its obviously good business to make customer service as difficult and infuriating as possible, particularly when your system fires out dubious bills automatically but you'd think that BT have done so much of this that there would be a big response . . which leads me to question the legitimacy of 'Community' sites like this which are administered by BT . .

Your reply @Keith_Beddoe  - Distinguished Sage, is what I'd expect to hear from that very same customer 'service,'- I just hope this might somehow be visible other customers and go some way to reassuring others in the same situation that they aren't the only victims