charged for email

[bluedybluedy2]

@zulu17 thanks I have written to the complaints department. I will let you all know what happens.

[formercustomer001]

Hi there, Please report this to OFCOM.  The same thing happened to me.  They took £620.  Without my consent, agreement or knowledge.    I left BT in disgust having made a complaint for other rip offs well before this.  The socalled executive complaints  person had  even offered me an ( insultingly low) £50 compensation around 7 years ago to try to manipulate me to stay.  I declined.  That would have been the primary time to mention they would just keep my financial details on file and use that to thieve from me.  I only noticed it when larger amounts started to come out.  The response this time ( after several operatives said " of course you should get all your money back". then escalated it.  Another awful woman from executive complaints offered me £90 of the £620 they had taken.  She admitted they had done it to other people.  The response was " you should have stopped your direct debit". " It's  up to you to spot discrepancies in your account". ie admitting their taking the funds was not authorised.  When my bank did the charge back (Direct debit indemnity) it was not contested.  The bank said they could only claim £525 because the unauthorised charges went back beyond the bank's own archives.  Then out of the blue this week I received a letter from a sleazy debt collector demanding £643.43 claiming to be collecting for BT.  I have never seen a bill.  Bt claim they sent them to the old customer account I would not have looked in since I left.  I could't even get into their useless email., I never used any premium service.  BT said billing refused to speak with me.  "executive complaints" man called and refused to answer any questions.  even " what are these charges for?"  He told me " we SOLD your account to the debt collector".   I have reported them to Ofcom and to the communications ombudsman.  Please do this too.  Don't let them get away with it,  they are absolute snakes and entirely predatory. They prey on people at vulnerable times and exploit their situation to extort money.  They should be shut down. 

[formercustomer001]

ps I never got any of the amounts they " offered" me either. Other of their colleagues pledged to pay £180 into my bank-  never came.  The £90 " offered". never came.  

It transpires BT have already been reprimanded by OFCOM following multiple widespread complaints of  former customers having money taken from their bank accounts  without consent. The "charges" have also escalated .  And held over a barrel to stay with the company by  otherwise the threat of losing long standing email contacts etc.    

This was taken up by the BBC and highlighted as "daylight robbery"

[Christopher_G]

Hi @formercustomer001 

Welcome to the community. I'm really sorry to hear of your experience. 

The Executive Complaints team that you have been speaking to are the highest level of escalation for complaints.

If your complaint has been open for 8 weeks or more, or you've been given a 'deadlock' letter from BT, you can contact the communications ombudsman who can review your dispute and advise you further.

Chris

[formercustomer001]

Thanks - The " executive team"  have been the most abusive and callous.   They shoot complaints straight to deadlock to avoid answering any questions.  They had zero regard for anyone with disability. ( no reasonable adjustments whatsoever).  and simply said " we sold your account to debt collectors- talk to them". They were annoyed my bank did an indemnity and claimed back some of the unauthorised charges.   ( it transpired BT had been filching funds from my account so long,  it went beyond the bank's visible records).  This charge back was never contested, though BT had 21 days.  The bank were completely entitled to reclaim unauthorise direct debit amounts.Some of them are strange unexplained amounts too.  I never used any premium service.  Not even  a basic mail for most of this time.  It transpired they had taken almost £800.  The behaviour of complaints exec has been actually quite sadistic.  They seem to take satisfaction in causing distress.  Would not answer the most basic questions eg about dates,  when I was even a customer.  Or even "What was the money for?"    They offered me back 90 quid of what they took.  Then 180.  They never paid any of it.  It turns out they were done in 2022 by Ofcom and banned from doing this scam-  but have carried on doing this. They allways say it is  the victim's responsbility to notice it.  But even my bank struggled scouring records to find these debits.  The amounts kept changing.  They started small and gradually increased without reason.  Eventually flagged up when they suddenly took £25 without notice.    It's straightforward extortion. 

[Kimberlin]

@formercustomer001 

Interesting posts now that I’ve seen your ‘complaint’ across two separate threads relating to allegations of money being taken from your account and breaches of GDPR.

I couldn’t help noticing that in this thread, you took a mere 7 months to join a conversation at the end of September that had last been contributed to in February this year. Then a forum moderator became involved and it took you 37 days to formulate a response? I’m now beginning to understand how you apparently never noticed that money had been taken from your account for 3 and a half years for a service you never had.

[formercustomer001]

Dear Whomever.  I am no longer a BT customer and no longer use their email.    I left the company in 2014.  I never used the email much after this- it was always clunky and difficult to get into. One of the reasons I left actually.  I am extremely busy-   I trust that explains why I am not usually on their forum.   Today I happened to search out of interest to see if I could still even  get into the old email.  At one point it had been deleted when they finally switched it back to "basic" despite nothing about it had ever changed.  Thus I came upon a note that someone had replied.  I trust that explains why you had to wait so long- Sorry about that. 

I found these posts when searching to see if this had happened to anyone else.  I then wrote a reply to the individual seraching for information.  Then It transpired that in fact there were such widespread complaints. that BT were banned from doing this particular scam by Ofcom  in 2022 and exposed by BBC watchdog where this was called out as " "daylight robbery" and "blackmail".  yet they continue the same behaviour.   BT have a history of exploiting customers and here they are seen doing it to ex customers.  if this is the kind of company you want to engage with, then be your guest.  

[Kimberlin]

@formercustomer001 

You haven’t been a customer for the best part of 11 years? Good luck with whatever you’re trying to achieve.

I think it’s time for a Mod to shut this down. There appears to be more holes in this story than one of my Wife’s poorly knitted jumpers.

[Peter_W]

Good morning @formercustomer001.

We don't have access to accounts via these forums to comment on individual circumstances, but there are a range of reasons that an account could continue with charges after the end of a contract, and it is partially the customer's responsibility to keep track of what they're being charged for and any active services. 

As my colleague @Christopher_G recommended, our executive team are our highest point of escalation and if they have been unable to agree on a resolution, then independent review with the Ombudsman would be your next step.

I can appreciate your disappointment if you haven't had the outcome you were looking for here, but ultimately the next step will be highlighting the deadlock details with them.

Peter

[Kimberlin]

@Peter_W 

I’d go so far as to say that it is entirely the customers responsibility to check and have oversight on exactly what services the customer has signed up to and whether those services are active or not.

I mentioned it in a previous thread, I once took out a BritBox free trial and it was entirely MY responsibility to cancel it before any charges were made. I did so as that responsibility was entirely on me, not on BT or anyone else. There shouldn’t be a situation whereby a customer is defended because of a lack of their own accountability or poor oversight.