Introductions, feedback & general chat

[brookehomes]

We are a reasonable sized construction firm.

We own a remote property that has broadband which is only used for CCTV cameras. We also have a phone line at this location which is never used. I requested that BT send invoices for both these lines to our head office only and not to this remote address as there are no humans within a 10 mile radius and that the property is only visited every 3 months or so and have supplied them with our head office address on 4 seperate occasions.

The indian call centre operators are very apologetic and promise that copy invoices will be sent to our head office only...but this never happens...the invoices still go to the remote address and lie there for months at a time. Then, yes,  you guessed it...they cut the services off and then charge us approx £100 to re-connect it.

I have also been charged for broadband security that we never asked for. I phoned the complaints department but they didn't want to know. They said it was a matter for billing...which as you can guess seems to be in India...back to apologies and promises etc but no results.

I have called BT (india) again this morning and put it to them that we have 9 seperate BT phone services (spread throughout 3 companies) and we will terminate them all if one more bill goes to the remote address...I'll let you know how it goes...

My advice is to avoid BT if possible...when you're running a business you can't afford to have your telephone disconnected due to someone elses incompetence...they just don't get it.

We can ONLY use BT in the remote location and have no other choice at the time of writing...

[Andy75]

Hi there,

Sorry for all the problems you are having trying to resolve this issue. 

I have sent an e-mail to our billing team asking that they look into this and drop you an e-mail.  I will get a response also and we will reply when we hear back from the billing team.

Regards

Andy

BT Forum Moderator

[brookehomes]

update on my original post: We finally recieved a bill addressed to our head office which we have paid immediately . Still no email or reply as promised above from the billing team or Andy explaining what happened or any explanation.

Earlier this year BT cut off our phone line at the remote property due to the fact that we never recieved any correspondance from them regarding the matter. We then paid approx £100 to have it reconnected, and were then charged for a 'Security pack' which we never asked for. We were then promised a refund on the reconnection charge from one of the Indian call centre staff which we have still not recieved.

Incidently when we were cut off we owed approx £57. BT had approx £330 of our money in their account from advanced rentals etc...How do they get away with this?

This is a joke...how can any business operate like this?

To top it all off we've just been charged a £9 payment processing fee...I must try this with our customers

[Fiona]

Hi Brookehomes

I'm sorry you continue to have issues with your Business Billing account. It may help to talk to the billing team directly as i do not think this issue is something that could be assisted through the forum. There is a Billing Livechat where you can talk to an agent over the internet webchat facility rather than calling through to a helpdesk.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

[brookehomes]

I took the above advice. I've just used live chat and guess what? They directed me to Business Billing! I've already called them 5 times recently, as well as the BT complaints dept and have always been redirected to Business billing...what a joke.

Billing will listen, sympathise, promise all sorts, assure and patronise..then nothing!

I am £100 worse off, have had my telephone and broadband disconnected, had to pay £120 to the CCTV company to recalibrate the system, and still the invoices go to the wrong address...you couldn't make it up.

This is the standard response I had from Live Chat.

I advise you to contact the department that specialises on your account, below, I have provided you the number and e-mail address of our Business Billing Lines Team.

Business billing (lines) 0845 600 6156
Business Billing - business-billing@bt.com

If you wish to enrol your account to Direct Debit please do not hesitate to contact us at 0845 600 7020 and please do provide us with your bank account number, bank sort code and name that appears on the bank.

[Fiona]

Hi BrookeHomes

I'm sorry you didn't get any answers from the billing LiveChat. Can you please private mail me with your account numbers and any relevant information. I can then ask a Billing agent to look at the case for you.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

[cointreauman]

Broken homes

No surprise eh - BT are just too many tiny little companies within the group and all are incapable of working with each other. I know this form wokring with them on a number of large prjects in the past!

They do not listen to their own advice

It being easier to keep a customer than find a new one - remember that one

Well after many years they will lose this business customer with their latest change to Ts&Cs - that f charging me £3 to accept a payment direct in order to force me onto Direct Debit. In other words a Ryanair strip the customer tactic... well not for me - So for their £3 per month charge they want to levy on a small business already struggling with getting paid for work done by me form much larger sometimes global companies I am now cancelling an order for 5 all in one phone broadband blackberry and mobile broadband deals and I shall take my business elsewhere - soemthing you cannot do - YET.

Until BT stop their stupid short term no joined up thinking ways they will lose more customers. I rang my local Chamber of Commerce contact, also a business broadband client and he too will be going elsewhere...

BT -  Bloody Thicl!!

Good iuck with your problem

Take them to the small claims court - it will be cheaper for them to refund you than actually send someone to defend the action - they have failed their contract and charged you for the privelige!

Regards Good luck and keep using the forum -- it says General Chat!!!

Cointreauman

[Tracey]

Hi Cointreauman, Options to avoid the new Payment Processing Fee other than taking up Direct Debit are: ·     Move to paperfree billing

·     Sign up for Consolidated billing (ie One Bill) if there is more than one account.

 

The charge does not apply to mobile bills

Hope this is of help

Tracey

BT Forum Moderator

[Seraphsailor]

Hi Fiona,

Having read the above I thought “OK – let’s move to online billing and paperless” so I go to my small business mobile account:

Manage your BT accounts online

Managing your BT accounts online is designed to make life easier. Simply add your account details to your BT.com profile for easy management.

You can:

 View itemised billing information

 View your recent call details

 Pay your bills online

 Set up and manage your direct debit

Just click Add an account to start enjoying the benefits now.

So I Add Account and get:

Online billing is not activated for this account.

To authorise online billing, we need to send a request for approval to your billing address. This security measure prevents unauthorised access to your billing accounts. Click here to activate online billing.

So I click and now I get:

In order to access full online account management, for security purposes we are required to notify the business owner of the account you wish to manage online by letter to prevent unauthorised access. This process takes 5 days. Once access is granted, the benefits to you are:

Keep track of recent calls that you’ve made

Monitor how much you spend by creating graphs and reports

View the cost of every call you make

Compare how much you’ve been spending month on month

View and manage your BT Business products & services

All you need to do to access full online account management, is choose how you wish to receive your bill.

So I continue and get

Error Page

Sorry, we can't complete your request at the moment due to a fault. We're working to resolve it as soon as possible. Please try again later, or you might like to try searching all of BT.com

Thanks for nothing BT;

Just click Add an account to start enjoying the benefits now - but it takes min 5 days!

I have been through the macinations of BT’s “security processes” to confirm who I am – ie: the business owner of the account by writing to me at my business address and it is something I am not prepared to go through again!!!

If you want to confirm who I am then use commercially accepted strong 2-factor authentication – something I have and something I know;

Something I have - my BT bills!!! or my mobile phone number (text me a challenge code and I respond)

Something I know; let's try my dongle/SIM phone number(07760 7****2) or my last BT bill number (11811***) or how many pages the bill was (16) or my BT account numbers or the Bank Branch sort code for my DD payment.

So I will stay with paper billing - and because it is a mobile broadband account continue to receive circa 30 pages a month (against the dongle and inclusive Openzone) where every single line has a zero cost in that line.

[Fiona]

Hi Seraphsailor

I'm sorry you have experienced problems setting up the online billing for your account, you could talk the billing livechat who may be able to assist with setting this up.

Your idea about how to verify you for online billing is very good, you should raise this on the Customer Ideas board and the product line will look into it.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator