Charge From B.t.

[bob561941]

A couple of weeks ago I had a problem with my landline connection and Outreach came and repaired the cable outside into my inside connection. The engineerured me that there would be no charge. Today I got a ministatement frm my bank and see B>T> have taken a Direct Debit of £169.92. Does anyone know the number I have to call to sort this out ?

[Old_Geezer]

Definitely for the repair not the quarterly bill ?

I can only suggest a) look on your last paper bill for a number or b) try looking at the BT website(s).

[Old_Geezer]

Try 0800 800 150 ?

[Buenchico]

You'll probably get shunted around between departments but start with 0800 800 150.

Further, any organisation taking money by Direct Debit is obliged to inform the account holder in advance of each payment being taken. (They can take regular payments of the same amount without notifying you every time but they must let you know if there's a change to a regular payment or an individual, one-off, payment). So you can claim your money back, through your bank, if no such notification was received:
http://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/Benefits.aspx

[Buenchico]

PS: Charges to repairs of BT's infrastructure, outside of your house, would normally be free of charge unless it was clear that you'd been negligent (e.g. by digging through a cable).

[bob561941]

old geezer i don't get a paper bill

[Prudie]

Just ring them. We recently got charged for an Outreach visit by TalkTalk. We rang TT and they apologised for their mistake and refunded us.You've got to keep your eyes on them.

[ubasses]

If you ticked a box to opt out of paper billing you will still have an on line bill. Have you had a look to see exactly what you have paid for. It should be itemised on there, and it would probably be a good idea to know the full details before ringing ans the £162 could include your quarterly bill.

[Tuvok]

Do you pay your line rental as line rental saver? It might be that.

[themas]

Yes, you need to be sure what the charge is for. But sadly it doesn't surprise me if Outreach are making an unjustified charge. The rule is that you do not pay for any work on your line up to the master socket (which is the first socket inside your house that the line connects into). From what you say it appears the work Outreach did is therefore not chargeable to you.

If you do need to query this you will very likely get the run around & find no-one in BT will take ownership of the problem. If it doesn't get sorted quickly you may well need to make a formal complaint or even one to the Chief Executive's complaint team (they have so many complaints going to him that he has his own team dealing with them, on top of the normal complaints team!).

Look on BT's website &/or post on their users forum if you need more detail.