[noemon]

On the 10th of May, I activated the Unlimited BT calling plan(ref: BTCB0ZZZZ04005040883), for an extra £7.50 a month, that is unlimited landline phone-calls throughout the entire day and not just on evenings and weekends that I had before.

Ever since I joined BT infinity on the 27th of April 2015, I had International Freedom on my account, that is the ability to call abroad for no extra-charge @ £6.60 per month.

On the 10th of May when I activated the Unlimited Calling Plan, my International Freedom became cancelled, that is BT started charging me for phone calls made abroad without though ever notifying me via any means, either email, post or phone.

On the 5th of June I saw a charge for £250 on my bank account and so I checked my BT phone bill, and there it was, BT had refunded me £3(half a month) which I had already paid for International Freedom and charged me over £200 for calls made abroad, I call BT and Michael, the manager from the LiverPool resolutions team handling the complaint(ref: VOL-012-122306670801) offered me a £20 refund, he also reactivated International Freedom and reassured me that any international phone calls going forward will not be charged. An hour ago I saw another charge for £225 from my bank account and guess what? That was BT again, still charging me for international phone calls, I called them and they told me that it will take 24-48 hours to get someone to call me back. As it stands BT has fraudulently charged me over £400 worth of phone calls, she has caused me great distress and there is a clear avoidance to talk to me either via email or phone.

This is the only email communication received from BT:



In the mean time this post will be disseminated in all social media and of course has already been sent to BBC WatchDog and the Ombundsman.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Sabbaticus]

Perhaps the fine print specifically excludes a pairing of the two? Either way, that is a steep bill.

[noemon]

It doesn't no, the excuse given by Michael was that when I activated the one I should have activated the other one as well(even though that was already active) and redone the entire order, but if that were the case, then why didn't my internet get cancelled I did not reactivate that one either, I just ordered one add-on? Why did he reassure me on the 5th of June that it has been reactivated when it has not.
And why was no communication provided that it has actually been cancelled instead of letting me assume that I can make phone calls abroad for no charge? If some communication had been provided I would have either not made the calls or reactivated it straight away.

[noemon]

BT just called and are refunding all the money back.

[ThirdTerm]

I think it's a language issue and BT took some time to confirm that they were dealing with someone with excellent English who could negotiate this complicated matter. In California, I demanded a refund for a movie ticket when I visited TCL Chinese Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the ticket lady said that she called her supervisor and ignored me for five minutes. I kept demanding a refund in good English and then she called her supervisor again and she said I spoke English to her supervisor over the phone. Probably a random foreign tourist would not have gotten a refund at all in this situation.

[noemon]

It is not a language issue darling, as I highly doubt anyone can tell I am a foreigner when I speak British English. BT tried to get out of this by offering me a £20 voucher back on the 5th of June, I declined their pathetic offer, and now that I reported them to the Ombundsman and paraded them through facebook and twitter they gave me all my money back. And tourists do not have BT fibre optic infinity broadband @300Mbps, telephone line and TV for years.

Their argument was that I was informed that International Freedom has been removed, I was never informed and their excuse now given was, "the email was created but was never sent to you for some reason, so Mr noemon you are correct, you were not informed and as such here is your money back".

[JLRRAC]

Noemon, I have just found your postings on these pages and would like to ask if you have ever checked your BT International package call charges? If I might explain why it is that I am asking this, like yourself I have international freedom with BT and have done so for many years but for at least 7/8 of these years I have found myself having to contact BT virtually every other month to have charges removed/refunded. Under BT's package customers have the first 600 minutes free of charge however, as I have discovered, this is not always the case. I use an electronic timer for all my IF calls and never exceed the 600 mins but have seen BT attempting to charge my account for such calls.

My most recent bill is an example, I was being charged £2.80 and yet my timings showed I had not exceeded the 600mins indeed my timings were within 4 seconds of BT's own breakdown figures of my calls. If as I suspect many users of BT International Freedom are simply too busy to check this detail of their phone bill it might be the case many thousands are being charged unfairly for making calls using this BT service. Could I suggest you take a look at your previous BT bills and using the filter options on your call breakdown pages look to see how many minutes had actually passed before BT began to charge your account? Unless I am in the ridiculously odd position of being the only customer of BT who has faced these charges on my bill I fear all users of BT's IF will likewise be being charged, including yourself.

Best wishes, JLR, Scotland.

[skinster]

I was going to say DEATH TO BT but you got your money back.

Still, wankers.

[JLRRAC]

Whilst I may have, after a bit of a fight with BT, been refunded my money many thousands with BT's International Freedom as part of their package will not as like I was saying in my first posting they will not, due to their being busy with so many of life's other worries work, children ect, have been checking just how many of their free 600 minutes they have actually used before BT began charging them for their international calls.

I do not know how I can bring the issue of BT's charging I/F customers for calls before they have exceeded the first 600mins to more of their customers. If this could be done and these customers re-examined their previous phone bills they could, if my experience is anything to go by, be owed a fair bit of refunding.