BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

[Zazen.Warrior]

BT recently slammed my calls from Virgin Media, they are on their way back to Virgin now accompanied by my line rental which was my last remaining BT product.

I just want to post this for reference:

Linda Deegan

Executive Level Complaints

BT Retail

Direct 0131 448 3675

Fax: 01925 444978

Email: Linda.deegan@bt.com

Hopefully someone else will be saved my several days of distress and frustration, and the total insanity of speaking to approx 20 people (mostly non English speakers) on my quest to 'sort it'.

Or as BT would have it 'our dedicated and experienced team will be happy to assist you'.

[Amethyst]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

Being a bit divvy, what does BT slammed my calls mean ? (sorry I have sat trying to work out what you mean but still no closer to understanding)

[TUTTSI]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

We recently changed at home back to BT from Onetel having been sold a package and was fully inclusive of mobiles, landline, internet and calls overseas on 2 business lines and was bitterly disapointed when we found out that they had mislead us and they also made such a hash up of our billing in many ways.

One of the mishaps were that we regularly phone a China mobile and the sales person told us that they had given us a package which included those calls. It turns out to be a nonsense,We have got them to refund the cost as they misled us and when we phone abroad we just put in 18866 and calls to China now cost 3p per minute unlike the 30p+ per minute that BT were trying to charge. I think that One Tel was 20p minute to Mobiles in China so this will now bring our bills right down. I can tell you when we got the bills they duplicated some of the charges by issuing different bills, charged a ginormasly for the the China mobile calls. Anyone from a £300+ bill we now have it down to under £150 after they rectified the mistakes and gave us a refund.

All I say is beware if you are planning on changing to BT and be very cautious.

[The Debt Star]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

BT are the pits for customer service.
f anyone's remotely interested, NEVER EVER have BT Openreach!! Or if you do, pray it never goes wrong!

[Caspar]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

We recently changed at home back to BT from Onetel having been sold a package and was fully inclusive of mobiles, landline, internet and calls overseas on 2 business lines and was bitterly disapointed when we found out that they had mislead us and they also made such a hash up of our billing in many ways.

One of the mishaps were that we regularly phone a China mobile and the sales person told us that they had given us a package which included those calls. It turns out to be a nonsense,We have got them to refund the cost as they misled us and when we phone abroad we just put in 18866 and calls to China now cost 3p per minute unlike the 30p+ per minute that BT were trying to charge. I think that One Tel was 20p minute to Mobiles in China so this will now bring our bills right down. I can tell you when we got the bills they duplicated some of the charges by issuing different bills, charged a ginormasly for the the China mobile calls. Anyone from a £300+ bill we now have it down to under £150 after they rectified the mistakes and gave us a refund.

All I say is beware if you are planning on changing to BT and be very cautious.

Lebara Mobile (you can get free SIM card online) charge just 4p per minute to phone China. You can pick up a leaflet in most decent size Tesos or look them up online. Not sure without looking it up whether it includes mobiles as well as landlines, but we have a Chinese girl living with us at the moment on a temporary basis and she told us about Lebara. I'd never heard of them.
https://www.lebara-mobile.co.uk/Free...FYw14wodNzieOg

Again if you're both on Lebara you get 100 mins free to other Lebara customers when you top up £10.00, but don't know without looking it up if this applies to those with Lebara in China again. Girl away till tomorrow - will try to remember to ask her when she gets back!

[TUTTSI]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

But Caspar, we are now paying 3p a minute so why would I want to pay 4p a minute? Also, 3p is to a mobile in China not a landline. tell your lodger to add 18866 before the nuber it is cheaper.

Lebara Mobile (you can get free SIM card online) charge just 4p per minute to phone China. You can pick up a leaflet in most decent size Tesos or look them up online. Not sure without looking it up whether it includes mobiles as well s landlines, but we have a Chinese girl living with us at the moment on a temporary basis and she told us about Lebara. I'd never heard of them.
https://www.lebara-mobile.co.uk/Free...FYw14wodNzieOg

[Caspar]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

added bit about the 100 free mins. Other international calls can be cheap with this network as well (but not all). If anyone makes international calls maybe worth looking them up.

Defo not telling her to dial the prefix - she uses her own phone. She's been with us for four months due to a pregnancy complication making her homeless and us being soft. Has not paid a penny towards anything while she's been here!

[Zazen.Warrior]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

Being a bit divvy, what does BT slammed my calls mean ? (sorry I have sat trying to work out what you mean but still no closer to understanding)

It means they took my account without my consent, I didn't know what it meant until last week.

Ofcom | Slamming crackdown

[Caspar]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

Apologies - I rather took this off thread! Glad you got it sorted and what a useful contact you've posted. I've already saved it with a load of others on my memory stick!

Thank you.

[Amethyst]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

mmm odd terminology then.

Does it happen a lot ? I assume so if the OFT have taken the trouble to write a leaflet on it.

I could imagine it happening with the more random companies but the big guys like BT and Virgin, seems quite worrying.

I guess its easier for BT as in many cases they retain the line rental part of the bill anyway. I have Virgin Cable so they get the whole lot and I just ignore all the leaflets from BT trying to entice me back.

There are now lots of phone companies competing to offer telephony services to consumers. Competition has many benefits,including choice a nd ultimately lower prices.
Companies use a variety of sales and marketing activities to gain customers and while the majority of these are carried out responsibly, some companies may attempt to gain customers through dishonest activities such as mis-selling.

There are various forms of mis-selling, one of which is known as “slamming” which is where customers are switched from one company to another without their knowledge or consent.

In some cases, you might only be aware of this once you’ve received a bill from a different company.


How to avoid being “slammed”
Here are some tips to help you avoid being “slammed”:
Be wary of giving out personal information over the phone
Only agree to something over the phone if you’re sure who
you are talking to and what you’re signing up for; if you’re
not sure, ask the caller to post the information to you first
Ask to see identification from doorstep sellers to check that
they are representing the company they say they are
Don’t give out your direct debit details unless you’re certain
you want to switch phone companies
Don’t sign anything unless you’ve read it and are sure of what
you’re signing up for
What to do if you’ve been “slammed”
There are a number of safeguards built into the switching
process for landline phones, which have been designed to ensure
that you are protected from being “slammed”:
You will receive a letter from your old phone company, and
also one from the new company informing you that you are
moving provider
If you don’t want to move to a new phone company, you
should call your old phone company where you have been
slammed and your new company where you have simply
changed your mind. If you do this within 10 days they will be
able to put a stop to the switch and you can carry on as
before
You should register a complaint using Ofcom’s online
complaint form to tell us what’s happened and which
companies are involved. Ofcom monitors complaints and is
able to take action against companies that engage in
“slamming”

[Zazen.Warrior]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

Just to add they have agreed to pay me £50.00 compensation.

Plus £13.00 for the mobile calls I had to make (all to BT) when they also went on to cut me off!

And they have agreed to wipe the cost of my calls between the slamming and returning to my chosen provider - but this was not without a whole lot of hassle.

And this all began because a telesales person who was given short shrift decided to put me through as a 'yes'

I challenged them to produce a recording of me agreeing to the switch. They could not.

[Zazen.Warrior]

Re: BT Slammed my calls from Virgin Media

I put the above contact info on MSE too and they have since removed it.:noidea: