Hi there... Talktalk will be offering my pensioner dad some type of compensation package for mistakenly disconnecting his phone line in error after his wife passed away but despite me taking 6 weeks desperately trying to get his old number back, they've finally told me it's not possible due to technical issues of his 30-odd year old number being on an old exchange and they operate on some new exchange. Believe me, I fought to get his previous number back (and spent a heap of money calling their 0870 number and being placed on hold for ages), even consulted BT about it and actually tried going back with them to get back the old number as i was told it is still available but unfortunately they advised today that they cannot get the old number due to the same technical issue. As you can imagine, my father has many people around the globe, some of whom he speaks to every few years so it's all a HUGE inconvenience, not to mention him having to now remember this new number. URGH! Anyway, I have decided to go back to Talktalk simply because their initial goodwill gesture package to me was very good: £23 per month for unlimited broadband, phone anytime, free mobile calls on mobile phone plus free international calls for a year. I've asked for a better offer then the one above as it is now established that he cannot get his old number back. My question is, what is a good compensation package from them? I also looked into getting them to give him a golden number but I don't think they do that service. Shame. Any ideas?

BT has installed flying cables outside my hotel, whereby the sea views have been severely obstructed. I have exhausted all the higher complaint levels within BT and written to both the private secretary and CEO twice via recorded delivery. They fail to reply. I need now to pursue a legal course of action. I believe BT has breach the Telecommunications Act 1984, whereby there is a clause which prohibits BT flying cables which interferes with the carrying on of any business. Our whole business hinges on our views which are now obstructed and guests are complaining. I could issue a writ for say £9k under the £10k limit, whereby I would not be pursued for legal cost should I fail to win such case. On the other hand, I might lose, simply because I may find it hard to justify such financial losses. I understand how to issue a writ for the claim of monies, but how do I go about getting a District Judge to rule that BT has acted unlawfully? What Court process options can I adopt? Thank you

Hi can anyone help me? I transferred my British Telecom line rental account several years ago when I moved home. The account was transferred to my brother's name after he became the sole occupant of my old house. The transfer was effected over the phone with BT, and it seemed to go smoothly. A few months ago I learnt that BT had sent a bill to my old address, in my name, I emailed them via their website and told them that the bill was erroneous because I ceased to be a BT customer years before. This email went without reply. I then phoned their customer service help line and explained the situation to them. I told them that I wasn't really bothered about the fact that they had billed me, because this was an error which could easily be sorted out. What really concerned me, I explained, was that if the problem wasn't resolved in good time, my credit rating could be affected, owing to any perceived late payment of their erroneous bill. After checking their records, customer services acknowledged BT's mistake and assured me that the problem would be taken care of. They also told me not to worry about my credit rating, because BT had not yet refered my case to a debt collection agency; standard practice on their part after bills are continually ignored by their customers. However, some time later, I received another bill, a final reminder, I contacted BT again. Once more, I went to great lengths to make them understand that my credit rating was very important to me and that I was extremely anxious that it might be affected. I was then given the same answer as before: I was told that the matter would be sorted out and that my credit history would still be unaffected because they had not yet referred me to a debt collection agency. This whole scenario was repeated when I received a final reminder from BT. This time, though, when I called their customer services helpline and was told that they would rectify the problem, I explained that I wasn't prepared to take their word for anything, and insisted that they email me, telling me exactly what steps they had taken to resolve the problem. I gave them several days to reply but, true to form, their email never arrived. Shortly afterwards, I returned home from work to find a letter from a debt collection agency, acting on behalf of BT, and demanding money for my unpaid phone bill! I contacted BT again, this time via their website's Live Chat facility, and asked them what assurances they could give me that my credit history had not been affected. They told me they couldn't give me any assurances and suggested that I contact a company called Equifax and ask them. I'm still in the process of registering with this company, so I'm yet to find out if BT's negligence has impacted my credit rating. If it transpires that it has, then I think I'm in trouble because I've been advised that this is irreversible, even if BT were to formally admit their mistake, and that my credit rating will remain tarnished for several years. If it so happens that my credit rating has been affected, does anyone know if I am able to seek any redress from BT? Could I, for example, sue them in a small claims court? I am livid about this, absolutely livid, not just because my credit score might be seriously undermined, but because this outcome was so avoidable. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you Redquasar

Hope someone can point me in the right direction, as I have just got off the phone with Bt and they are as much help as a chocolate teapot Basically my grandads getting on hes 85, about a month ago whilst vistin him I noticed a Bt letter on the table. Well that was odd because his landline was cancelled when my nan passed. Anyway when questioned he said they sent him a bill for £16 so he just paid it, they have since sent him another bill for £23 and then got sent a dept collectors letter. They have said its for equipment rental (he used to rent the phone), he sent it back 6 years ago and they want a reference number to prove it was sent !!! They also said it was his final bill What can i do about this?? what if they send more bills? He will just pay them I know my grandad and he does everything to the letter so I know hes returned it, but even if for arguments sake he hadnt why no contact until 6 years later ??? Can anyone help please? xx EDIT: Just spoke to someone else who said he still owed £18.90 I have got them to take this off and they assure me he wont be getting any more bills. Is there anyway to get back what he has paid in the last 12 months?

Hi all, I need your help I find myself in a weird situation where I recently checked my credit file to find that BT had registered two bits of information all relating to the same account number with Equifax but the weird bit is they Show confliction one entry shows an account with a different 4 digits ending and the other shows another account with a different four digit ending both relating to the exact same debt hope I haven't confused yous yet. I recently contacted bt and they told me this was as a result of a bill incurred when I left bt for bt vision bt broadband and phone. When I discussed this with bt I disputed the legitimacy of the sale of bt vision to me at the time as I asked them if I needed to have freeview to be able to watch pause and record live tv they said at the time of sale no but to my shock and horror I did need it but we could not get freeview at the time so I felt I should not be held responsible for this contract as bt had miss sold me a product I would not have other wise bought after all why by something you cannot use? Bt said they did not accept this and when I told them at the time they had refused to take this back they stated they could not find any proof of this and that there evidence at best was sketchy I told them this was having an adverse affect on my mental health and causing a great deal of distress to me due to this issue and quoted them chapter and verse of Scottish contract law and miss representation which may lead to a consumer entering in to a contract they would not other wise do so and the consequences and what Scots law said from the stair memorial encyclopedia after some debate they agreed to write off this debt but failed to agree to remove two account entries from my debt stating it had nothing to do with miss selling and was instead on grounds of my mental health. When I first contacted bt I gave them the account number for the account which had been defaulted and they told me they could not find such an account and when I gave them the account number for the one which showed as settled they told me this was in fact the correct account they then stated that the account had been passed on to the debt collection agency and that as far as they where concerned was settled but that bt had registered a default on the 17/03/2010 but despite the fact that there own customer service agent states say for example account 1234 was the correct account the only default I can find is registered on a different account number say 4321. Now bt have refused to remove the two accounts what I would like to know is did bt breach the data protection act by Giving this debt two separate conflicting entries under two separate account numbers when in fact it relates to one account in this case say 1234 and by their own admission they where unable to find any such account ending 4321 is this a breach of the DPA? The reason I ask is there are two separate accounts with conflicting information on my credit file pulling down my credit rating and it seems like to me bt deliberately is attempting to miss lead people by giving these accounts two separate account numbers when in fact they all relate to the same account which according to their agent is supposed to be account 1234. I feel like they may have broken the rules possibly even the law but legally where do I stand can i insist this is sorted in to one account number instead of two or that this is removed as it is in violation of the DPA or what? I must say I find it highly suspicious as to why they would give it two separate account numbers for the same debt and also strange why they would have the two separate account numbers show conflicting evidence can someone help me here please I am confused as to how to approach this one a nd why bt feels the need to give the one debt two different account numbers? I hope yous can see why I am seeking your help on this one as I find it really strange in relation to posting two separate entries on my credit file with equifax stating conflicting info for the same debt. Robert

hi, i was wondering if anyone can offer any guidance and where i might stand in terms of a complaint. i ordered a new term of bt infinity back in may of this year and suffered two months of follow up calls and so on because i wasn't getting the service they had sold me. it wasn;t until the end of june when i was getting the proper service i requested a refund and got one for the first month. .i then asked for money off for the rest of June when i also experienced problems.. i have paperless billing .. I noticed that my bills showing seemed to stop at June and i phoned to chase this up.. i wanted upto date bills ..the first time i called i was told there would be a delay because of the Olympics postal delay (even though it was paperless), i phoned up a couple of weeks ago thinking that i was in credit and indeed it was confirmed on the auto balance phone number and by an employee that i was £55 in credit on my account. i was going to set up a direct debit when everything had calmed down. .i was also budgetting around this assumption. on the 16th of August i saw online that my bill had come through for August and that i owed £97... needless to say i cannot afford this because i'm on Incap and i feel i have in effect been penalised for their fault in billing. .what can i do? thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

I hardly ever use my BT landline because I'm paying Three.co.uk £30.00 for 2000 minutes and endless texts etc. So - today I get my online BT bill and for the first time I've discovered that I'm charged a total of £3.70 for not using my phone twice in one month and not calling their 1571 answer service twice in one month. I have contacted BT about this on the phone. Are you surprised that the response was not "yes, we will provide you with a full justification of the size of the cost"? They've been given 14 working days to provide what I request. Else? I draw my sword. Some will recall that I won a punch up with British Gas for some £800, and since then have won against certain large foodstores on other consumer issues. Yes - I'm confident. A sizeable proportion will - as BT did - jump to the contractual clauses that allow them to bleed me and which it will be said allow me to be bled. Well - like me or not - I'm not interested in the clauses, I'm interested in finding out how BT arrive at £3.70 as a reasonable penalty charge, because this is what it is. Why not £5, or £10, or £200!! Sure enough £200 would appear to be ridiculous, compared to £3.70. For any level of penalty charge, customers should be provided with a full costing of penalty charges on request [not a defensive response which hides behind contractual clauses]. Yes - I could dream up reasons for penalty charges. I'm not interested. I want to know how they care calculated. The issue is related to a similar one where certain airlines are bleeding people up to a tenner to use a credit card online, whilst my local cinema may charge a mere 75p. How are we (in general) as conusmers to be shielded from big muscle businesses, driven by greed and profiteering? Something is fundamentally wrong with the way business works in this country.

Have been with BT For 3 Years, I signed up for a 12 month contract. NOT once was we told or made aware that this contract would automatically renew for 12 months We have never recieved a letter saying that the contract would be renewing & I would never have taken out the initial contract with them had I been aware of this I have changed my supplier and Been charged £67 Im disgusted that they are allowed to do this, surely a contract is a mutual agreement....I did not agree to this. Is there a way to get out of the charges??

Hi, I received a letter from Moorcroft a few weeks ago requesting payment of an overdue debt on behalf of BT (outstanding home phone bill). I subsequently sent them a CCA Request letter. Today, I got the following reply from them: "...Please note that certain accounts are excluded from compliance with Part V of the Consumer Credit Act or are not in fact credit or hire agreements and we believe that our client's account falls into one of these categories." Please can someone advise me on how to respond to this latest letter. Is it true that a BT home phone account doesn't fall under the CCA 1974? Thanks, Tim.

I've noticed an increase in my bills lately and have discovered I am paying for a service I have not requested. I've went onto discover the service went under a different name and was replaced by Friends & Family Mobile. Looks like I've been paying for an unused service for sometime at £4.47 a quarter for over one year. I have also read that emails were sent out detailing the change, I have no recollection of the any emails about this I've noticed some other similar articles and I am now wondering, if possible, how to proceed and to get a refund from BT.

I had fully comprehensive insurance on my car when I had a supposed 'no fault' accident in July 2010 in which my it was written off after hitting several things including a BT telegraph pole. I say 'no fault' because the driver who caused it did not stop. My passenger and I were lucky not to be hurt. The telegraph pole was broken near the base but as far as we could tell, the lines were intact. It was just leaning over at about 30 degrees from vertical. The details of accident were reported by phone. I was never given a claim form to complete, though I did mention in all correspondence that the car had hit the telegraph pole. The insurance company only agreed to pay the full value of my car after I complained to the FSA about the way the claim had been handled. Some months later, in November, I had a letter from BT Openworld requesting that I pay damages of about £2500 (I don't seem to be permitted to state exact figures, see further on) for repair to the telegraph pole. I referred them to my insurer who contacted me to confirm that I had hit the telegraph pole which I did. Yesterday (14th January), I had a letter from BT to state that my insurer had refused to settle the claim and that I had 14 days in which to pay the money before they would instigate legal proceedings against me. We passed the scene of the accident about two hours later and the telegraph pole was back in service. The claim from BT Openworld seemed to suggest that it had taken about 50 man hours to fix. It stated working rates regarding which it said they would prosecute if they were divulged, so I'd better say no more. Suffice to say that I think that the costs are GROSSLY exaggerated. Without going into details, I have a lot of **** on my plate at the moment and this feels like it is going to tip me over the edge. Can somebody please offer some advice?