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I have been paying £26, then £25 a month on the monthly payment plan on BT Total Broadband Option 3 since beginning my contact roughly 12 months ago and have only spent literally a few pence using my broadband talk telephone. The cost of BT Total Broadband Option 3 is in fact £24.99 a month and was £25.99 a month exactly as I have been paying every month without fail, so I should most definitely be completely up to date with my account except for a few pence.

I have recently just made a deal with BT in return for going on new 12 contract starting on the 5th December 2008 at just £15.49 a month because I’m not satisfied that I can’t get ADSL2+ when UKOnline are already offering it in my area. It took a number of calls to BT as I kept getting cut off, but I most certainly confirmed this special discount deal with 2 different BT operators and have repeatedly confirmed on the phone the agreement.

I have just gone into my account and instead of reducing my payments to £15.49, BT have just increased my monthly payment to £39.50 a month. I know it’s not the start of my new contact yet at the time of writing, but I shouldn’t be paying more than £25 plus a few pence of broadband talk calls I’ve ever made.

I have tried to speak to various operators, but keep getting cut off due to ongoing problems with BT’s call centre, please see BT Hanging Up On Phone Calls Repeatedly for more details about this problem.

One operator tried to tell me that I have outstanding balances on my account. I explained that I’ve been paying the total cost of my broadband every month without making more than a few pence of broadband talk calls. She then looked at the payments on my account and agreed that something must obviously be wrong, at this stage I got cut off. Another operator said that my monthly broadband would be reduced to £20 a quarter instead of £25 when it was definitely agreed that I’d be paying £15.49 a month in return for starting a new 12 month contract. When I complained, I was put on hold and cut off yet again. A third operator seemed to think that the problem stemmed from my flat move back in July when BT totally messed up my accounts. When I moved BT didn’t cut off my broadband at my old address as agreed and I ended up with 2 BT broadband accounts being charged to my name at the same time. This was meant to be finally sorted, but now I’m not so sure, see Moving home with BT can be a nightmare for full details of months of problems due to BT mistakes when I moved home. Unfortunately before I could get more details, BT hung up yet again. I tried calling again, but kept getting cut off.

I have gone back into my on-line BT account and one operator had reduced my payment to £31 a month when it’s supposed to be £15.49 a month and no more than £25 a month before the start of my new contract on the 5th November 2008. Now I’ve got lots of different operators on the case all confusing the issue because of BTs totally unusable phone system and utter incompetence. I have had no choice but to make a written a complaint saying that unless they sort the problem out immediately and charge me the correct amount, they are breaching their contact as they’re not honouring a legal verbal agreement I made for £15.49 a month. I have adjusted my monthly payment myself to what I should be paying and have explained that I refuse to pay a penny more and that I most certainly don’t owe any arrears on my BT broadband account.

If BT don’t resolve the problem, I will have to leave BT for breach of contract and I will then demand compensation from them, I hope I don’t have to do this, but I refuse to stick to a 12 month contract where I’m paying more than was agreed. Unless BT honour the agreed amount, the contract is legally null and void. All I want is to pay the correct amount as agreed and get a reasonable broadband service from BT.

I will obviously continue to pursue for a resolution and will also see what happens when the new contract comes into effect. Please watch for updates.

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