You will hopefully recall my dispute with BT from my previous post: I had been charged a £135 engineering charge for the replacement of the ancient faulty master box in my house.
BT believed that I was responsible for paying the charge as the homeowner responsible for causing damage to the box.
However, I didn’t believe I shouldn’t have been charged as I hadn’t caused any such damage in reality.
My argument here was built on the reason why I had called BT out in the first place.
BT had said I wouldn’t be charged if the problem wasn’t my fault.
But I had been.
Using the BT chat function, I had established that BT actually wouldn’t charge me only if the issue was BT’s fault, which is quite different.
I had fallen in the gap.
And I didn’t like it.
Time to give BT a call…
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Before picking up the phone, though, it’s important to decide both what your arguments are, and what you want to get from the call.
In my case the second question was easy – I wanted my £135 refunded.
I might have asked for an apology and some further compensation, but I had to get the charge amount returned first.
My arguments, bolstered by my chat earlier on, would be:
- BT said it would not charge me if the issue was not my fault. It wasn’t my fault, and so I shouldn’t have been charged. Simple.
- Further, predicting that BT would argue that it was my fault (that’s what the engineer decided) BT could not prove that the issue was my fault, and so shouldn’t have charged me.
- I also wanted to add that I should have been informed in advance that BT wanted such a large payment, as it could have left me overdrawn when it was taken.
- I would also have liked BT to request payment from me – I was in a much worse position trying to ask for my money back.
BT or not BT? That is the question…
Having rung BT’s general customer line, I was faced with the odd argument immediately that my dispute wasn’t with BT at all!
It was with BT Openworld – a separate entity that did the engineering.
To be frank, I didn’t care.
I don’t think it really mattered, to be honest.
Once patched through to BT Openworld, I was told that the charge was correct.
As far as BT was concerned, their engineer’s report is untouchable.
Their engineer had reported decoration in the area, with the apparently obvious logical conclusion that I, armed with a brush, some magnolia paint and a strong sense of mischief, had taken it upon myself to sabotage BT’s line.
I exaggerate the argument somewhat, but the point remained that what I thought the cause to have been, i.e. the amusingly ancient box itself, was found to not be guilty.
Annoyingly, I had no pictures of the box or other evidence of the scene of the crime.
Engineer, decorator, crime scene investigator
My next line of attack was to question the engineer’s expertise in the area of assessing decoration damage.
Could the BT engineer really assert, to the tune of £135, that a despicable decorator had maliciously maltreated BT’s master box?
The conclusion, following much debate, was that the engineer would be re-contacted to see if his opinion had changed.
This counted as a ‘disputed charge’ and a file was opened.
This was what I wanted, but it didn’t sound like my charge would be easy to reclaim.
BT said they would phone me back once the engineer had given his views on my argument.
BT phone home, please
Unfortunately, BT failed to call me for three weeks, so I called them – armed with another grievance.
It turned out the engineer had responded after only 10 days or so.
No surprises.
The engineer believed his notes had been sufficiently clear and decided not to change his mind.
My dispute was therefore rejected.
I pointed out the flaws in this ‘dispute process’.
I couldn’t believe that their procedure essentially involved them asking what the engineer thought, and then following that report whatever it said.
It didn’t seem particularly balanced to me, nor did I feel my views were taken into account.
I asked to complain higher up the chain about the engineering charge, the dispute process and BT failing to call me as promised.
I was getting frustrated at the poor service I was receiving and how difficult it was to simply speak to someone about it all.
The most effective way for me to get an issue like this resolved is to speak directly to someone senior (see my post about Cosmos Holidays).
BT agreed.
A senior customer service manager would call me back.
Hello? Is anyone there..? Hello?
After three weeks, I called BT with yet another grievance.
Having explained the situation, I got through to a manager.
They apologised for failing to ring me and quickly worked out why I was complaining.
The manager decided to reject my complaint, on the basis that the engineer had determined I should be charged – so I was.
I forcefully put my argument about how impressed I was that a telecoms engineer is able to tell that decoration damage caused a line fault.
This was rebutted; the engineer is better qualified than anyone to make that call, and so we should defer to him.
I pointed out that a dispute process that simply defers to the superior judgment of a BT employee wasn’t really fair to me.
I added to this my frustration at having to chase at every stage, and finished off by arguing that I had been told (on the chat) that BT charged me if it wasn’t their fault – which is different to their warning to me before I first called.
I was appalled at the customer service I had received.
I was astounded at how difficult it had been to challenge a clearly incorrect charge, and demanded the return of my money.
The result?
The take-home
- Before you pick up the phone, make sure you prepare what you are going to say. Decide what your arguments will be, and decide what you want to achieve from your call. In particular, think about what the response is likely to be – and plan what you’ll say.
- Try and speak to someone senior. If you’re able to present your argument forcefully to someone who can make a decision, you stand the best chance of convincing someone to look favourably on your case.
- Think about how you’ve been treated when fighting something unfair. Don’t just focus on your original complaint; add to it and change your dispute to reflect any issues with the process etc. The added complaints will add weight and power to your arguments.
Any further questions?
Apart from wanting to know how my dispute with BT turns out, if you have any questions about the telecoms topics I have raised in this post, or stories of your own experiences with BT or the other phone companies, please leave me a comment or send me an email.
I personally respond to every question – but you’ll have to wait for part 3 for the conclusion to my BT battle!