A Phonecall worth £60

Published by Robert Brown on June 4, 2008 under Budget tips

I moved into my new house, and had to go through the ordeal of arranging a line with broadband.  Telecommunication companies have to be the worst public services I’ve ever faced - BT, Tiscali and Wanadoo have all raised my blood pressure on several occasions. (Check out some of these BT complaints)

Today I resigned myself to being passed around from to as they tried to sort out my issue - I had been charged £120 more than I expected in my latest bill for a very unspecific “one off charge”.  I swear blind I remember the BT engineer when I spoke to him had said I shouldn’t be charged at all for connection.

After explaining this three times to various staff, my exasperation was rewarded with a £60 credit on my bill. The connection issue according to the final TSR had stopped being policy several months ago. Nice for them to tell me; my first warning of connection charge at all was the bill.  When I explained I had been passed around by four staff before finally speaking to him, and “my mate in Truro worked for BT and said I’d get it for free” he gave me the discount to save me lodging a complaint.

Moral?  Always communicate with companies - remember they want your money but the staff are human beings.  I tried to not be a prick when talking to the staff, and just firmly and calmly pointed out my grievances each time I spoke with a member of staff, lodging complaints as soon as my expected level of service wasn’t reached. 

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