Problem with BT phone bill - need advice please!

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Joined
6 Oct 2004
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Birmingham
My mum has just had a call from BT - interesting situation has arisen.

When she was living with her ex she had a second phone line put in for business (she's self-employed), he offered to pay for it, and set up a direct debit (without her knowledge). When they split up and she moved out (about 6 years ago), she transferred the number to her new house and used it as the house number. Now, 6 years later it turns out that the direct debit wasn't transferred to her name as part of the process.

He's now cancelled the direct debit, and somehow reclaimed 6 years worth of bills from his bank, who have in turn reclaimed it from BT, now BT are asking my mum to pay ~£3,000 within 5 months!

Surely they/he can't do this? Seems a major issue, if this is in fact possible, surely you could screw someone over by doing this to them?

Is there any legislation in place to avoid this? I've had a quick google but couldn't find anything =(

As an aside, my mum's recently gotten engaged... this couldn't possibly be anything to do with it could it? :rolleyes:

Happy christmas anyway guys =D
 
This is a complicated situation (assuming its not a scam)... whatever you do right now do not pay a penny or make any financial arrangements, depending on the situation if the debt is over 6 years old it might fall under the limitations act and be unenforceable by BT - making any payment or entering negotiations on payment however will make it valid again.

Tho as it may be something she messed up I'm not sure what applies.
 
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BT don't call on Christmas Day to discuss recovering debts. If in the unlikely situation they have I suggest that you tell BBC Watchdog.
 
simulatorman said:
BT don't call on Christmas Day to discuss recovering debts. If in the unlikely situation they have I suggest that you tell BBC Watchdog.
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I wouldn't be so sure on that - I've had their out sourced call centers try to contact me at all sorts of inappropriate times before.
 
If the ex fella offered to pay for it, the weakness might be that it was his contract and not your Mum's. If your Mum's name wasn't on the account then it's him they should be chasing and not her.
 
Sounds like a scam. Tell her to tell them that she will only deal with this issue in writing. Then, she needs to call BT on the official number from their website and confirm with a senior manager there that this is indeed the case.

If it's real...surely she would have noticed not actually paying any bills these past years, no?
 
Yeah, something seems fishy. Surely your mum would have made a note on the fact that she hasn't paid a phone bill for 6 years.
 
I've never had a phone company or any utility for that matter phone me to tell them I have a bill to pay. I've always been posted a bill that would outline what the charges are for, I'd expect BT to do the same for you.
 
If it was used as a business line then things maybe different, I had British Gas Business phone me a few times regarding a bill (which was infact an error)
 
Sorry, was a bit unclear; they didn't phone today, apparently it was a week or 2 ago, but this is the first time i've seen my mum since =P

I'll concede that yes, she should have noticed it on her statements, which is what i've mentioned to her, but you don't really check your statements for missing payments do you? more for payments that have gone out which shouldn't have. Conversely, surely her ex should have noticed from statements that he was paying for her bill for 6 years and mentioned something... which makes it pretty obvious that he's just trying to screw her over...

It's not a scam as such (except perhaps by the ex) as her BT account is now ~£2800 in debit.

Rroff, do you have any links to the limitations act you mentioned?

Cheers.
 
Haggisman said:
Sorry, was a bit unclear; they didn't phone today, apparently it was a week or 2 ago, but this is the first time i've seen my mum since =P

I'll concede that yes, she should have noticed it on her statements, which is what i've mentioned to her, but you don't really check your statements for missing payments do you? more for payments that have gone out which shouldn't have. Conversely, surely her ex should have noticed from statements that he was paying for her bill for 6 years and mentioned something... which makes it pretty obvious that he's just trying to screw her over...

It's not a scam as such (except perhaps by the ex) as her BT account is now ~£2800 in debit.

Rroff, do you have any links to the limitations act you mentioned?

Cheers.
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Sounds like a very odd thing to do to try and screw someone over. Pay their phone bill for 6 years in the hope that you can get the payments reversed later down the line.

Has she not paid anything toward the bill for the entire 6 years, did her bills say anything about payments due etc.

To be fair she does owe the money in the end as she used the service, it will just be a case of working out a payment plan with BT.
 
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