{"id":801569,"date":"2026-10-13T20:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801569\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T20:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:06:10","slug":"bt-charged-me-for-more-than-a-year-despite-landline-being-dead-consumer-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801569\/","title":{"rendered":"BT charged me for more than a year despite landline being dead | Consumer rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve had no landline since May 2025 when BT<\/a> switched it to Digital Voice. Weeks passed, and each call to BT involved at least an hour waiting on hold and answering security questions before being passed between departments.<\/p>\n

Eventually, last December, two engineers were sent and discovered that a wire had been severed during the upgrade. They said they needed a cherry picker to reconnect it to its original location and would return. They did not.<\/p>\n

Since then, I\u2019ve called BT to no avail, and all the while I\u2019ve been paying for a landline that doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

I am on the priority register due to serious illness and am reduced to tears of helplessness.<\/p>\n

HH, York<\/p>\n

You have been paying \u00a332.99 a month for a dead landline and broadband, which was unaffected. BT claims it was unaware of the problem until you complained last December. You insist you had reported it before then, but do not have records of when. It turns out the case was closed in December after the engineers\u2019 abortive visit.<\/p>\n

You next complained in January, but BT admits it again closed the case because, by then, your landline had been removed from your account, though you were still being charged.<\/p>\n

It says it did not hear from you again until I intervened in July.<\/p>\n

You said that you had believed promises that a fix was under way.<\/p>\n

A complaints manager rang you after my contact, and you were offered an extraordinary \u00a36.46 to \u201cmake up\u201d for its failings. Your line was eventually activated in September.<\/p>\n

The telecoms regulator Ofcom requires providers to pay \u00a310.34 compensation a day if a reported fault is not corrected within two working days, which means you are, in theory, entitled to more than \u00a34,600.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve put this to BT, but it is digging in because, it claims, you waited months to report the problems. Since you can\u2019t provide proof to contradict it, I can\u2019t argue the toss.<\/p>\n

You have the option of a complaint to the Communications Ombudsman <\/a>but have now accepted \u00a3689 for the 60 days without service which BT acknowledges fall within the compensation rules, and for its mishandling of the two complaints it has on record.<\/p>\n

Always keep a timeline of interactions with a company and follow up unaddressed complaints promptly and in writing.<\/p>\n

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com<\/a> or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve had no landline since May 2025 when BT switched it to Digital Voice. Weeks passed, and each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-801569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}