Broadband ISP BT to Refund Customers After Duplicate Payments
UK ISP BT has apologised and promised to automatically refund customers who were impacted after a billing error meant that a “small number” of them had a “duplicate direct debit taken from their bank account“, which in some cases forced a few of those impacted into overdrafts.
According to MSE, BT has not yet confirmed which payment dates are impacted, exactly how many customers were affected or if the issue is now resolved (we assume so). The provider has also advised anybody who was pushed into an overdraft and incurred fees to contact their customer service team, although it remains unclear whether such individuals would receive additional compensation.
So far as we can tell, the complaints mostly cropped up over the last week, and almost all of them note that they were charged a second time on 21st March 2023. Some of those impacted have already been told to expect a refund early next week. Related complaints can be found littered across both social media (example) and BT’s own Community Forum.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Why should customers wait until next week for a refund? The Direct Debit guarantee states,
If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society
Have you not noticed that when you pay for something they money gets taken from your account immediately, but if you need to get a refund it’s not immediately, this is because it takes banks up to 5 working days to process it. Therefore it’s not down to BT for the holdup, it’s the banks that need to update their ancient systems and yes some banks are still using systems from 40 years ago including ones that need floppy disks.
@wibbledOff if there is an issue with a Direct Debit and you report it to your bank, they issue an immediate refund. That’s what the Direct Debit Guarantee is for.
@Jack The direct debit guarantee does not take into account how long a bank takes to process the payment, it only guarantees that the refund is issued.
I believe the difference is that you, as the customer, have to enact the direct debit guarantee by talking to your bank. It is then an immediate refund into your account whilst the bank claws back the money from the vendor. This also has a negative effect on the vendors standing. The vendor will not want you to do this which is why they are proactively refunding themselves. This process will take longer as it will not be going through the direct debit guarantee scheme but it does safe the vendor their status.
@Wibbled
Indeed! This is why I like Monzo – none of this 3-5 day crap I get told 4 days in advance of payments going out and I can get my money a day early when getting my wages – and if that falls on a Monday I get it Friday so I can get it 4pm Thursday
Refunds are usually 12-24 hours max
Not used an actual bricks and mortar bank since 2014.
To jack and wibbleoff if you really want to find out how the refund system works try online retailer zavvi. Their excellent refund service leaves you waiting months, not two days or next week. But can be up to 20 weeks, and thats only if you keep pushing them.
Not everyone complys to the rules as standard, to them what your implying is fiction, just like their returns policy, where no refund is given if your item is return by you for being damaged.
@wibbledoff all I can say is the two times I’ve had to claim under the guarantee, the bank immediately credited the account and the money was there to use.
@Jack Some banks are better than others, depending on their back end systems, as I’ve said, many are still using very old systems and that’s why I said the magic words “up to 5 working days” meaning it may happen quicker.
I wonder if they will pay anyones fees if it put them overdrawn or they had to use a credit card to pay for other items
Due to lack of funds
I’d feel sorry for some people that might go overdrawn as it would effect your credit score and mean your credit rating would lead to higher APR rates on any credit you have. Does happen and they wont reduce your rate even if you prove it wasnt your fault.
I wonder if said person should sort their finances out instead? it’s not BT’s fault is £20-£30 put them over the limit.. That’s actually quite sad in many ways if that happens/happened
Somebody hasn’t noticed the cost of living crisis which has been escalating for months. Lucky for them I guess!
Not me personally but i know people that have less than 200 quid in the bank and someone that had to borrow £3 for something. About 3 weeks ago in my bank someone withdrew about 50p that they had left. I agree some people need to manage their money better but there are millions of people that need to use foodbanks god help them just glad i dont have to and had a proper financial education.
Quite a few people, like me, have an account purely for direct debits and standing orders. At the beginning of the month the amount required to cover these is transferred from my main account. I also transfer money into my general expenditure account (shopping/petrol/etc) and the balance goes to my various saving pots.
If a direct debit gets taken twice then it could put that account into an overdrawn position.
It is really simple for BT to make refunds. They just have to resubmit the DD BACS file as credits instead of debits – after removing any transactions from the file for which they have had a notice from the bank that the original DD bounced for some reason.
The refund arrived in my bank account today (Tuesday 28 March).