By: Russ
‘That canadian girl’ appeals to Ofcom against BT Grinch
Story here. The best nugget:

Today, I’m pissed off. I’m really pissed off. British Telecom, lovingly known as BT, is the largest provider of all things fixed phone line in the UK. Like a bully nicking your lunch money, BT has gone into my bank account, using our Direct Debit authorisation as an excuse to debit £233 instead of £10 this month.
Below is my letter, addressed to the BT Chairman. I expect that copying the Telecoms Ombudsman, Ofcom and BT’s own press room will get them off their butts, but if you know anyone in a position to help (since the BT call centre had no interest in our problem whatsoever), please feel free to do so. I’d really like to sort this out before Christmas.
* * *
We’ll see what happens…
Dec 13th 2007
Thanks for picking this up - I think it’s shocking that a company can use Direct Debit so freely to overcharge customers without them being aware of it. Disgraceful!
I’m sure the press room will be thrilled to see my complaint publicly posted for my 26,000 monthly readers to see. Alternatively, I’m entirely up for some fisticuffs with Sir Rake!
Dec 13th 2007
Sorry is this really relevant - who really cares? I’m sure BT has 100s of complaints against it, its a big bloody company, stuff will go wrong. Fine they should have good customer service but why is ‘canadiangirl’ being covered on this blog?
Wheres some real analysis of the big issues in relation to Ofcom like the EU telecoms review, the NGA consultation, the DDR, the junk food data, the international comms market report etc etc
Dec 13th 2007
John, ‘canadian girl’ is really the nom de plume of Kylie Minogue. Luke is a huge fan…
And if you want to offer any real analysis of the bigger issues, pass it along, we would be happy to post it for you…
Dec 14th 2007
Speaking of Luke, has he been kidnapped or is he just trying to pretend to have better things to do with his life?
Dec 17th 2007
Hey Scott,
Luke has better things to do lately — he’s been busy working on some other projects…
But he promises to write a dramatic end-of-year post that will tilt the earth of its axis…
Russ
Dec 21st 2007
As an update… BT has now said they’ll be refunding the full amount and explained how I could change my direct debit to take only the monthly amount rather than full amount.
You’ll find the follow up post here