Ministry of Propaganda

Ministry of Propaganda - 28/Jan/2004: "Pointless reminders"

[Previous entry: "Snow in Swindon"] [Home] [Next entry: "Memories of Snow"]

Pointless reminders

Thank you British Telecommunications plc, you made my day (again).

Some background: When I moved house and asked to transfer my broadband connection I was told I had to cancel the old one and once that was closed I had to reapply for a new one (to keep the e-mail address etc). Which would have meant something like 3-4 weeks offline. I wasn't really prepared to wait that long. Luckily I realised that the 12 months minimum contract period was just over. So I just gave notice for the old account and at the same time applied for a completely new account (I didn't need the e-mail address anyway). Doing it that way I was only offline for a few days, a period I could live with.

And now the fun bit: Because it is a 12 months minimum contract they told me I would have to pay the remaining amount if I didn't apply for a new account within 120 days from the old contract ceasing. Obviously there was nothing left on the old account, which they confirmed with the acceptance letter for my cancellation of the service.

I found it quite amusing when I received another letter today, which stated (among other blurb):

...we are sorry to advise you that we'll be requesting payment from your current payment method shortly for the outstanding cancellation charges. The sum involved is £0.00. (highlighting by me)

Dear BT Yahoo! Broadband Team, don't you have anything better to do than sending pointless letters like that? I understand that it might be difficult to check the letters individually before sending them. But it can't be that difficult to have a routine in your software that just checks "IF outstanding amount = 0, THEN don't generate letter"...

End of entry

Entry trivia

Dodgy picture of the moment:

Picture of three Grewes in the snow

Well, it's still winter. There's still snow outside. So I'll keep this picture. See the previous entry for more details.

End of entry trivia

Send me feedback about this entry:

The form below will send me an e-mail. To discuss in public, please use my discussion forum.

Your name (required)

Your e-mail (required, will not be published or passed on)

Your website (optional, but recommended)

Is this feedback
public (i.e. contents can be published in a future entry)
private (i.e. contents are only for my eyes)

Your feedback for this entry: