BT Service Charges (slightly OT)

On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into two
parts (no clue why)

1May-11 May - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge £28.07,
Cost £3.38
12 May-31 Jul - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
£28.07, Cost £24.91
Total cost £28.29

Note that the two parts now add up to more than the whole by 22p
On the basis of a 92 day quarter, the two parts should cost £3.36 and
£24.71, which add up correctly

Has anyone else noticed BT's mathematics?

Reminds me of the American scam where a programmer transferred 10c from
every account at the bank to his own account each month and made a small
fortune.

With say ten million customers, BT could be making a couple of million
pounds. Plus, of course VAT

Retired

On May 28, 10:39 am, "Retired" <a...@privacy.com> wrote:

> On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into two
> parts (no clue why)

the clue is usually that the price has changed, or you have changed
the services you are using, so the two parts are not at the same rate.

Phil

Their dirtiest stunt is that you pay three months rental in advance, then a
month later they put up the charges and bill it in the next quarter.

Got it back once, but a lot of work for a few pounds. OTOH as you say from
their point of view a few pounds times several million customers = lots on
the bottom line.

"Retired" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:465aa2fe$0$8729$(E-Mail Removed)...
> On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into
> two parts (no clue why)
>
> 1May-11 May - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
> £28.07, Cost £3.38
> 12 May-31 Jul - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
> £28.07, Cost £24.91
> Total cost £28.29
>
> Note that the two parts now add up to more than the whole by 22p
> On the basis of a 92 day quarter, the two parts should cost £3.36 and
> £24.71, which add up correctly
>
> Has anyone else noticed BT's mathematics?
>
> Reminds me of the American scam where a programmer transferred 10c from
> every account at the bank to his own account each month and made a small
> fortune.
>
> With say ten million customers, BT could be making a couple of million
> pounds. Plus, of course VAT
>
> Retired
>
>

On 28 May, 10:39, "Retired" <a...@privacy.com> wrote:
> On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into two
> parts (no clue why)
>
> 1May-11 May - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge £28.07,
> Cost £3.38
> 12 May-31 Jul - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
> £28.07, Cost £24.91
> Total cost £28.29
>
> Note that the two parts now add up to more than the whole by 22p
> On the basis of a 92 day quarter, the two parts should cost £3.36 and
> £24.71, which add up correctly
>
> Has anyone else noticed BT's mathematics?

They've done the sums based on a 91.25 day quarter:
28.07 / 91.25 * 11 = 3.38
28.07 / 91.25 * 81 = 24.91

If it had been the Feb-Apr quarter, you'd have won 38p.

Convincing them their reasoning is wrong may be a challenge. One of
the consumer programmes might have fun with it, especially if they're
doing it to everyone.

Chris

On 31 May 2007 02:10:52 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>On 28 May, 10:39, "Retired" <a...@privacy.com> wrote:
>> On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into two
>> parts (no clue why)
>>
>> 1May-11 May - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge £28.07,
>> Cost £3.38
>> 12 May-31 Jul - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
>> £28.07, Cost £24.91
>> Total cost £28.29
>>
>> Note that the two parts now add up to more than the whole by 22p
>> On the basis of a 92 day quarter, the two parts should cost £3.36 and
>> £24.71, which add up correctly
>>
>> Has anyone else noticed BT's mathematics?
>
>They've done the sums based on a 91.25 day quarter:
>28.07 / 91.25 * 11 = 3.38
>28.07 / 91.25 * 81 = 24.91
>
>If it had been the Feb-Apr quarter, you'd have won 38p.
>
>Convincing them their reasoning is wrong may be a challenge. One of
>the consumer programmes might have fun with it, especially if they're
>doing it to everyone.

BT have done this trick before!

Here is the reply I got from BT when I raised the problem in 2004.
This quoted reply is dated 28/7/2004.

<quote>

Thank you for your e-mail regarding BT rental charges.
Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you and for
any inconvenience this may have caused.

As per our conversation this morning I can confirm that BT are still
charging rental by yearly quarter rather than by day so that the
charge is the same on each bill. Since the change of rental packages
occurred on July 1st, there was an error causing customers to be
charged for this quarter by the day. BT realise this error and have
arranged for all customers affected to receive the credit of the
overcharged rental on the next bill.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience you may have been
caused and my thanks for your patience an co-operation in this matter.

If you have any further queries please reply to this email.
Alternatively, if you wish to contact BT by telephone, please visit
www.bt.com/feedback/feedback.jsp and click on the contact us 'by
phone' link to obtain the correct number to dial.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Ann-Marie McPhillips
BT Customer Contact Centre
Ref; 1750176

</quote>


So it is possible to get BT to pay up for their little scam. They did
credit the odd few pence on the next quarterly bill.


--
brightside S9

"Retired" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:465aa2fe$0$8729$(E-Mail Removed)...
> On my latest phone bill, BT has split the quarterly Service charge into
> two parts (no clue why)
>
> 1May-11 May - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
> £28.07, Cost £3.38
> 12 May-31 Jul - New charges for BT together option 1, quarterly charge
> £28.07, Cost £24.91
> Total cost £28.29
>
> Note that the two parts now add up to more than the whole by 22p
> On the basis of a 92 day quarter, the two parts should cost £3.36 and
> £24.71, which add up correctly
>
BT works out its daily rate by multiplying the quarterly rental by 4 and
dividing by 365

therefore £28.07 * 4 /365 = 0.30761...... so 11 days is £3.38378 and the
remaining 81 days is £24.91693

Can't find the link now on pricing manual that explains this, think it was
changed about beginning of the year.

Stephen