Microtastic

This question has vexed the forums but the answer is very simple:

1. Make sure you have joined BT's on-line billing with your main phone/broadband account

2. Look up the direct debit reference number at your bank for your new BT Mobile account (starts GB********)

3. Go to you BT account and add account

4. Use the reference number and your Mobile number and there you have it -usage monitoring

Note: the monitoring lags by about 24 hours so beware!

Having blogged about these 'bandits' already I was interested to note that the BBC's Watch Dog have reported on them already!!!

Read more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/consumer_goods/consumer_20080512_2.shtml

And more still:

http://boakes.org/junk-mail-from-satellite-direct-uk/

And in court:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/jan/06/consumernews.moneysupplement1

As anyone will know who has followed my various blogs last June I shifted from Sky to BT Vision and all has been well!

I moved for a number of reasons:

• Cost - £40 is just too much
• Content - what was I watching: well it wasn't on Satellite only
• Picture Quaintly - one of the main issues (Sky told me to upgrade to HD!!!) in fact it is caused by a large tree just off my drive that has a preservation order on it! Sky guys took 4 visits to work this one out. Solution - move to HD and double the size of the dish (only £400).

So we (I) made the choice and cancelled (story in its own right!!) and sold off the kit.

Now to the meat of the blog: I had a repair insurance with Satellite Direct UK of Arundel (www.satellitedirectuk.com). So emailed them to cancel, phoned them to confirm after no reply. Was informed no rebate like real insurance copies give but all was cancelled. Waited for letter, never came and of course forgot all about it!

April 2008 credit card statement arrived with a new entry - Satellite Direct UK - and to add insult to injury for more money than the previous time. So I phoned them up and asked why. You know what's coming....you never cancelled!

Now to the really nice bit - they should have advised me of the increase, but didn't, of course they said the sent me a letter so I must have known, but they didn't - when I asked the customer services bod for the date of the letter he explained it wasn't policy to send them!!

Because I didn't know I was about to be charged I missed the chance to cancel (a second time). Phoned a number of times but no joy not even a 50% refund. And today received a letter telling me my equipment will be covered for another 12 months even though they know I don't have any equipment!!!

I'm really, really happy with my BT Vision package. It does what it says on the can and it does it every time. I've just added picture box and watching a movie on it is a dream.

So why is everyone moaning about BT Vision?