Debt Collector Threat for Couple with 1p ($0.02) Phone Bill

by Charlotte Cardingham		comments 20
Published on 13 August 2008

A couple were nearly faced with debt collectors after British Telecom (BT) chased them for a single penny.

A couple from Lincolnshire have been left baffled this week after being threatened with legal action over a 1p bill.

Margaret and Joseph Winyard received the stark warning from communications giant British Telecom after trying numerous times to settle the debt without success.

"BT told us we did not owe anything," Mrs Winyard said. "Then we got another bill telling us that they will disconnect all our services within 10 days and put us in touch with a debt collection agency.”

"It's just a penny. I asked if I could put it on our direct debit and they said they could not do that. It is ridiculous."

They have been receiving the seemingly pointless bills ever since they took part in a free digital TV trial with the company earlier in the year. However, despite cancelling this service due to poor reception, the bills kept on coming.

The final demand notice, which informed them that BT would be passing their details on to a debt collection agency if they didn’t settle the outstanding charge immediately, arrived on Monday. This was the final straw for the Lincolnshire residents who saw no other option than to take their story to the local paper to try and get it resolved.

Only after their saga was in print did BT take notice, withdraw their earlier admonition and apologise to the bewildered couple for the inconvenience caused.

"They were very apologetic and they are looking in to the matter and having an internal inquiry," Mrs Winyard said. "They have given me a full apology and a bouquet of flowers. It has taken the Lincolnshire Echo to do something for BT to get it sorted.”

However, while neither BT or the Winyards are really sure what the penny charge was actually for, the real, and slightly perplexing question is what exactly the bailiffs would have planned to take in order to fulfill this minuscule debt?

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Comments (20)

Terry

I am at present getting the the same treatment For an amount,I have paid twice,all my protest's fall on deaf ears.I suppose I will end up paying up

16 Feb 2009 03:09

Suzy Q

I cancelled my BT phone line because I was fed up paying rental 3 months in advance and calls 3 months in arrears. My final bill showed me to be £2.51 in credit. They then started chasing me for £8.49 stating that they had credited my account before they had actually taken the monthly payment(?) My bank account showed a different story. I took this up with their Indian call centre and flatly refused to pay any more, requesting my refund. BT put it into the hands of a debt collector so I made a formal high level complaint. They stopped the debt collector but I am still waiting for my refund!

21 Nov 2008 20:36

harrassed by att and their collections agency

I was billed by att who claimed that my computer had made a one minute call to an obscure island in the carribean I had never heard of. They wanted me to pay $12. I said I never made any such call and refused to pay. We went back and forth for at least 6 months until I cancelled att phone and internet services. six months later I stopped hearing from the sob's then after about 6 years I got a letter from a collection agency wanting me to pay $69. Never ever subscribe to ATT phone or internet services that company deserves to go down! Did you hear what they did to that kid in Oregon a month or so ago? The kid went off to asia with a laptop to send home pictures using ATT services and his parents were billed $19,000! No kidding check it out online they finally removed the bill after the media got a hold of it.

19 Nov 2008 06:10

carla

you say just pay the .02, but if you think about it, how many people are they doing this to?? 100,000 people x .02 =$2000 that they don't deserve for service that they didn't give. I've had cingular do the same to us when we changed our plan through them, the plan was the same cost but they charged us .66 more for 1 day of service that should have just been nothing cause it was the same price. They had no reasoning for it when we called, just said some other person in billing didn't know what they were doing. CHECK YOU BILLS IF SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT CALL THEM ON IT. Companies make too much money that they don't deserve on billing errors.

18 Aug 2008 14:52

terrymoose55

In 1998 I recieved a subpoena for nonpayment of child support. I went to court thinking I was current with my payments. When my case was called the judge began to laugh. He asked me if there was any possible way I could come up with $0.50 as that was all I was behind. I've oftened wondered what it costed the state to issue and mail a subpoena as well as hold a hearing that netted $0.50.

17 Aug 2008 04:35

Jaclyn

These collection agencies are getting out of hand. They need to be stopped.

17 Aug 2008 02:56

tjgatz

This is the most ridiculous story ever. The sad, but true is that all companies will make threats at you for the lonely amount of $0.01. I know its true as it happened to me, as well, but with a hospital. No wonder our economy is so bad!!!!!!

17 Aug 2008 02:48

Sonia

OMG, I thought that this was only happening to my daughter. Althought she has not been threatened with legal action,She too receive a .02 cents bill from AT&T. Which by the way AT&T has not given her a reason as to why they are sending this bill since she has not have service with them for over 5 years. The kicker to this is that every month it goes unresolved she is incurring a 1 and 1half percent intrest for late payment. I told her to just pay it, but she thinks it the principle behind it. Call me crazy but is it really worth it?

17 Aug 2008 02:44

kc13184vvca

about the 2 cent bill... I was also harass before with a bill for $00.00. then after spending time and postage stamp on the third notice i wrote a xheck for $00,00 and mail it, the check was cancelled and my bill was payed in full. the reason was given to me is the computer generated the billing and it must be entered to clear the billimg/ Make sense?

17 Aug 2008 02:38

MS Reeder

This should have been resolved with the first telephone call. Very sad. A bouquet is a small gift for the hassle they must have endured.

17 Aug 2008 02:33

Carolyn Morneault

I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF ANYTHING SO RIDICULOUS - OMG - WHAT NEXT - OVER A " PENNY" - THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER THINGS GOING ON IN THIS WORLD THAT " NEED ATTENTION" AND THIS COMPANY PUTS THIS HORRIFIC ORDEAL ON THIS COUPLE - DOESN'T MAKE TO MUCH SENSE - LIKE THIS IS REALLY SOMETHING TO MAKE A BIG DEAL OVER - I WILL SEND THEM A " PENNY" - AND WHY WOULDN'T THEY ACCEPT THE PENNY FROM THESE PEOPLE? NEVER HEARD OF SUCH GOING ON'S - GOD BLESS THEM -

17 Aug 2008 02:32

GBSNUTOY

BIG CORPORATIONS ARE THE PITS HOW STUPID TO GIVE PEOPLE SUCH A HARD TIME OVER NOTHING

17 Aug 2008 02:24

Mikki

It "used" to be "the customer is alway's right" and now big business is wasting the stockholders investments. CEO's get paid ridiculous high salaries, benefits, bonus's and compensation pay, as well as retirement benefits and all over a pence? Someone needs to step in and audit the bookkeeping/billing department. This is a simple waste of company funds and time.

17 Aug 2008 02:12

mike

sounds like quest phone service in utah.They shut my phone off 2 weeks prior to my bill due date. TWICE

17 Aug 2008 02:03

S. Musicant

I guess the Co. took the old saying " A penney for your thoughts" seriously. My thought is " Ain't Life Grand at times". I have had a few strange things like this happen in my life also, it is irritateing, frustraiting and a big pain in the butt. I guess this is the price we pay in todays world when we have to deal with recordings and comp's. I would love to know where all of the human voices and intellegent reasoning is, a real person would be refreashing to speek to when an issue like this comes up. Here's one for you, a friend of mine passed, her grown daughter was called 6 times from the same person wanting to speak to my dead friend and was told that she had passed, the winner and last call went like this, (the daughter) I told you five times my mother is dead, a short pause, the retorical was " well I'll call her later at a more convient time!" Stew over that one.

17 Aug 2008 01:45

sunblock9

Just shows how lazy and incompetent people are at their jobs. No one at the company could make an adjustment for the 2 cents? Instead, how much processing and postage costs were incurredby the company until the absurdity was reported in the press?

17 Aug 2008 01:43

tweb142

Just pay the penny and end the whole mess.

17 Aug 2008 01:40

rv the video guy

This is a case of haveing a computer glich and no one knowing it is there and no one has really looked at what was going on

17 Aug 2008 01:36

Brenda

I believe it everything is done by computers now days the workers probably didnt even know about the bill! Some business needs to be settled by people ,not computers!

17 Aug 2008 01:26

Marilyn

I once received a summons for a $7.49 bill that I was unaware I owed. I had moved few times, etc. I did pay the bill but my way- $1 per month then .49. It was to a physician who had been paid thousands from my insurance - I decided since the money obviously meant more to him than caring for someone that he must have needed the money more than me!!

17 Aug 2008 01:21