Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/10/22/surfers_pay_millions_for_bt/

Surfers pay millions for BT billing cock-up

Even though BT admits fault

By Drew Cullen

Posted in Legal, 22nd October 2000 21:08 GMT

Thousands of British surfers browsed the Net for "free" for six months, thanks to a BT computer cock-up. Now BT wants its money back - the bill to surfers could run into millions of pounds.

The increasingly accident-prone telco has sent backdated bills to 'tens of thousands' (they dialed up the Internet using an 0845 number and the next string of numbers starting with either a 6 or a 7). Customers of Tesco and WH Smith-branded ISP services are included.

A BT spokesman told the Sunday Telegraph that "no customer has had to pay for anything they did not use. If a customer gets a higher bill than expected then we can reach some agreement in terms of paying in instalments. After all it was our fault".

Which is nice. ®

Related Link

Electronic Telegraph: Internet users face £5m bill over BT error