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BT customers unknowingly charged for Xbox Game Pass

GHG

GHG

Gold Member

BT customers unknowingly charged for Xbox Game Pass​


Some BT customers are being signed up to, and charged for, Xbox Game Pass without their knowledge or consent.
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An extra £10 per month was added to their internet bill, despite them not requesting the gaming subscription.

For those whom the BBC spoke with, BT refunded the money, but the customers described their experiences as "worrying".
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BT has apologised and urged other customers to be on the look out for similar problems.
"We're very sorry that the customers mentioned in this article have had Xbox Game Pass Ultimate added to their account without their knowledge," a spokesperson told the BBC.
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We recommend that all of our customers remain vigilant and if they notice changes to their account that are suspicious, to contact us as soon as possible to report this."

"We will support and guide them on how to take steps to ensure their account is secure."
The reason that the charges are being added is unclear - as is the extent of the problem.
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But one person discovered the extra charge as recently as Tuesday, while the BBC has found examples of people complaining about the problem as far back as October 2023.
A BBC employee - who was affected by the issue - was told by a customer service advisor that it was "a known issue".
As well as finding out through checking their bills, some customers discovered the error after receiving an email which thanked them for activating their subscription - making it sound like they had done it themselves.
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"I logged into my BT account online and saw that they charged me an extra 10 pounds and that money had come out of my account," she told the BBC.
"Xbox Game Pass had been added to my accounts without my consent - I thought that's so odd, because I don't even have an Xbox.
"I actually thought I'd been hacked, so I phoned them up... and they explained that it was a BT error."
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Sue said that she was refunded the money, but was concerned about other people who were less vigilant.
Matt, from East Sussex, had similar concerns.
"I called BT after they failed to answer my post on X [formerly Twitter]," he said.

"To be fair to them, they refunded the £10 and cancelled the subscription immediately. But it is worrying to hear that it is still happening."
Meanwhile Craig in Aberdeen said he found out about the charge when he received an email from BT, and contacted the firm via its webchat service.
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Meanwhile Craig in Aberdeen said he found out about the charge when he received an email from BT, and contacted the firm via its webchat service.
"He basically said to me in the chat that this was an issue between BT and Microsoft, where this was being kind of randomly enabled and activated on people's accounts," he said.
"It says in the terms and conditions that there's no free period with this - you are immediately charged.
"My concern is this might not just be me, this might be lots of other people who perhaps don't really notice you get an email through."
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www.bbc.com

BT customers unknowingly charged for Xbox Game Pass

Customers tell the BBC of "worrying" fees added to their monthly bills without their consent.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com


Gamepass, coming to a grandma and grandpa near you.
 
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StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
BT got to have a deal with MS like what some carriers have with Netflix or whatnot. And of course BT system is f-d up somewhere, hence the charges.
 
ahtlas7

ahtlas7

Member
Season 5 What GIF by Sony Pictures Television
What’s a BT?
 
Shin-Ra

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Funnily enough BTs old 90’s logo incorporated The Pied Piper of Hamelin aka the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin!
The phrase "pied piper" has become a metaphor for a person who attracts a following through charisma or false promises.
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en.m.wikipedia.org

Pied Piper of Hamelin - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
BT yesterday ditched its distinctive red and blue piper logo after market research found it conjured up an arrogant image of the company "blowing its own trumpet" in consumers' minds.
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BT calls up a new logo in attempt to escape from 'arrogant' image

BT yesterday ditched its distinctive red and blue piper logo after market research found it conjured up an arrogant image of the company "blowing its own trumpet" in consumers' minds.
www.independent.co.uk www.independent.co.uk
 
Shin-Ra

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
The legend dates back to the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored ("pied") clothing, who was a rat catcher hired by the town to lure rats away[1] with his magic pipe. When the citizens refuse to pay for this service as promised, he retaliates by using his instrument's magical power on their children, leading them away as he had the rats.
Click to expand...
Microsoft cops $20M slap on the wrist for mishandling kids' Xbox data

Microsoft is being fined $20 million by the US Federal Trade Commission for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by illegally gathering kids' personal information and retaining it without parental consent.

Along with paying the rather small fine (slightly more than a tenth of a percent of Microsoft's most recent quarterly profit), the FTC is also requiring the company to update its account creation process for children to prevent collection and storage of data, and extend those responsibilities to third-party publishers that Microsoft shares such data with.
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GLGdTyh.gif
 
Team Andromeda

Team Andromeda

Member
Can't people read?.

It's so clear and I'm with BT


Thanks for activating your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

You won't have to pay for it until 03 Aug 2023. After that, it'll be £10.00 a month (unless you cancel). You'll see this on your bill.

You can switch off auto renewal anytime, this can be done at
Click to expand...
 
Mr.ODST

Mr.ODST

Member
The Fuzz damn you! said:
…and people complain about Sony’s refund process being difficult. At least with them you actually know if you’ve bought something.
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Its an external company that wrongly activated a promotion.. this has nothing to do with MS … fml some people reach no matter what! bellend
 
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GHG

GHG

Gold Member
Team Andromeda said:
Can't people read?.

It's so clear and I'm with BT
Click to expand...

Does this automatically happen when you sign up to one of BT's packages?

It doesn't seem to be "clear" when people are getting charged for something they weren't even aware of and have no use for. Also this is what customer service are telling people:

"He basically said to me in the chat that this was an issue between BT and Microsoft, where this was being kind of randomly enabled and activated on people's accounts,"
 
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Clintizzle

Clintizzle

Lord of Edge.
I worked for a Telco here in NZ after Uni and was stunned at how fucked the leadership was towards the customers.

The general manager made a call to force all the customers who were on older copper based services to new Fibre based plans because it wasnt actually illegal to do it. Dumbass didn't realize a bunch of the customers were on copper specifically because their medical alarms and other critical services relied on it. Copper worked even when there was a power outage but Fibre didn't.

Left the company as soon as i could and keep hearing all the shifty things Telco's here still do...
 
Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
GHG said:
Does this automatically happen when you sign up to one of BT's packages?

It doesn't seem to be "clear" when people are getting charged for something they weren't even aware of and have no use for. Also this is what customer service are telling people:

"He basically said to me in the chat that this was an issue between BT and Microsoft, where this was being kind of randomly enabled and activated on people's accounts,"
Click to expand...
Not that I can see - the user has to specifically action it (not saying there isnt a mistake here) but...

Who can get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?

All new and existing BT Broadband customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to their bill, all you need is to have an active broadband line.

Option 1

If you’ve just recently taken broadband with us or are in the process of moving home, you have to wait for your order to complete and your line to be active before you can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to your bill. Once your broadband is up and running, just go to My BT and log in with your My BT details. Then select ‘Add Game Pass Ultimate’ to get set up.

OR

Option 2

New customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate when their broadband starts, and existing BT Broadband customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at any time (unless during a home move). Either way, just go to My BT and log in with your My BT details. Then select Add Game Pass Ultimate to get set up.

Now if they are doing it automatically that is a shitty practice.
 
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GHG

GHG

Gold Member
Nitty_Grimes said:
Not that I can see - the user has to specifically action it (not saying there isnt a mistake here) but...

Who can get Xbox Game Pass Ultimate?

All new and existing BT Broadband customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to their bill, all you need is to have an active broadband line.

Option 1

If you’ve just recently taken broadband with us or are in the process of moving home, you have to wait for your order to complete and your line to be active before you can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to your bill. Once your broadband is up and running, just go to My BT and log in with your My BT details. Then select ‘Add Game Pass Ultimate’ to get set up.

OR

Option 2

New customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate when their broadband starts, and existing BT Broadband customers can add Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at any time (unless during a home move). Either way, just go to My BT and log in with your My BT details. Then select Add Game Pass Ultimate to get set up.
Click to expand...

So the way it should work is that the customer has to manually activate it themselves by logging in to their BT account and selecting the option?

That's clearly not what's happening here though based on the information in the article.
 
Team Andromeda

Team Andromeda

Member
GHG said:
Does this automatically happen when you sign up to one of BT's packages?

It doesn't seem to be "clear" when people are getting charged for something they weren't even aware of and have no use for. Also this is what customer service are telling people:

"He basically said to me in the chat that this was an issue between BT and Microsoft, where this was being kind of randomly enabled and activated on people's accounts,"
Click to expand...
The full Gigabite fibre one yeah, unless it's changed.

I suspect what is happening is people having the 12 month Game Pass sub as part of the BT deal and then forgetting to cancel the sub after the 12 month period.
Its very clear in the e-mail I had but I bet the people making a fuss, never bothered to read their e-mail

But I know people who forget to cancel their Norton sub and they get whacked after 12 months
 
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GHG

GHG

Gold Member
Team Andromeda said:
The full Gigabite fibre one yeah, unless it's changed.

I suspect what is happening is people having the 12 month Game Pass sub as part of the BT deal and then forgetting to cancel the sub after the 12 month period.
Its very clear in the e-mail I had but I bet the people making a fuss, never bothered to read their e-mail
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If they are doing it as you say rather than what Nitty_Grimes Nitty_Grimes outlinee above then there's a case to be made with OFCOM for those involved.

The terms and conditions make it sound like it should have to be manually activated:

  1. Once you have activated the service the Xbox Add-On will be added to your account. If you already have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate direct from Microsoft, it will automatically be updated to the Xbox Add-On on your next renewal date and added to your BT account.
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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on BT ts and cs

www.bt.com www.bt.com
 
Team Andromeda

Team Andromeda

Member
GHG said:
Ok well the people who this is affecting clearly aren't activating anything, hence their surprise. Some to the extent where they didn't even know what it was for.
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or more like they never bothered to read their e-mail.

It's so clear that after 12 months you'll get charged. Or at least it was for me when I joined BT Full Gigatybe Fibre in 2022
 
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Reactions: GHG
PaintTinJr

PaintTinJr

Member
ahtlas7 said:
Season 5 What GIF by Sony Pictures Television
What’s a BT?
Click to expand...
British Telecom and the British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) were two of the major contributors to the original communications infrastructure that brought world wide telephony and TV broadcasting to the world - mostly because of the hold over from the footprint of the British Empire of yester year being so widespread and both nationalized projects - derived from our Royal Mail postal service which was also established by the state hundreds of years earlier.

The international prefix for areas of the world was largely establish by BT iirc, hence why 007 is notable, and why it was used by Fleming for James Bond' 00 identifier. Even today's roaming world zones for mobile phones in large part is derivative of BT's telephony interconnecting of the world, and the establishment of similar mobile roaming zones because the roaming cost was essentially the cost of being in a foreign mobile network that was cross connecting through a contracted foreign landline carrier (originally) with BT prior to deregulation when O2 was previously named BT Cellnet, where Cellnet gained credibility in mobile roaming via BT's existing ability to get good pricing for Roaming outside of the EU zones 1 and 2.
 
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GHG

GHG

Gold Member
Team Andromeda said:
or more like they never bothered to read their e-mail.

It's so clear that after 12 months you'll get charged. Or at least it was for me when I joined BT Full Gigatybe Fibre in 2022
Click to expand...

I'm not going to engage any further with you until you read the article in the OP.

You're all over the place and clearly not even aware of what you're attempting to defend here.

The key words are "without consent".
 
Team Andromeda

Team Andromeda

Member
GHG said:
I'm not going to engage any further with you until you read the article in the OP.

You're all over the place and clearly not even aware of what you're attempting to defend here.

The key words are "without consent".
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I'm a BT user mate. The 12 month GamePass was part of the deal whether you use it or not. Then after 12 months, you need to cancel it.

But I guess you want to make it into an issue.
 
A

acm2000

Member
BT include game pass ultimate for free in their fibre packages so this seems like a mess up either by their retention's team or on their system itself adding it to packages it shouldn't have.

This is not a Microsoft issue which im sure is what the OP is trying to make it into looking at their post history :LOL:
 
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Banjo64

Banjo64

cumsessed
BT are one of the worst companies in the UK for customer service.

Read the threads online about this offer. It’s caused a myriad of issues for existing subscribers (not stacking correctly) and for people being unable to cancel.

Honestly, BT are shite. Stay well clear.
 
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PaintTinJr

PaintTinJr

Member
Banjo64 said:
BT are one of the worst companies in the UK for customer service.

Read the threads online about this offer. It’s caused a myriad of issues for existing subscribers (not stacking correctly) and for people being unable to cancel.

Honestly, BT are shite. Stay well clear.
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Yeah, it is just a name/brand, now not associated at all with the company they used to be 20 years ago and before. This type of rogue trading setupis just par for the course nowadays.

Equally crappy and probably related to Azure/Skype/Teams is that BT customers on mass are being moved over to a LAN VoiP setup for their expensive landlines, so in the event of a power cut, their landlines are no longer independently powered, so they lose their landline, broadband and electric services all at the same time, while still paying a premium for a worthless landline, that is just some cheap as chips 64Kbit/s VoiP packet switched relayed service within their broadband bandwidth.

The cost of a BT landline over the years since ADSL has probably been as big a rip off as the cost of first and second class post, or rail fares. Zero value for money and disproportionately taking from those that have least that couldn't opt out, such as just using their £70/m smartphone or using other mail providers via internet.
 
B

Beechos

Member
I wouldn't be surprised if it was some promo like get it for 1 month free that Customer service people add onto your account without you knowing to get their little commission. I've had situations like this happen numerous times in my life where internet speed upgrades and premium channels showed up on my bill without me ordering stuff after speaking to a customer service persion.
 
Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
winjer said:
And the worst part, is that regulatory entities will just slap a tiny fine, if anything at all, encouraging these companies to repeat the same scam again and again.
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Human error whoops sorry from BT - doubt ofcom would even get off their fat subsidised arse for this one.
 
King Dazzar

King Dazzar

Member
Yeah I'm with BT. There were other issues some time ago with the GP offer. Where by if you signed up to the offer, you then couldn't leave or cancel the BT offer. i.e you stayed locked into it and the GP sub. With people finding it impossible to leave, despite contacting BT multiple times. They got the usual, speak to MS, its not us and then MS saying, speaking to BT, its not us. Yeah, one to avoid for sure.
 
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