Rant about BT Games rental system...

So, I had a rental contract from BT Games (the R99 option) for a few months, during which I only rented a single game. I didn't have time to play that many games, so I decided to cancel the contract. I canceled it during June and was notified by the sales person at the counter that they require a calendar month's notice, so I would effectively be billed for July as well. I told them I'm fine with that and was willing to sacrifice the July payment. My wife was pretty adamant that the sales person give me a proof of cancellation, which was provided and signed. The sales person assured me that the contract will be canceled and that July would be the last month that I am billed for.

And guess what? My credit card was billed another R99 at the beginning of August. I email the specific BT Games branch on the 11th of August, CC-ing Adrian as well. I had no reply by the 14th, so I dropped them another mail. I got a reply on the Monday, 17 August, stating that their mail server was down. I also got another mail the next day, with an apology and another statement that their mail server was down. The email also stated that I would receive an email the minute the problem was sorted out. I'm still waiting for that minute to happen, seeing as the R99 hasn't been refunded to my credit card yet. I'm also in the dark as to whether the contract was canceled or not!

On Monday I tried emailing them again, but the mail kept bouncing back stating that the BT Games mailbox is full. So, I dropped them another mail this morning, which (hopefully) went through. I'm holding thumbs now that they eventually sort this out.

Ok, so my rant / story now complete, has anyone here experienced similar difficulties in canceling a rental contract at BT Games? I, for one, will definitely never make use of that service again. I feel it is unreliable and that the cancellation thereof is completely out of my control.

Ouch.

P.S. Your wife is a superstar.

Fail 1 = You have cancelled, but BTGames H.O. admin don't know about it.
Fail 2 = Infrastructure issues preventing efficient communication.

You are still in the pound seat though, you can contact the credit card company and report them as a bad vendor, something which they (BTGames) are going to have a lot of hard work getting out of.

davemc said:

Ouch.

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Indeed. I feel I should demand that interest I'm charged on the R99 as well...

davemc said:

P.S. Your wife is a superstar.

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Do you know her? Stop stalking us!

davemc said:

You are still in the pound seat though, you can contact the credit card company and report them as a bad vendor, something which they (BTGames) are going to have a lot of hard work getting out of.

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I won't go that far though, seeing as a few minutes ago I got a mail from the particular branch stating that they'd like to refund me in cash. It's still gonna be a bit of a bother driving to the store to pick up the R99 though. The whole experience just left a bitter taste in my mouth and I highly doubt that BT Games will ever see my money again...

I wonder if this thread sparked the email reply I got?

Glad you sorted it out. The exact same thing happened to me, except in my case they debited my card for 2 months after. Spoke to Tendai at the Cavendish branch about 3 weeks ago. He said he'd escalate to H.O.... Still haven't heard from them! Totally forgot about this issue until I saw this thread. Methinks I'm going to drop them a mail as well, will link this thread in there as well

I had to beg the guy beind the counter of Rustenburg BT Games to sell me a PS3!!! He said did not want to accept an internet transfer... even though he had internet in the shop.

Guys selling digital equipment in a modern world who does not want to accept ligit payment methods should be taken behind the store and shot dead... BT GAMES WILL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN.

They employ people with relatively low IQ's imo.

RustyRtb said:

They employ people with relatively low IQ's imo.

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Dunno about their intelligence but the people I've met are the type that think their sh%t don't stink.

Did you ever try picking up the phone and talking to them?

remybfg10k said:

Did you ever try picking up the phone and talking to them?

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I prefer email, because I have a trail of the conversation to back up my claims. I've learned the hard way that you should always have a trail of these types of conversations.

I laugh to, when im in bt casually looking around and i overhear them talking about games, like they are the gaming gods, i laugh loud. It's like people who you try to tell something but they always have to be one up on you.

Ok, can we maybe diverge from any ad-hominem, as I'd like to keep the thread relatively clean and on track with the discussion of the BT Games rental service please (as if keeping a thread on topic is even possible at MyBB! ).

Looks like there's 2 confirmed cases so far...

remybfg10k said:

Did you ever try picking up the phone and talking to them?

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Lol. tried that... except their VOX numbers don't work, or weren't working at the time

FarligOpptreden said:

I prefer email, because I have a trail of the conversation to back up my claims. I've learned the hard way that you should always have a trail of these types of conversations.

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I agree with you on the track record,
But a phone call sorts out thing a lot quicker especially if you are impatient like me.... I always call transcribe call as I speak and then email the summary.. most times I ask them to check email before I put down phone..
Also I use Skype for most of my calls from my desk and they are auto recorded...

Why don't you just get your bank to reverse the charge?

I'm still on their rental system, don't need to cancel yet as it's still saving me lots of money and it does work quite well if you use it 2+ times a month. BUT i agree their IT system is totally messed up. Their website [the rental part] hardly works and is buggy as hell , their billing and account management is quite dodgy too .

Half the time they have incorrect details about me, i.e. they don't know what game i rented , or which games i've requested. I've been billed incorrectly , due to some sort of account mixup [mysteriously went onto the R200 plan instead of the R100 plan] .

Overall, i could sort everything out IN STORE , but i guess if you don't rent often or go there often you just don't know what is going on with their system.

I don't think the people involved at BT Games are bad, they generally seem to try and help, i think whatever Accounting+Web system they are using needs to be thrown out, it doesn't sound like a secure/approved kind of system to me. They basically need to rethink their entire IT infrastructure, i mean BT Games is not the shop on the corner, it's nationwide with a system that does not even seem to handle emails to the shop properly.

FarligOpptreden said:

So, I had a rental contract from BT Games (the R99 option) for a few months, during which I only rented a single game. I didn't have time to play that many games, so I decided to cancel the contract. I canceled it during June and was notified by the sales person at the counter that they require a calendar month's notice, so I would effectively be billed for July as well. I told them I'm fine with that and was willing to sacrifice the July payment. My wife was pretty adamant that the sales person give me a proof of cancellation, which was provided and signed. The sales person assured me that the contract will be canceled and that July would be the last month that I am billed for.

And guess what? My credit card was billed another R99 at the beginning of August. I email the specific BT Games branch on the 11th of August, CC-ing Adrian as well. I had no reply by the 14th, so I dropped them another mail. I got a reply on the Monday, 17 August, stating that their mail server was down. I also got another mail the next day, with an apology and another statement that their mail server was down. The email also stated that I would receive an email the minute the problem was sorted out. I'm still waiting for that minute to happen, seeing as the R99 hasn't been refunded to my credit card yet. I'm also in the dark as to whether the contract was canceled or not!

On Monday I tried emailing them again, but the mail kept bouncing back stating that the BT Games mailbox is full. So, I dropped them another mail this morning, which (hopefully) went through. I'm holding thumbs now that they eventually sort this out.

Ok, so my rant / story now complete, has anyone here experienced similar difficulties in canceling a rental contract at BT Games? I, for one, will definitely never make use of that service again. I feel it is unreliable and that the cancellation thereof is completely out of my control.

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Hi,

As I am not directly involved with rentals it is kindof hard to gauge the complete situation. However, just to address a few points with regard to the bad communication here.

I was on leave from the 11th-14th of August, and the actually the rental administrator was in charge of my e-mail. However the small problem came in that our servers and complete network including every pc at headoffice crashed and burned in a bad virus attack. The server consequently only came back on the following Monday when I returned, but a lot of the functionality was still missing and as far as I know this included the rentals. E-mail boxes and things were messed up, claiming they are full.

Everything has now been sorted but unfortunately there wasn't much we could do at that point. All rental queries should be directed at [email protected] alternatively you can call headoffice and ask to speak to Jade.

Any situation where there was unfair billing will be sorted out for you so you don't have to stress about that. I do want to apologise that you did have to suffer through that inconvenience. I'm sure it wasn't intentional on the involved parties side.

If you do not get sorted out please contact me asap and I will escalate from my side as quickly as possible.

To address a few of the other things, we are busy reprogramming a lot of the systems, which is why you will see funny bugs and things pop up, this is to cater for the bigger load (and as mentioned, being nationwide) so that we can speed up and smoothen out the process. Naturally while this is still in progress things will be a bit bumpy, but please know that we are trying to sort out the issues as they pop up.

To RustyRTB, the reason the people in the shops cannot accept internet transfers is because you have to wait for it to clear on our bank account before the payment can get processed by me. If he allowed he would be in trouble for breaking policy. I process all the bank transfers coming in for orders placed, and I would be very unhappy if the stores are just accepting bank transfers when it hasn't been cleared yet first. This policy is put in place to prevent fraud, which we have been hit with quite a few times.

I do however not appreciate the outright insulting of our staff's IQ, it is a really deconstructive way of sharing your opinion's. I can actually vouch for the guys in Rustenburg to be some of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to electronics and games, and that praise doesn't come lightly.

We always encourage all of you to step up and tell us when there are problems, as we cannot ensure that they are sorted and don't happen again if we aren't aware of them.

Kind Regards,
Adrian

BTAdrian said:

Hi,

As I am not directly involved with rentals it is kindof hard to gauge the complete situation. However, just to address a few points with regard to the bad communication here.

I was on leave from the 11th-14th of August, and the actually the rental administrator was in charge of my e-mail. However the small problem came in that our servers and complete network including every pc at headoffice crashed and burned in a bad virus attack. The server consequently only came back on the following Monday when I returned, but a lot of the functionality was still missing and as far as I know this included the rentals. E-mail boxes and things were messed up, claiming they are full.

Everything has now been sorted but unfortunately there wasn't much we could do at that point. All rental queries should be directed at [email protected] alternatively you can call headoffice and ask to speak to Jade.

Any situation where there was unfair billing will be sorted out for you so you don't have to stress about that. I do want to apologise that you did have to suffer through that inconvenience. I'm sure it wasn't intentional on the involved parties side.

If you do not get sorted out please contact me asap and I will escalate from my side as quickly as possible.

To address a few of the other things, we are busy reprogramming a lot of the systems, which is why you will see funny bugs and things pop up, this is to cater for the bigger load (and as mentioned, being nationwide) so that we can speed up and smoothen out the process. Naturally while this is still in progress things will be a bit bumpy, but please know that we are trying to sort out the issues as they pop up.

To RustyRTB, the reason the people in the shops cannot accept internet transfers is because you have to wait for it to clear on our bank account before the payment can get processed by me. If he allowed he would be in trouble for breaking policy. I process all the bank transfers coming in for orders placed, and I would be very unhappy if the stores are just accepting bank transfers when it hasn't been cleared yet first. This policy is put in place to prevent fraud, which we have been hit with quite a few times.

I do however not appreciate the outright insulting of our staff's IQ, it is a really deconstructive way of sharing your opinion's. I can actually vouch for the guys in Rustenburg to be some of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to electronics and games, and that praise doesn't come lightly.

We always encourage all of you to step up and tell us when there are problems, as we cannot ensure that they are sorted and don't happen again if we aren't aware of them.

Kind Regards,
Adrian

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Thanks for the feedback Adrian.

2 points:


1) Ignore people with less than 100 posts Adrian
2) I am only asking this before everyone else does: Is Jade a woman?, if so is she hot? if so "pics or it didn't happen"

Bt games....

Hehehehe I'm afraid I can't answer your question But yes she is Female.

BTAdrian said:

Hi,

As I am not directly involved with rentals it is kindof hard to gauge the complete situation. However, just to address a few points with regard to the bad communication here.

I was on leave from the 11th-14th of August, and the actually the rental administrator was in charge of my e-mail. However the small problem came in that our servers and complete network including every pc at headoffice crashed and burned in a bad virus attack. The server consequently only came back on the following Monday when I returned, but a lot of the functionality was still missing and as far as I know this included the rentals. E-mail boxes and things were messed up, claiming they are full.

Everything has now been sorted but unfortunately there wasn't much we could do at that point. All rental queries should be directed at [email protected] alternatively you can call headoffice and ask to speak to Jade.

Any situation where there was unfair billing will be sorted out for you so you don't have to stress about that. I do want to apologise that you did have to suffer through that inconvenience. I'm sure it wasn't intentional on the involved parties side.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply Adrian. As I stated earlier, I was contacted shortly after creating this thread by the sales person in question, stating that I should come in to the store for a cash refund. All my email communication, starting 18 August, was CC-ed to Jade as well, so she should be aware of any communication I've had.

I am just curious as to why my account wasn't closed when I went in to request so during June? It was just a bit disappointing seeing the money once again deducted from my credit card at the beginning of August, after the promise (and signed confirmation) that my account has been closed. I am not placing the blame on any specific person within BT Games, but surely someone at head office should've been notified of my cancellation sometime during July at least?

UPDATE:

So, I went in for my refund, as the sales person asked me to do, last Wednesday. Said sales person doesn't work at the branch anymore. New sales person tells me he will contact their branch manager to sort it out. New sales person phones me back and tells me the branches aren't authorized to give refunds, only head office is. I am suitably pissed at this stage. New sales person promises to phone me back the next morning with feedback. I haven't had any feedback up until now... So, I phoned a few minutes ago. Guess what? New sales person doesn't work at that branch anymore. I was promised some feedback today, possibly even within 30 minutes. Let's see if that happens...

This is getting absolutely ridiculous. I am pretty fed up with this poor service I'm getting from BT Games. I am seriously considering reporting them as a bad credit vendor to my credit card company and posting some negative feedback on Hello Peter as well.

I will never, never, NEVER deal with BT Games again. Finish and KLAAR!