Primary school gets £57,000 internet bill

A south London school has been left reeling after it received a £57,000 bill for an internet connection that did not work.

Despite being on BT's flat-rate Business Choices internet package, Sandhurst primary school in Lewisham was charged almost 300 times more than expected when it received its quarterly bill in September.

Shocked head teacher Val Hughes claimed that the school had no internet access for the entire period.

"The last time we used the internet was before the Easter holidays and we are now being asked to pay for something we have not had," she said.

The school should pay a flat rate service charge of £197 per quarter for calls made between 8am and 6pm.

"This bill is the cost of two teachers for a year and every single penny of our budget is committed to a new library and staff room," explained Hughes.

The school receives just £9,000 a year from the National Grid for Learning to spend on IT.

Its problems started when internet access was cut off while a new server cabinet was installed. The server was not connected properly and dialled for a connection day and night, which was chargeable.

Hughes questioned why BT did not contact the school to warn it of the massive bill, as most charges related to out of hours periods.

"I think BT should have sent us a warning and I think in the case of a private user it would have done so," she said.

The school became suspicious in May, after it received a bill for £5,700, which it queried. BT failed to reply until September, after local Labour MP Jim Dowd intervened.

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen's office replied, telling the school that its billing department had not received the initial letter.

"That said, our billing people were contacted in June about this issue but no further action was taken as the matter was referred to the School Internet Caller group in BT, and they had previously advised you that the calls were being billed correctly by BT," the letter stated.

A BT spokesman explained that the bill, which it insists is correct, was caused by a router continually dialling for a connection.

"The bill still stands but we are investigating and looking into stopping this from happening in the future. The school should go to its ISP, Cable and Wireless, for compensation."

An angry Hughes said: "I don't see how a primary school can be paying for a service it never had. There's no way we can budget for this. Between Cable and Wireless and BT some arrangement will have to be reached."

Gill Deadman, ICT adviser at Lewisham Education Authority, called the bill outrageous and confirmed that an investigation is underway.

"We are working with the parties involved to find out where responsibility lies, so they can contribute to the cost," she said.

Cable and Wireless was contacted, but had not replied by the time of going to press.