Angry of Wydemeet (not again)

I had a brilliant idea of how to to get my own back on BT today.

In response to my £5000 small claim, they sent me a forty-ish page legal document, direct from their team of specialist lawyers, which was enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone, even me!  

I am reluctant to travel all the way to Northampton to face these professionals in court, when I have every reason to believe that BT's Terms and Conditions cover them for every complaint I have made, not helped by the fact that mine is a residential, not a business, line.  Did you know, for instance, that if you fail to be at home for an appointment, they will fine you £139, whereas if they fail to attend an appointment, with or without advising you, you can only reclaim £10? How fair is that?? Anyway, I really don't want to be bothered to read through all the blurb to check the various ins and outs - as I expect there's nothing we can do about them.  I expect BT and all the other Big Boys rely on all of their customers being equally lazy, and anyhow, what alternative do we have?

But I was impressed by how spending £100 on suing BT brought out their engineer straightaway.

So I have written to Sean Poulter, Consumer Editor of the Daily Mail.  He must have been at the paper for practically thirty years, as he was on my contacts list when I used to do a proper job - PR for sunglasses, skis, sports watches, you name it - back in the days when I was a yuppy with a red golf GTi, living in Fulham.  I suggested to him that my plight might strike a chord with many of his readers, and that we are all bullied by the Big Boys and helpless in the face of a near monopoly supplying a necessary product which is not fit for purpose.  That a normal person can't begin to understand the gobbledegook that comes back from their legal department if you try having a go at them; eg  "The Defendant therefore seeks that the Court exercise its case management powers in striking out the claim pursuant to Parts 3.4(a) and (c) of the Civil Procedure Rules", but that these big corporates all start grinding into action if we invest a little in suing them through the small claims on or off-line.  It doesn't even have to cost you as much as £100!

I havent sent the letter, but have forwarded it to BT News Office (who havent replied yet) suggesting that we settle out of court rather than going to any further trouble and expense over the matter. Included in my email were links to two recentish articles remarkably identical to the one I am proposing Mr Poulter might run, if BT doesn't play ball. They are:

www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/01/get-bt-listening-visit-hq#start-of-comments; and 
www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/13/bt-openreach-broadband-phone-fault?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487.

I'm feeling a bit nervous now, as it's possible I might have broken some law(s) over this, but what will they do to me? Fine me? Caution me? Or send me to prison? I've always thought it might be interesting to go to prison if I wasn't incarcerated for too long. Better than girls boarding school anyway. And I bet there are some other inmates in there who would be all too happy to join me in a moan about BT.