Your thoughts for Ofcom

Sterling

Martin: Would you please ask Ofcom why BT is allowed to charge customers like me (who can’t receive broadband) exactly the same quarterly line rental as customers whose lines are good enough to obtain high-speed broadband connections?

We are, after all, in the internet age, where access to a reasonable broadband speed is now as much a part of the line service as telephone calls. Customers like myself, who are receiving a line service that is considerably inferior to the norm, should be charged less per quarter - or given an appropriate discount.

My argument is that if BT is allowed to continue charging the same amount for line rental regardless of the state of the line, it has no financial incentive to improve inferior lines like ours, and for Ofcom to allow such a state of affairs to continue is surely contrary to the public interest.

Heinz

Heinz wrote: »

Two main items, in order of priority:

(1). Why are CPS calls providers like Sky who, it appears, are now buying a different calls package from BT Wholesale allowed to ignore the use of the 1280 prefix which should enable a subscriber who still pays line rental to BT Retail to 'hop back onto BT' for an individual call? This prevents those renting a line from BT Retail from using the Unlimited Weekend Plan (free weekend calls of up to an hour to UK 01, 02 and 03 numbers) for which they pay as part of their package and can result in them being charged by BT Retail for Caller Display and/or 1571 because they've been prevented from making the required numnber of chargeable or inclusive calls via BT to get those free.

There's a very interesting post from YoungNick about this matter HERE which you may find contains some useful ammunition for you when you meet Ofcom.

MSE_Archna wrote: »

Hi Heinz,

That's something we're looking into at the moment.

I doubt you'll get any sensible answers from Ofcom before the meeting (if you do, please post on here, there's a lot of people asking) so let's hope Martin can corner them with the ammunition supplied - particularly YoungNick's in his post of 3 October - when he has them face to face.

MSE_Martin

Hi we had the ofcom meeting and i will blog on it

The chap who is head of consumer policy - was in the best way a nerd - and it was refreshing to talk to someone who actually understood all the issues without needing to have 'overrides explained' - and once we'd established terms

(ie to clear it up we talked about 18185 type and telediscount type overrides) it went really well

At the moment they're due to come back with some clarifications and answers, and i'll do full details after that.

Martin

Heinz

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi we had the ofcom meeting and i will blog on it

At the moment they're due to come back with some clarifications and answers, and i'll do full details after that.

Any idea when Martin?

I'm particulalry interested in what they intend to do to stop Sky Talk and TalkTalk (and perhaps other calls providers) 'ignoring' their CPS customers' use of the 1280 prefix and, thereby, preventing them making calls via the BT calls plan which they get with their line rental - resulting in charges for Caller Display and/or 1571.

darren72

Is the report ready yet ??? - It would be interesting to hear what happened.

atticuk

Hi Martin

Would you enquire where BT's responsibility regarding a faulty line ends? Is it the 'main socket' (NTE5) that terminates in the house?

The reason I ask is because I've just been charge £223.11 inclusive of V.A.T for a face plate replacement due to corrosion. I maintain that the box was baldy positioned and was not fit for purpose. BT faults department insists that it's my fault that the 'main socket' is corroded!

Heinz

Martin, it appears BT are now making it up as they go along (see the nonsense e-mail reply one MSE-er received HERE

You'll remember it was the No.1 issue I suggested you raise at your meeting with Ofcom. I expect that was the issue to which they gave you the old, "We'll get back to you on that" response.

Have they yet? Clearly, saying, "We've had to withdraw the 1280 service" is unacceptable (and nonsense because their own website advises people to use that prefix to make qualifying calls in order to get free Caller Display and/or 1571).

Jemma-T

A few other things to ask the corrupt and quite useless organisation:

Will you ever apologise for !!!!ing up the entire UK network by getting rid of 192 enquiries? Surely the dumbest thing I've ever seen any organisation do (except maybe when Coca-Cola changed the flavour of their drink).

How many OfCom managers have moved to the industry and are now telling phone comapanies how to run rings around OfCom?

Why are you allowing BT to sell off what OpenReach do so we'll have 100s of small companies !!!!ing about with a network? It'll be like ringing around 6 plumbers to try and get them to fix a leak.

Why haven't you stopped the poorest people in society from being ripped off by having to dial 0844 numbers for a doctor (GPs)?

Why do you allow people to use 0800 with the word 'free' in it (when it's not from mobiles) and why didn't you forsee the problems with 0800 and why haven't you stopped the rip off 0870 numbers yet and why didn't you forsee the problems with 0870 personal health alarms?

How much was that bottled water with the OfCom logo? Might be something worth asking under the FOI and would the time and money spent on it be better spent by OfCom by actually doing something to help consumers?

And finally, have you ever actually done ANYTHING that's been of use to the British public, is everything you do a reaction to something that's already happened and do you actually have any planning skills?

And a final -and finally- what exactly is it you REALLY do for British tax payers?

diso

My Bt moans althought the BT forum mod has edited my post so you don't get the full force anymore.

Why is the BT broadband direct debit, not in fact just a plan direct debit but a credit agreement?

[Deleted User]

The one thing that pees me off about the landline system as it is, is that you HAVE to get your landline installed through BT, then you HAVE to pay them £124.99 for the privelege, then you HAVE to stay with them for a year.



If that doesn't kill competition, I don't know what does.

Imagine if broadband suppliers were like that. New broadband? You've GOT to sign up with BT Broadband for a year before you can switch to Tiscali/Orange/AOL/Whoever...