BT Basic Line Rental: Get a landline for £4.50/month

Jemma-T

Having applied via paper application, after 10 days an envelope appeared and inside was the exact same application (no mention of the first) with leaflet. It was pre-printed with the customer info just the first too.

Phoned them up 0800 800 864 and they said they'd had admin problems and had to resend applications. They were very nice about it and the guy could speak English I could understand (always a bonus).

MattLFC

Well I phoned up again for my mother, and this time they it was just absolutely farcical. The first time, I telephoned the BT Basic number clearly stated on the BT Basic webpage, and they told me it was the wrong number, and I had to redial another number.

Fair enough, phoned the next number, the woman confirmed this time that they allow broadband on the lines. I proceeded to explain to the woman that my mother was with a different landline service (Sky), although not under contract with them and free to move back to BT.

The woman said that my mother would have to move back to BT on their £11.75 per month line rental option first, and then apply for BT Basic. She said she was unable to arrange this and would put me through to the reconnections line. She put me through and they quite simply told me that they could not do it as I wanted to to move to BT Basic, so she would put me through to the BT Options team instead. The woman there said she could not arrange BT Basic for me, and put me back through to the BT Basic line.

I got the same woman as earlier on when I was put through to the BT Basic line, she remembered myself and the situation, and told me she was unable to transfer the line back to BT and the reconnections team have to do it first. So she actually transferred the call once again to reconnections, and this time she explained the situation to the reconnections advisor first and what they needed to do for me.

The woman at reconnections took a few minutes and then turned around and said that she could not put the line on a BT Basic service and if she bought the line back across, it would be on a 12 month contract at £11.75 per month and BT Basic would not be possible for the duration of the contract, so the BT Basic team need to deal with it and reconnect the line instead.

So she put me back through to the BT Basic line, but the woman on this said they do not deal with BT Basic enquiries and there was a dedicated BT Basic team (so obviously I had been put through to the wrong department), and she would put me through to the BT Basic line. She put me on hold for a few seconds, then came back on to say she was transferring me, and then literally the phone went beep and then dead.

So it seems pretty obvious to me that BT do not want to move people across to BT Basic. They are making it as hard as possible to move to them, and I myself have told my mother to just stay with Sky Landline, because for the extra £5.00 per month, it is simply not worth the hassle of being with such an incompetent mess of a company. It scares me to think what would happen if there was ever a need to contact BT customer services...

diamonds

Graham1 wrote: »

I presume you are aware that having a contract mobile phone excludes people from BT basic. It's only allowed to have a PAYG mobile with low monthly usage (which they define as £10 or less usage per month). Although "chronically sick and disabled customers" are exempt from the mobile phone exclusions.

thats not specified as contract or payg though, one assumes its payg as £10 buys not much - saying that can you discriminate contract over payg ? BT Basic strict guidelines were inforced by Ofcom whom seen prior BT packages not meeting the needs of users

Jemma-T

MattLFC wrote: »

Well I phoned up again for my mother, and this time they it was just absolutely farcical. The first time, I telephoned the BT Basic number clearly stated on the BT Basic webpage, and they told me it was the wrong number, and I had to redial another number.

Fair enough, phoned the next number, the woman confirmed this time that they allow broadband on the lines. I proceeded to explain to the woman that my mother was with a different landline service (Sky), although not under contract with them and free to move back to BT.

The woman said that my mother would have to move back to BT on their £11.75 per month line rental option first, and then apply for BT Basic. She said she was unable to arrange this and would put me through to the reconnections line. She put me through and they quite simply told me that they could not do it as I wanted to to move to BT Basic, so she would put me through to the BT Options team instead. The woman there said she could not arrange BT Basic for me, and put me back through to the BT Basic line.

I got the same woman as earlier on when I was put through to the BT Basic line, she remembered myself and the situation, and told me she was unable to transfer the line back to BT and the reconnections team have to do it first. So she actually transferred the call once again to reconnections, and this time she explained the situation to the reconnections advisor first and what they needed to do for me.

The woman at reconnections took a few minutes and then turned around and said that she could not put the line on a BT Basic service and if she bought the line back across, it would be on a 12 month contract at £11.75 per month and BT Basic would not be possible for the duration of the contract, so the BT Basic team need to deal with it and reconnect the line instead.

So she put me back through to the BT Basic line, but the woman on this said they do not deal with BT Basic enquiries and there was a dedicated BT Basic team (so obviously I had been put through to the wrong department), and she would put me through to the BT Basic line. She put me on hold for a few seconds, then came back on to say she was transferring me, and then literally the phone went beep and then dead.

So it seems pretty obvious to me that BT do not want to move people across to BT Basic. They are making it as hard as possible to move to them, and I myself have told my mother to just stay with Sky Landline, because for the extra £5.00 per month, it is simply not worth the hassle of being with such an incompetent mess of a company. It scares me to think what would happen if there was ever a need to contact BT customer services...

So you want BT to reduce their charges for you even though you're not a customer? I'm not sure any company would or could do that.

Move the account to them (obviously) then ask for BT Basic. I think people are being very unreasonable and never take any responsibility or even think about what they expect from businesses. A business has to do business or they will have none. They're not a charity.


As for the application I had with BT Basic that's coming up for 1 month and had no word (had to reapply). This is not a surprise as it took 8 emails (count 'em) to get my caller display turned on.

BT have become very poor but that's par for the course with landline suppliers. Mobile phone companies seem to be better IME. Maybe they make more money and can afford quality British based staff trainers.

MattLFC

Oh so you are telling me it is okay for them not to know what their own services are? It is okay for their customer services to be so incompetent and useless that even when explained to the process that needs to be gone through, by a rep from the BT Basic team, they fail to understand?

Im sorry, but !!!!!! are you ging on about? I don't want BT to reduce thier call charges even though I am not a customer. If you actually bother to take a few seconds to re-read the post, you will see the person I am phoning for, is happy to rejoin BT, and it is BT that are at fault just because one department does not have a clue about another.

The service is being provided to HELP people who can barely afford the standard line rental; the person in question (my mother) went to the same company as me (Sky) because SCUM (aka BT) were taking the pi$$ with both of us; we both chose to pay monthly by direct debit, and paid our call charges to Sky Landline; yet somehow, BT decidedthey were going to increase payments whenever they felt like it, to the point where I was paying £18.00 per month for a basic phoneline, and my mother was paying £19.50 per month. The cost of the basic phoneline was supposed to £11.75 or whatever each month. So it is due to BT's incompetence or shadyness, that my mother moved away from them in the first place.

And why do you think that my mother should not be able to re-sign over to BT and take advantage of BT Basic? Why do you think it is more than acceptable for BT to !!!! her and myself about? Why do you think it is acceptable for them to be in such a mess customer service wise?

If they offer the service, firstly it would be nice for them to let their reps in on the secret, and secondly, it would be an idea for them to make it clear the procedures to follow to all their staff, in situations like this.

Im sorry Gemma-BT, as you obviously work for them, I have decided to take no notice anything you post from now on. My post was perfectly acceptable, I was outlining the crap I had spent 30 mins on the phone to BT putting up with. Needless to say, I have told my mother it is not worth the hassle anyway, she is staying with Sky Landline, a company that is actually bothered about the services it offers and customers it has.

So you can run along back to your chums at SCUM and tell them all they have managed to keep another BT Basic customer away as well...

Graham1

MattLFC wrote: »

The woman at reconnections took a few minutes and then turned around and said that she could not put the line on a BT Basic service and if she bought the line back across, it would be on a 12 month contract at £11.75 per month and BT Basic would not be possible for the duration of the contract, so the BT Basic team need to deal with it and reconnect the line instead.

Unfortunately this is another case of poor training of their representatives. Is it possible to (re)connect to their unlimited weekend (cheapest regular) package and then later change to BT basic and as long as you don't cancel the line itself within 12 months there is no other lock in to the unlimited weekend plan. I.E. the BT basic contract replaces the regular contract with no cancellation charge. This is fully documented in their price list and has been verbally confirmed to me.

On a separate subject how many people have actually received the application form after requesting it ? They say allow up to 14 days. It's already been that long for me.

Murchan

Has anyone else had an impossible time trying to get the BT Basic application form sent through? I have requested the necessary documentation THREE times but still nothing ....

buckstar555

Can someone please confirm if you are on Benifits that you can clain BT landline discounts. Thanks :beer:

Buzby

No you cannot 'claim' a discount, you simply switch to a BT tariff called BT Basic, and whilst the rental is low, the call charges are high. Another tariff that remains available is BTs Low User tariff which has less restrictions (with regard to being on benefits) and works by providing a larger rebate based on how little you make chargeable calls. The downside? No Broadband, or short code access to indirect carriers.

Jemma-T

MattLFC wrote: »

Oh so you are telling me it is okay for them not to know what their own services are? It is okay for their customer services to be so incompetent and useless that even when explained to the process that needs to be gone through, by a rep from the BT Basic team, they fail to understand?

Im sorry, but !!!!!! are you ging on about? I don't want BT to reduce thier call charges even though I am not a customer. If you actually bother to take a few seconds to re-read the post, you will see the person I am phoning for, is happy to rejoin BT, and it is BT that are at fault just because one department does not have a clue about another.

The service is being provided to HELP people who can barely afford the standard line rental; the person in question (my mother) went to the same company as me (Sky) because SCUM (aka BT) were taking the pi$$ with both of us; we both chose to pay monthly by direct debit, and paid our call charges to Sky Landline; yet somehow, BT decidedthey were going to increase payments whenever they felt like it, to the point where I was paying £18.00 per month for a basic phoneline, and my mother was paying £19.50 per month. The cost of the basic phoneline was supposed to £11.75 or whatever each month. So it is due to BT's incompetence or shadyness, that my mother moved away from them in the first place.

And why do you think that my mother should not be able to re-sign over to BT and take advantage of BT Basic? Why do you think it is more than acceptable for BT to !!!! her and myself about? Why do you think it is acceptable for them to be in such a mess customer service wise?

If they offer the service, firstly it would be nice for them to let their reps in on the secret, and secondly, it would be an idea for them to make it clear the procedures to follow to all their staff, in situations like this.

Im sorry Gemma-BT, as you obviously work for them, I have decided to take no notice anything you post from now on. My post was perfectly acceptable, I was outlining the crap I had spent 30 mins on the phone to BT putting up with. Needless to say, I have told my mother it is not worth the hassle anyway, she is staying with Sky Landline, a company that is actually bothered about the services it offers and customers it has.

So you can run along back to your chums at SCUM and tell them all they have managed to keep another BT Basic customer away as well...

Calm down. I went into my local carpet shop yesterday and they refused to give me a free carpet even though I already have a crarpet in my livingroom. What a cheek!


Back to reality, I've still not heard back from BT about the BT Basic application. Will give it another week and then will phone. How many people are actually on Basic and how did the application?