BT Withdraws Light User

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

diamonds wrote: »

It is indeed, I know a 62 yr old who took early retirement due to ill health never uses the phone except incoming

house outright, private pension tax free @ £400 a month so they are over the Income Support/Jobseekers rate - no Council Tax rebate/DWP benefits

DLA refused

minus council tax £150 ( includes 25% single persons discount )

£250 a month to live on & £15 a month goes to BT as they dont qualify for BT Basic......

Imagine working all your days for 5 years of that ! another 3 years till state pension kicks in....

just aswell they got a winter payment this year, 2/3 their house is tongue & groove

terrible BT get away with no LUS, BT Basic is a joke if you need to make calls - on benefits ? lets just charge 10p a minute....for those whom need to make emergency calls in a quarter could end up finding £10.50 plan cheaper

BT Basic should reduce line rental with no free calls & usual rates...its a sham BT got to use Basic in its product name - its far from BASIC but then BT Extortion does quite have the same ring

BT Basic activation awaiting customer myself, I never use the landline - its there for £5 Orange Broadband Unlimited with free calls to 100 Interntional Countries, 01, 02, 03 UK landlines & Orange mobiles, simply register my Orange second line number with 18185 etc for cheapo mobile calls

so go Basically suck eggs BT I have it well sussed it out ya Bas(ic)Turds

Totally confused

Igol

Yet apparently existing light user members get BT Basic.

I just dont use the thing and wouldnt have it if it wasnt for the net and generally I always found that making calls was what works phones were for

So will they suddenly decide that I need to be means tested so they can stick me on a more expensive service?

KimYeovil

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

[...]
Anyway, this is pathetic. Now people who don't use the line for outgoing calls cannot get a reduced line rental. My mother is in this catagory, pensioner, no access to job seekers allowance etc (obviously) and now is going to have to fork out much more to have a telephone. Its a scandal. I blame the unfit for purpose government along with their unfit for purpose Ofcom.

If you don't want outgoing calls why waste money on a landline? Why not just use a mobile phone?

MiserlyMartin

Because mobile phones cost a fortune to call as I'm sure you know. Landlines are next to nothing and free for most people. The line rental isn't cheap for one either. Pay As You Go have even higher call charges for the limited calls I sometimes make.

syko29793

This is the downside to having so much choice and cheap prices.
why should BT offer these reduced cost services? no other company does
BT has now lost the monoppoly so cant do stuff for free.
I remember when there was no LLu or WLR and BT would send an engineer out for free to connect a line.
We all may love our free or £5 broadband but costs have to be made up elsewhere and this is how its done.

normanmark

Light User was only there to support those on a low income. Now they've finally got a means-tested system it'll not be open to the abuse it has been in the past.

Ofcom concluded that over 40% of the customers on there weren't appropriate for the scheme, a scheme which BT makes a loss on.

Obviously for those who still want the new scheme, then the application process will decide whether or not they're suitable for it. Otherwise you can just take out a normal service like the rest of the general public.

Igol

And again.
LU had nothing to do with low income.

I may have taken a hit with shares lately but I havent been reduced to poverty.

It existed for those who made few calls I've had it for over 11 years, before that my parents always had it, because we feel the need to have the phone clamped to our heads to tell someone every 20 seconds what we're doing.
Maybe I'm odd I like to talk to people face to face.

So BT are moving me to Basic and 'I need do nothing' but do they then turn around and say its only for folk on benefits so cough up twice what you were paying for that bit of plastic in the corner that you may use once a fortnight?

topherxp

Igol wrote: »

And again.
LU had nothing to do with low income.

I may have taken a hit with shares lately but I havent been reduced to poverty.

It existed for those who made few calls I've had it for over 11 years, before that my parents always had it, because we feel the need to have the phone clamped to our heads to tell someone every 20 seconds what we're doing.
Maybe I'm odd I like to talk to people face to face.

So BT are moving me to Basic and 'I need do nothing' but do they then turn around and say its only for folk on benefits so cough up twice what you were paying for that bit of plastic in the corner that you may use once a fortnight?

Customers on LUS will be moved to BT Basic without the requirement of being on one of the benefits.

KimYeovil

MiserlyMartin wrote: »

Because mobile phones cost a fortune to call as I'm sure you know. Landlines are next to nothing and free for most people. The line rental isn't cheap for one either. Pay As You Go have even higher call charges for the limited calls I sometimes make.

'Line' rental for a mobile phone is one chargeable action every six months - ie less than tuppence per month.

If you are not a light user and having very long conversations with incoming callers then it is doubtful you should qualify in the first place. Most people I know in such situations have a very small network of family or a close friend or two who are calling them - they can join the same mobile network to lower costs.

If the small number of calls you make cost more than eight or nine pounds (on a mobile) you are not a low user.

topherxp

diamonds wrote: »

terrible BT get away with no LUS, BT Basic is a joke if you need to make calls - on benefits ? lets just charge 10p a minute....for those whom need to make emergency calls in a quarter could end up finding £10.50 plan cheaper

BT Basic should reduce line rental with no free calls & usual rates...its a sham BT got to use Basic in its product name - its far from BASIC but then BT Extortion does quite have the same ring

Well lets get your facts straight, The rental for BT Basic is £13.20 per quarter and has a £4.50 call allowance for landline calls, which works out as 46 minutes (ex set up fee of 2.93p per call) per quarter, more than enough for emergency calls. You can then make a further 187 minutes (ex set up,) of calls to 01, 02, 03 numbers per quarter before you even get to the £10.50pm/£31.50pq(when you have DD and paperfree billing) line rental price without any calls. Also other calls are charged at the standard rates you'd get with the normal line rental.

diamonds wrote: »

BT Basic activation awaiting customer myself, I never use the landline - its there for £5 Orange Broadband Unlimited with free calls to 100 Interntional Countries, 01, 02, 03 UK landlines & Orange mobiles, simply register my Orange second line number with 18185 etc for cheapo mobile calls

So you don't even qualify for LUS as you have broadband, mobile, and use 18185 and although the Orange offer is good, you do need to have a contract mobile to get the £5 Broadband, so if you can afford a contract mobile you can afford a normal priced landline.

LUS is ultimately being withdrawn because it has been abused, never more evident than with the original post where she is complaining because she can't have LUS for her 2 lines, as LUS was designed for people who don't use the phone much and use it as their only form of communication, so no broadband, mobile etc.