BT Withdraws Light User

*informer*

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?

I agree, hence the name "Light User". The idea behind it was imposed on BT as we had to offer an affordable service to those customer that only have the phone as a "Life Line". However, my main point to everyone is that LU was review because people were probs taking the !!!!. Like you can see, some people in this treat has already confirmed that they wouldnt be elgiable for the service but still had it!!

LU customers are getting a letter to advise about the chance. If you do not get the letter before LU is removed, then you are moved to BT Basic automatically. However, you are still required to follow the application process. You will remain on BT Basic until this has been done and a decision made.

*informer*

diamonds wrote: »

... ... ...

mate, please take note of my signature message. You have raised some true facts but also some unsupported bulls**t tbh...Seriously man, read over your post and see that you are going off on one over nothing. Face facts, the service is designed to help those that are needy and not those that are to tight fisted to pay for it. You should also note that BT will only be pushed so far. BT was required to have a service in place to assist those that may not be able to afford the basic service, however now that the indutry is a level playing feild, this requirement no longer lies with BT. Same as public payphone are not a requirement for BT to supply!![/

topherxp

diamonds wrote: »

outwith allowance its 10p a minute to a geographical landline - thats not as you quote

Yes it is, do your maths. The minutes I quoted were based on a geograpical calls which currently charged at 9.78p per minute. When I said other calls are charged at the normal rates it was in reference to mobile calls, international calls etc..

It's unfortunate that you felt the need to only use a partial quote and twist it.

topherxp

diamonds wrote: »

It was me who made the BT CEO aware of the fact LUS was discriminative & I was assured the " product " was currently being re-organised & my input would ensure new terms on people recognised by STATE as " dis-advantaged by ability " & " have more than 1 address due to care needs " ( quoted from BT CEO ) would be taken wholelly into account by BT on this NEW replacement product, we got BT Basic as that re-organisation & the " STATE recognised " qualifications :


What if I am disabled or have a long-term illness?
If you’re registered as being disabled or having a long-term illness, some of these restrictions won’t apply to you. For example, you can still get BT Basic if you have more than one phone line, whether
these are at the same or different addresses.


Its amazing what a worker can do to a Queen Bee if they try

I still think BT/Ofcom needs to re-think Basic as its nearly there but its not, needs be this time I think am going to write to Ofcom, I challenged BT already & won !

They more than likely let you have LUS just to close the complaint and not because it is discrimination, after all the CEO or the person who was more than likley dealt with you complaint, because trust me the CEO doesn't deal with complaints they are just passed backdown the chain to advisor level just noting that it was a complaint originally sent to the CEO, would in most cases just do it if it wasn't going to cost the company much money.

Discrimination would have been BT allowing an able bodied person to have a mobile and LUS but not a disabled person.

As you mentioned in the reply you received they said they were re-organising LUS, with the end result being BT Basic, a means tested reduced rental scheme that allows you to have other services like a mobile and broadband.

LUS was never means tested, so anybody could call up and ask for it and just lie about nothaving mobile service.

normanmark

diamonds wrote: »

LOSS of what ? per month take 20 million BT landlines X £10.50 = £200 million +

are you suggesting it costs Wholesale that much plus all the charges laid to other Telcos/individuals through Openreach that much a month to operate ? if it does its a badly run division of BT - they'd have you believe either or both scenarios over the truth - Wholesale is so profitable it allows BT to subsidise other parts of its monopoly & post profit to BT Group PLC for the shareholders, so what was the point of its Universal boundries, a Ofcom sham as much the rest of Ofcon - THE PUBLIC BODY WE ALL PAY THROUGH TAX, I wonder since BT was privatised and telecom market opened up how many MP's & public service employees/partners would openly disclose having bought shares in such companies and how much profit they made on such shares

Labour, Conservatives, Libs...... whatever party is in government you pay for via TAX, its all a big con & Telecoms is just one genre of many many more, Brits are such suckers with their stiff upper lips

The loss quote was from BT themselves. Ofcom is not funded through tax that we pay. It's paid for by industry & selected grants from the government.

I think you're losing the plot now harping on about MP's interests in terms of shares, stocks etc.

Let's stick to the point of BT withdrawing LUS whether you like it or not, if you qualify for the new BT scheme then happy days. If you don't then move on & pay for the normal service that most others do. Feels like its just going round in circles & anything you say currently won't change a thing.

Bogof_Babe

I am well confused now. Had the same letter recently, and for one thing I can't remember a time in my married life when we were NOT on LUS, and we have never been on benefits nor asked for LUS for any other reason, so it must have been automatically applied to our account at some point in the last 35 years.

As for the Broadband thing, I have been using Orange (Freeserve/Wanadoo) broadband for about six years now, and no query has ever arisen as to the use of our BT phone line.

They say we will be automatically moved onto Basic, but like another poster noticed, only until August, when the means testing kicks in.

If they really want to help low users out, why not do the £13.50 quarterly line rental (instead of the £35 charged on their normal package), and let people pay for their calls at the standard rates?

There's no such thing as a free phone call, and I fear that a lot of people are going to be clobbered. Even if we could afford a higher cost package (debatable in the current climate and with nothing but savings interest for income ), I don't see why we should pay £11.75 monthly line rental when we only make about £2 worth of calls.

gt94sss2

diamonds wrote: »

LOSS of what ? per month take 20 million BT landlines X £10.50 = £200 million +

are you suggesting it costs Wholesale that much plus all the charges laid to other Telcos/individuals through Openreach that much a month to operate ?

Some years ago - before Openreach - BT were saying they used to lose around £1bn/year on maintaining the local loop.. I suspect a large part of this was from customers who were then on BT's old 'standard' tariff which also came with a call allowance.

From Openreaches website:

The Openreach access network is 120 million kilometres long and could stretch, around the world more than 3,000 times. Openreach also operates 200,000 manholes, 4.2 million distribution points, five million joint boxes, 3.5 million telegraph poles and 88,000 green cabinets and..

...have 21,000 field engineers and a 2,750 strong service organisation. Openreach engineers visit 11,500 homes and offices every weekday on behalf of its Communications Provider customers. That
is 3.2 million visits a year to help install new lines, make repairs, upgrade service and generally deliver a better network...

so yes, I assume it does cost quite a lot of maintain.. and most of their costs are 'fixed' not variable. [ and those stats don't include the money they will need to pay to introduce fibre into the local loop]

Specifically on the LUS, its been 'abused' for years - in fact I remember recommending to Oftel that it be replaced years ago with something else.. and it seems they are finally doing something about it.

Its other BT customers, who are subsiding those on BT Basic/LUS - not BT themselves..

Regards
Sunil

*informer*

topherxp wrote: »

They more than likely let you have LUS just to close the complaint and not because it is discrimination, after all the CEO or the person who was more than likley dealt with you complaint, because trust me the CEO doesn't deal with complaints they are just passed backdown the chain to advisor level just noting that it was a complaint originally sent to the CEO, would in most cases just do it if it wasn't going to cost the company much money.

Sorry, but I must disagree with this statement. From the way you have posted on this forum, I assume that you work for BT. However, I would like to point out that the Chairman and Chief Executive Office and Customer Service Directors Team are Highly Skilled advisors with additional training and a true care for the customer. They will work with you to resolve your complaint in the best interest of both parties, which means that you do not always get what you want but they will try meet common ground with you. They do have more authority and judgement than normal advisors and the complaints along with feedback are fed back and persented to senior management via a set process.

So whilst the CEO, Director or any other member of the senior leadership team do not deal directly with the complaints received (they do have day jobs), they are still given a summary of areas of review (ie many complaints recieved about the same product), feedback and so on.

I trust that this gives you and other posters a better understanding how it wors!

syko29793

the removal of light user/in contact is due to BT agreement with ofcom to have equivalence of input. Meaning all companies have the same process for placing orders for telephone lines and services.
BT no longer has a monopoly on lines and never did on broadband.
we are lucky that BT still offers a reduced line option as no other company does and from what ive read this wont be around for long.
Remeber BT is a business not a charity and needs to make money. as all the competion increases BT cant just be left with the light users wantin a cheap service to subsidise another service they get elsewhere.

topherxp

*informer* wrote: »

Sorry, but I must disagree with this statement. From the way you have posted on this forum, I assume that you work for BT. However, I would like to point out that the Chairman and Chief Executive Office and Customer Service Directors Team are Highly Skilled advisors with additional training and a true care for the customer. They will work with you to resolve your complaint in the best interest of both parties, which means that you do not always get what you want but they will try meet common ground with you. They do have more authority and judgement than normal advisors and the complaints along with feedback are fed back and persented to senior management via a set process.

So whilst the CEO, Director or any other member of the senior leadership team do not deal directly with the complaints received (they do have day jobs), they are still given a summary of areas of review (ie many complaints recieved about the same product), feedback and so on.

I trust that this gives you and other posters a better understanding how it wors!

Trust me, those complaints are passed right back down the line and giving to an advisor working offline, sometimes a team manager will deal and are listed that it was from the chairmans office or sent to CEO.

Those complaints will be dealt with faster as a result of it going through the Chairman/CEO