BT Price Increases from 1/4/2009

topherxp

ACDeag wrote: »

I presume that the increase as it is vastly more than inflation may give me the opportunity to terminate my BT contract early and move the number to another supplier.

As long as you don't mind paying a cancellation charge.

ACDeag

topherxp wrote: »

As long as you don't mind paying a cancellation charge.

Normally a company is limited to the amount it can raise charges while you are in contract otherwise they could double them and you would still be stuck. The normal figure is more than inflation.

Speedee

billsavings wrote: »

From 1st April 2009.

Standard line rental price increases to £12.50 a month (from £11.50). (Already posted about).

The cost of UK calls made during the daytime increase by 0.59 pence per minute to 4.50 pence per minute.

The price of the chargeable Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan increases from £2.65 to £2.95 per month.

The price of the Unlimited Anytime Plan with a 12 month renewable contract will increase by 10p per month on 1 April, from £4.85 per month to £4.95 per month. The full price of this plan (without a contract) will increase from £5.82 to £5.95 on 1 April.

The monthly charge for each individual calling feature is increasing by 79p per month to £2.50 per month.

Friends and Family scheme to Geographical Numbers and one 0845 Number abolished.(New schemes for mobile and intl numbers,chargeable in some cases)

....... :idea: I'm just wondering :think: if they are having an April Fool's joke on us all!!

Speedee :whistle: :rotfl:

MattLFC

*informer* wrote: »

Price is not everything! Would you prefer to pay less and when you have a fault on the line call your SP and them not knowing what to do, or paying extra and calling to get expereinced advice, information on how to check your equipment and process the fault as fast as possible?

Just bear in mind also, BT is increasing their prices, but watch this space a see how many others will do it within the next 2/3 months also. I seem to remember that when BT lowered their price, major competition also lowered it. When BT increased call set up fee previously, other major SP's done it. BT takes the lead on change, but the sheep follow.

So okay, get angry with BT, leave and go to another provider and sign into a contract with them and watch them do the same. Only difference is your in a new contract that you cant get out of and in the long run the price might be more expensive.

BT... good customer service? Your having a lauch arnt you, seriously? Do you honestly believe this, or is that you work for BT, and seeing all these customers leaving, makes you worried for your job in this tough economic climate?

As for saving me money... hmmm lets see.

Their standard line rental to me was £10.75 per month; I make less than £1.00 of calls each month, and pay them to Sky anyway (I have a mobile with almost unlimited everything, and have Sky Talk) yet when BT provided my line rental they screwed me over! I wanted to pay monthly, via direct debit, and they allowed me to. They started the direct debit at £13.00 per month (bear in mind I use my home phone so little, I do not have any "extra's" on the line, if it wernt for me having DSL, I would'nt even have the line). So they worked out £13.00 per month for a customer, who pays his calls to another CPS, has a line rental of £10.75 per month, and even when he paid call charges to BT, never went over £1.00, most months I did'nt even make a call.

Okay, it could be incase I make a call without Sky Talk using the special number to go over BT... so um, every month they kept upping it by a pound or two, despite me never making a single call or having a bill bigger than £10.75 per month to them. Eventually, after 3 or 4 months, they were taking £18.00 per month from me. So im really !!!!!! about this; I phone them, wait at least 25 minutes on the phone and they have not a clue why. They explain the amount taken is worked out from average monthly call charges from previous months, which gives them an estimate. I ask them to remind me when I made a call in the last 3 months, and they can't give me any example. I ask once again why they are taking £18.00 per month for a service worth £10.75...again, they have not a clue.

I go and logon to my Sky account a few days later, and I see Sky Talk Landline mentioned... I phoned up Sky, my call was answered within a minute, and find out it had not officially launched, the Sky Talk staff had not heard of it. So they put me through to a supervisor, who processes the application for me. A few days later, I get he bumf through the post, and about 2 weeks later, im on Sky Landline @ £10.00 per month... you know what, they have NEVER charged me a penny more than £10.00 for line rental, and my bill including calls, has NEVER been over £11.00 per month with them.

So compare this to the service, or lack of, and scamming, by BT. And the funny thing is, BT had the nerve to send me a letter saying I owed them £3 something, and if I did not pay, id be taken to court. I never paid them, more idle threats, this was 2007...

Okay, maybe customer support has improved since then? Errr... not exactly. I phone up to get BT Basic arranged for a family member, and guess what, same old story. I ask if you can have broadband on the service, and get a blunt no, but maybe in the next few months... I come on here and find out otherwise!! I phone up a few days later and I get passed from operator to operator, the first woman does not know what BT Basic is, even though I phoned the BT Basic number on the website, so she gets her supervisor, who passes me through to another woman, tells me that she will pass me to her collegue to setup the service, he collegue then passes me to some engineer department, I explain and they can't work out why, so they pass me to someone else, who passes me back to the original woman, she passes me to a collegue again, and this time she actually explains to the collegue what needs doing, and what my situation is, and akes sure the collegue understands it, but her collegue asks me to wait, and then says she must pass me through to yet another department, so she does, and I wait, and then the phone dies.

Excellent service, I must say!

I am now with Madasafish, well moving over on the 10th, because I am getting rid of Sky TV, basically because I don't watch it, and was given a free Freeview PVR. Now these are a subsidury of Brightview, who in turn, are a subsidury of the BT Group. But so far, so good, and £9.75 per month and a 28 day rolling contract, whereas for me to move to BT, it would be £11.75 or whatever per month, and a 12 or 18 month contract. I guess BT really is the better deal.

:money:

FannyHill

Great post Matt, says it all.


There are so many others with similar stories regarding BT.

Ypaymore

FannyHill wrote: »

Great post Matt, says it all.


There are so many others with similar stories regarding BT.

FH.

Here you Say http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=420318

"I like a BT line so I can use 1899,18185 etc or anyone else I choose to make my calls"

Are you still with them?

FannyHill

I did say that in April of 2007 (thanks for going back that far thru my posts) and it was handy so I could use 1899 and 18185.That was about the only redeeming feature of BT that you could use other providers. The problem with BT is when something goes wrong and you can't get anywhere you just go round and round in circles when you call.
When everything is working fine you put up with them especially if you live in a rural area and don't have much choice.
I haven't had a BT landline for over a year.
I eventually had to cancel as I'd had enough of them they were doing my head in.

I now use mobiles and mobile broadband.


But for all those who think BT are fab, and provide a great service.......bully for you.

I do realise there are some on here who work for BT and won't have a bad word said about them.

With BT as hard as you try you just cannot get rid of the smell.

People are leaving BT in huge numbers and will continue to do so I'm sure.

KimYeovil

I trust all you complainers wrote in with praise last year and the previous years when BT did not increase their rental in line with inflation?

9.5% is reasonable. (Last time I checked fuel prices went up 50% in one year, coffee's up 33%, sweetcorn, beef, pickled capers, ham, rice, rent, council tax...) The only way inflation is low is if you are an oikish chav who spends their money on flatscreen tvs and supermarket clothing. Every normal person's inflation is up by a lot more than 9.5% over the last two years.

MiserlyMartin

I thought "The cost of calling keeps on falling"? I don't call a 9.5% increase in line rental that. The increase in minimum call charges (conection fees) and the axing of the light user scheme are also at odds with these marketing promises.

MiserlyMartin

*informer* wrote: »

Line Rental has decreased over the years. For many years BT was not allowed to reduce it's line rental below a set rate to allow newer companies build a customer base that offered competition. These other service providers did not have such a requirement placed on them.

Tbh, BT are the first to make the move. With the current climate, the price of providing any type of service has increased in price. Have a look around. The price of food in shops, the price of cars etc etc...Why is it that this goes unnoticed but once BT makes a change they are ripping people off??

Um inflation is rapidly falling, petrol has fallen loads, cars are cheaper. To justify the BT price increases using this is wrong. I'm not happy BT have one of their employees on the forum trying to drum up a bit of sympathy for the pathetic rip off merchants who have no idea of customer service.