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JustPassingBy

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Customers who do not make at least one chargeable call per month with BT will be charged for calls at the standard rate.

Hope this helps

Ann

BT Support

I presume this is with reference to the Unlimited Weekend Plan.

Please would you direct me to the place in BT's Terms & Conditions or the Price List where it states this explicitly.

BT_company_representative

Hi JustPassingBy,

I have copied this from our web page "Unlimited Weekend Plan. Only £11.25 a month line rental with Direct Debit and paper-free billing, for new and existing residential customers making at least one chargeable call a month with BT. No minimum term, unless you order a new phone line or switch your phone line to BT from another provider, where a 12 month minimum term applies to line rental"

The link below is where I have copied this form, if you scroll the bottom of the page you will see this under the heading "thing you need to Know"

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=CON-HOME-PHN-R1

Thanks

Patrick

JustPassingBy

BT_company_representative wrote: »

The link below is where I have copied this form, if you scroll the bottom of the page you will see this under the heading "thing you need to Know"

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=CON-HOME-PHN-R1

Hi Patrick,

Thanks for your quick response.

The 'at least one chargeable call a month' condition is something I tracked down easily so I had already seen it. But that is not what I am really after. I've bolded the bit of the quote I'm interested in:

Originally Posted by BT company representative

Customers who do not make at least one chargeable call per month with BT will be charged for calls at the standard rate.

That I cannot find anywhere. In fact I can find no reference at all to 'standard rate' or what happens if a chargeable call is not made. Can you help?

BT_company_representative

Hi Justpassingby

Point 36 of ther T&C's state that to receive BT Answer 1571 free customers must make 2 chargeable calls oer month or 6 per quarter. If the customer does not make the necessary qualifying calls then the service will be charged at £0.98 per month

This refers to 1571 but the terms for free caller display with BT Privacy at Home are the same.
You already have the link to the FAQ section for the Unlimited Weekend Plan
The BT Price List gives a list of all prices.
Standard charge refers to the base charge for any call which is in the BT Price List.

On the Unlimited Weekend Plan if a chargeable call is not made to qualify for free weekend calls then the first weekend call that you make will become the chargeable call. This call will cost 4.5p per minute and the call set up fee of 8p will apply. This will be classed as the first chargeable call and all other calls made at the weekend to UK landlines for up to 1 hour will be charged at 0p.

If your query refers to the free connection deal then to qualify for this offer you must make your calls through BT. You must make 10 calls per month but these calls can be calls inclusinve in your calling plan. If you do not make the necessary calls you will be charged £6.80per month/£20.40 per qtr and this charge will be on the one-off charges section of your bill

For more info visit https://www.bt.com/offerterms

JustPassingBy

Hi,

My query related neither to BT Answer 1571 nor free caller display. The conditions under which they are provided are clearly set out it in the T&C at

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/dynamicmodules/pagecontentfooter/pageContentFooterPopup.jsp?pagecontentfooter_popupid=13408

and in the Price List under Section 2, Part 21 and Section 1, Part 31.

I can access these sources, read them, interpret them, follow up on links and, independently of whatever help I get from BT Customer Support or elsewhere, make up my mind whether I want either of these services.

If had wanted information on the free connection deal (which I didn't) you have provided an excellent outline of what it involves.

http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Notice09_boo/2-FrameworkImpl337855.htm

gives the details which I could always consult prior to taking out a contract or afterwards.

Now all I'm asking is for the source of this:

BT_company_representative wrote: »

On the Unlimited Weekend Plan if a chargeable call is not made to qualify for free weekend calls then the first weekend call that you make will become the chargeable call. This call will cost 4.5p per minute and the call set up fee of 8p will apply. This will be classed as the first chargeable call and all other calls made at the weekend to UK landlines for up to 1 hour will be charged at 0p.

I've looked in the T&C and in Section 55 of the Price List and there is nothing remotely like it in either document. For BT Answer 1571, free caller display and the free connection deal I can ask myself 'What happens if I don't do x?' and find an answer. But 'What happens if I don't make a chargeable call on the Unlimited Weekend Plan?' is either absent or very well hidden. Surely what I'm after is documented somewhere?

Heinz

JustPassingBy wrote: »

But 'What happens if I don't make a chargeable call on the Unlimited Weekend Plan?' is either absent or very well hidden. Surely what I'm after is documented somewhere?

I think BT customer representative did answer that in the paragraph you quoted.

Re-wording what he/she said, if you haven't made a chargeable call in a particular month whilst you're on the Unlimited Weekend Plan, your first call (even if it's at the weekend and would otherwise have been inclusive) will be charged normally and will then count as the one chargeable call you are required to make.

Thereafter, you will be deemed to have made the required call that month so inclusive calls (at the weekend) become available again..

That sounds like a logical approach (although a nightmare to administer, I'd imagine)..

JustPassingBy

Heinz wrote: »

I think BT customer representative did answer that in the paragraph you quoted.

Indeed, he/she did give an answer to the question 'What happens if I don't make a chargeable call on the Unlimited Weekend Plan?', but I didn't ask that. I thought my request for what information I wanted had been put succinctly in my first post and rather more verbosely in my last post.

That sounds like a logical approach (although a nightmare to administer, I'd imagine)..

Would the alternative reported scheme in post #14 at

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1900835

be any less of a nightmare?

Heinz

It does seem a bit ridiculous. If you don't deliberately make the required chargeable call, the first call you do make will be chargeable - and then you will be deemed to have made the required chargeable call - so you get your inclusive calls again.

In other words, for this to make any business sense, the policing activity (if there is any) will need to be funded by whatever that first calls costs! Even if it's an automated policing system, writing the software must have cost more than the calls will ever recoup.

aurora19

hello justpassingby

I think that it is your interpretation of the t&c's that is the sticking point here. I think that the answer to your question has already been implied in the T&C's. no chargeable call, no free calls. At least that's how I understand it. The BT rep was telling you that if you do not make the chargeable call during the week and leave it till the weekend to route your calls through BT then the first of those calls is charged at the STANDARD RATE (see price list and prices quoted) and the rest are included as qualifying calls and are free. I would have thought that there was no need to refer to t&c's for something like that, is it not self explanatory, no chargeable call, no free calls, I think the rep was telling you your options. The piece that you want clarification on is the t&c's of the offer, namely if you do not make 1 chargeable call per month through BT calls will be charged at the standard rate, means exactly what it says however as the BT rep said the first call would be chargeable, therefore qualifying you for free calls. Makes sense to me.

JustPassingBy

Heinz wrote: »

In other words, for this to make any business sense, the policing activity (if there is any) will need to be funded by whatever that first calls costs! Even if it's an automated policing system, writing the software must have cost more than the calls will ever recoup.

There is a potential £2.78 to be made every other month on this scheme, so maybe that would help to make it economical.

You may recollect this:

Available to eligible residential BT Together Option 1 (Unlimited Weekend Plan from 1st April) customers who make at least one chargeable call a month with BT. BT reserves the right to move customers from the BT Together Option 1 (Unlimited Weekend Plan from 1st April 2008) to the Line Rental Plan if they make less than one chargeable call a month.

which is still available to view at

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/consumerProducts/pdf/Changes_to_BT_Pricing.pdf

It was never in the Price List. It could have been in the T&C but I don't remember. If it was it was publicised, which is more than could be said for the 'no chargeable call, calls charged at the standard rate' model.