low useage charges by BT !

timmmers

Heinz wrote: »

On behalf of your F&F, may I say how pleased I am you will be dumping the 1571 'service' and, at the same time, saving yourself £2.50/month.

Can I suggest you consider investing that money in an ordinary answering machine.

Interesting how that works? How the hell does an answering machine display the caller ID BEFORE you pick up without caller display services ? It rings, you don't answer...it records a message. It doesn't show the number at any point.

All mobile services manage to supply this service free of charge and it's standard fayre these days for companies to do so...except BT of course.

The fact here is that BT have a monopoly on some people's exchanges, I can't have a non-BT line (apart from cable) for my ADSL2 line...therefore when my calls via BT come to zero my actual bill reaches over 40 quid ..they charge like bull rhinos for caller display, for line rental (the history of which is a travesty on it's own), and even for paying the damn bill at a PO quarterly if you do that.

In a free market deregulated industry why can this be allowed to happen? Who do you think gets to be ripped off most by these charges, pensioner who make few calls yet need a phone for safety and security.

We should ALL be able to have our own ISP or phone company charge us without BT having ANY involvement at all.

Does your gas company charge you extra for not using their gas, or for paying the bill? No..they discount if you pay via a more convenient method not fine you.

This is probably illegal...it penalises me for routing my calls through a phone company that can't provide CID because BT won't allow them to. Unfair practices...ask Microsoft how that flies in court.

t

timmmers

mrtom21 wrote: »

Argh these posts about the £2.50 charge per month for caller display if you have calls with another provider do my head in!

Why is it some people believe they are OWED caller display for nothing??? Fair enough you pay line rental but if you don't pay your calls to that provider... they don't really make anything off it... except the sole responsibility of maintaining the line at the exchange for pennies.

Stop complaining about it and just remove caller display from your account... After all, you took your calls to a different provider to get the cheapest package. Sometimes you have to accept that the package is cheap for a reason. :P.

Rant over, back to my sandwiches! (p.s. It's not made in a sandwich shop so I don't get my mayonaisse for free!)

To repeat ...this would be because BT prevent other companies from supplying the CID service in some areas..the only option therefore IS BT who use it to rob you blind. Does you mobile company charge you for this STANDARD service?

Indeed...why ever should any of us be paying line rental or anything to BT at all when we prefer to use another company ? MONOPOLY is why. NO choice.

I don't want cable, it's not suitable or good enough...I want the deregulation of the telecoms industry to mean DEREGULATION and freedom of supplier...like all the other utilities.

t

JustPassingBy

lpgm wrote: »

I really don't mind paying 60p a quarter for Caller Display - the lowest cost I've managed for six chargeable calls - . . . . . . .

60p is not bad but many people get the six chargeable calls for 0p. A small but satisfying saving.

Heinz

timmmers wrote: »

Indeed...why ever should any of us be paying line rental or anything to BT at all when we prefer to use another company ? MONOPOLY is why. NO choice.nd freedom of supplier...like all the other utilities.

I think you misunderstand the regulations. You can get line rental from any of the 'line providers' now in the market. Your exchange does not even have to be LLU'd for that to happen.

lpgm

JustPassingBy wrote: »

60p is not bad but many people get the six chargeable calls for 0p. A small but satisfying saving.

Could you tell me how that works? Are some customers, like me, being forced to make six chargeable calls, and others allowed to make six inclusive calls or something?

Thanks.

craig878

Its only really fair if you want Additional BT Calling Features to pay for them isn't it? Your not using the BT line for any calling! BT need customers just as much as any other provider do! They pay OpenReach for the line rental, as their a seperate company now, due to ofcom regulation.

littleboo

timmmers wrote: »

We should ALL be able to have our own ISP or phone company charge us without BT having ANY involvement at all.

You can

timmmers wrote: »

Does your gas company charge you extra for not using their gas, or for paying the bill? No..they discount if you pay via a more convenient method not fine you.

Which amounts to exactly the same thing, just presented in a different way. Unless you really believe that the Gas/Elec companies havent already added in the non-DD charges before removing it as a "discount"

timmmers

A condition of me using my broadband...and my ISP for calls is having a BT line. My ISP cannot charge me line rental nor can they instal a line. I am stuck with BT because unlike the other utilities they are both controlling the supply of services and the means of supply (lines and exchanges) .

IF I was free to not use BT I wouldn't be doing so. Even more annoying is that BT is a relatively new company and the lines they overcharge us for were originally Post Office lines, ditto the exchanges.

If you have a problem with gas pipes outside your home...that's Transco. They don't supply gas, they deal with the distribution and the suppliers all use that service equally...this is not the case with telecoms at all. There are areas where different rules apply, but it isn't nationwide or even common.

We should be able to choose any supplier as we can with any other utility or service. We can't.

t

littleboo

timmmers wrote: »

A condition of me using my broadband...and my ISP for calls is having a BT line. My ISP cannot charge me line rental nor can they instal a line. I am stuck with BT because unlike the other utilities they are both controlling the supply of services and the means of supply (lines and exchanges) .

IF I was free to not use BT I wouldn't be doing so. Even more annoying is that BT is a relatively new company and the lines they overcharge us for were originally Post Office lines, ditto the exchanges.

If you have a problem with gas pipes outside your home...that's Transco. They don't supply gas, they deal with the distribution and the suppliers all use that service equally...this is not the case with telecoms at all. There are areas where different rules apply, but it isn't nationwide or even common.

We should be able to choose any supplier as we can with any other utility or service. We can't.

t

Your ISP is free to offer line rental if they want to, and also to arrange for a line to installed. You need to do more research into the way the market is structured.

JustPassingBy

lpgm wrote: »

Could you tell me how that works? Are some customers, like me, being forced to make six chargeable calls, and others allowed to make six inclusive calls or something?

You'll be on the Weekend Plan at the the very least. Any 01/02/03/0845/0870 call lasting less than 1 hour at weekend is chargeable at the rate of 0p per minute, so six of those a quarter made by any BT customer avoids the low usage charge.

Ok, these calls could also be termed inclusive but that word is not in the conditions to cover 01/02/03/0845/0870 calls. Leaving it out would not affect what my first paragraph details.