How I got cheaper phone and broadband deal

Zombies

I bought a property with disconnected line so for me I had to go with BT (cost of re-connecting)

Day 1 - agreed to go with BT for phone and broadband (option 1 broadband 10gb) and free UK calls, cost was about £32 per month

I did try 3 times to get the price down but they said they couldnt do it

Day 3 (after aggreeing BT deal) - seen a deal with O2 offering cheap braodband, after looking into it I couldnt get the cheapest option at about £8pm as they didnt serve my area but could have the £17.50 unlimited braodband deal
I went for this and asked BT for the code for braodband to be switched over

I then got an email from BT saying sorry to hear you are leaving etc etc
but offered me the same deal at £15.50pm for 12months, an email only offer

I accepted that and then cancelled O2

All done in 3 days

you wont get it over the phone, I think they knew I had instructed O2 to take over the broadband which they then could make me the better deal

hope this route gets others better deals

macman

You're actually very lucky, because the O2 package you cancelled was O2 Access (the non LLU service), which is dire.
I'm curious as to how you got a MAC from BT, because at that time your service had not been provisioned, and you must have still been in the cooling off period to allow you to cancel without penalty.
What does the £15.50 include-unltd anytime calls and broadband?

Zombies

I applied for the MAC address and got it about a week later while all the changes were happening (obviously I didn't need it), O2 asked for the code, they emailed me for this as BT had already activated it
I had actually recieved 2 return bags from BT for the equipment about 2 week later so obvioulsy one team doesnt know what the other is doing

When I was offered this the deal at £15.50 incl option 1 broadband 10gb and unlimited anytime calls and I think line rental (the £32pm incl all this)
I am waiting for the next bill, the previous one was about £23 not sure why (had made overseas calls so may be that)

macman

I don't think that £15.50 will include line rental. Otherwise with line rental at £11.25 and Unltd Anytime at about a fiver, they'd be giving you broadband for free.

Zombies

See below for an email from them
But..........

I have just checked my last bill
came to £29
17.45 for unlimited anytime calls incl line rental
7.33 for ADSL option 1
£4 calls

I will be emailing them back about the deal which was -

We're very sorry to hear that you're considering leaving your BT Total Broadband Service.
It's not too late to change your mind and stay
Obviously, we'd prefer it if you didn't leave BT. Since you last spoke to one of our advisors, we've put together our very best offer for you. You can now reduce your bill with BT to as little as £15.58* a month for the next 12 months for your broadband, telephone line rental and calls.
For this great price, you'll get:

• your BT telephone line rental – which is worth £11.25 a month alone
• BT Total Broadband Option 1 package with:
  • up to 8Mb download speeds** (depending on line and location)
  • 10GB monthly usage (ideal usage for internet surfing and emailing: with 10GB you can download 2,500 music files, 14 videos or stream 25 hours of iPlayer every month)
  • 250 Wi-Fi minutes a month
• unlimited Evening and Weekend calls package

So, if you make calls from your landline only in the evening and at weekends, your bill with BT could be as little as £15.58* a month. That's a credit-crunching deal especially for you.
Stay and save
To take advantage of this offer, just reply to this email, confirming your acceptance of this offer. We'll then apply your new pricing to your account within five working days. That's it.
Please note that a new 12-month minimum term applies if you accept this offer. This offer is available by invitation only and can be redeemed only by replying to this email within 14 days.
Thank you for being a BT Total Broadband customer.
Best wishes,
BT Total Broadband Team
* £15.58 is with Direct Debit with paper-free billing, otherwise you'll be charged a payment processing fee of £1.50 per month (or £4.50 for every three-month period), collected by BT Payment Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT. This fee is not subject to VAT. Plus £1.25 without paper-free billing discount. To sign up for paper-free billing, please go to paperfree. See terms and conditions for prices after 12 months. Discount via bill credits.
** Speeds referred to are download speeds. Other factors affecting speed include distance from the exchange and internal home wiring. If your line won't support up to 8Mb, we'll offer the best speed available on your line. Conditions apply.

macman

So they've overcharged you by £9.20. Welcome to BT...
Are you on DD and paperfree billing? If not , that would add £2.75 tot the supposed £15.58. But can't explain the rest, your offer email seems clear enough.
Next time try Plusnet, the equivalent package there is £16.94, and no messing you about.

Zombies

am on DD and wasnt on paperfree but have just done so and have emailed them to ask about this which i'm sure will be sorted out

It suited me at the time as I had to get the phone back on and to leave BT and go to another would have cost about £80 (re-connection charge)
and for what I want the net for the speeds seem ok 8Mb have downloaded at over 700k

macman

Paperfree only adds £1.25, so that doesn''t explain the overcharge. Hope you get it sorted.
PS: think you mean 7,000KB (7MB)?

Zombies

cheers

1.25 per month but that still doesnt cover

700 kB/s download speeds

am happy with them upto now (2 months)
they were quick to get the phone and ADSL working

macman

700KBps is 0.7 MBps-that's incredibly slow, where did you get that figure from? You are on an up to 8MBps service so you should be able to get more than that.
Try the speedtest here and advise:
www.speedtest.net
Then compare it with what BT say you should get:
http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome

Zombies

have had about 250-300 on 2.5meg before so I thought 800 ok

speedtest D/L 9.0MBs
UP 0.34

Tried again and got 5.18MBs



Also had an email back from BT, they have yet to add another discount and tell me it will be done for my next bill plus the £4.95 unlimited call were not included in the deal (forgot)
So, roughly £12-13 per month discount

Can live with the speeds, quickest i've ever had anyway due to having either been unable to get ADSL or being too far from the exchange