BT Connection Charges (merged threads)

bendipa

Primus Saver is ideal for someone like myself who is a light landline user. Their line rental is noticeably cheaper than BT who only compare if you decide to pay them a year's line rental in advance. But on non-geographical numbers eg 0870, 0845 numbers Primus are more expensive. For national geographical numbers Primus charge the same as BT.

The big drawback with Primus is their customer service which is appalling to non-existent. As long as nothing goes wrong you're ok with them, but if you have a problem that needs sorting that's when your troubles will start.

The other thing is they don't provide a direct readable breakdown of your calls on their monthly bills like BT do. All they provide is the summary and a separate csv file to download for the analysis of calls, which is a joined-up jumble of details. Only by using a spreadsheet like Excel can I separate it out and decipher it, but it's work, but not too bad if you're a light user. There may be some software that can automatically read and untangle a csv file, but I haven't found anything obvious.

Heinz

bendipa wrote: »

The other thing is they don't provide a direct readable breakdown of your calls on their monthly bills like BT do. All they provide is the summary and a separate csv file to download for the analysis of calls, which is a joined-up jumble of details. Only by using a spreadsheet like Excel can I separate it out and decipher it, but it's work, but not too bad if you're a light user. There may be some software that can automatically read and untangle a csv file, but I haven't found anything obvious.

If you click on the view tab instead, you can either study your calls records onscreen or cut and paste them directly into an Excel spreadsheet. I've been doing that with my Primus invoices for years.

bendipa

Heinz wrote: »

If you click on the view tab instead, you can either study your calls records onscreen or cut and paste them directly into an Excel spreadsheet. I've been doing that with my Primus invoices for years.

But that's the problem. If I click view my computer doesn't recognise which software to use to open the file with. If I download then open using Word or Wordpad I get the jumbled csv file as it literally is. Same for Excel. It downloads there into one cell and then I have the task of separating out all the data.

boldminer

bigd68 wrote: »

Needed a new phone line installed for broadband so contacted BT who said the charge would be £130. Went into local Post Office grabbed a leaflet rang their call centre (0800 092 0514)and quoted the branch code on back of leaflet (0047023). To my surprise they are charging only £60 for the same BT line to be installed. In fact it is the BT engineer who came to install. Why would anyone pay an extra £70 for the same service. As for the line rental costs it is still over £2 cheaper than BT per month.

I asked BT for a quote to fit a phone extension socket , cost £205, even the call centre guy said it was way over the top and He suggested I contact local guys who would be stacks cheaper.

Heinz

bendipa wrote: »

But that's the problem. If I click view my computer doesn't recognise which software to use to open the file with. If I download then open using Word or Wordpad I get the jumbled csv file as it literally is. Same for Excel. It downloads there into one cell and then I have the task of separating out all the data.

Apologies for the delay in replying (didn't see your post).

I recall having the same problem when, from Firefox, I tried to copy and paste into Excel. I solved the problem by always accessing the Primus website in Internet Explorer. Copy and paste from view into Excel works fine in that.

bendipa

Heinz wrote: »

Apologies for the delay in replying (didn't see your post).

I recall having the same problem when, from Firefox, I tried to copy and paste into Excel. I solved the problem by always accessing the Primus website in Internet Explorer. Copy and paste from view into Excel works fine in that.

All view does is show you your bill summary. By downloading the csv file and opening it directly with Excel, (which I didn't try before) I then get the call details separated into rows and columns. Only trouble is that they use 5 headings with 7 columns of data. To add to the confusion the Bill Reference, by which I presume they mean each dialed-up number, is displayed in numeric format with some rather strange results. Obviously this data source should have been in text format to start with. Anyway it saves me the trouble now of separating out all the rows and columns manually, but the data still is somewhat nonsensical.

Heinz

bendipa wrote: »

All view does is show you your bill summary. By downloading the csv file and opening it directly with Excel, (which I didn't try before) I then get the call details separated into rows and columns.

Sorry, I missed a step out.

After you click on view, you get the Account Statement page. On that page, click on view details (halfway between the Bill Reference and Date Due and Total Due boxes on the right) and up pops a 7-column table which you can* cut and paste into your own Excel spreadsheet.

* You may have to do this in Internet Explorer to do so (I couldn't get it to separate the columns when pasting into the Excel spreadsheet after I'd copied the table in Firefox).

bendipa

Heinz wrote: »

Sorry, I missed a step out.

After you click on view, you get the Account Statement page. On that page, click on view details (halfway between the Bill Reference and Date Due and Total Due boxes on the right) and up pops a 7-column table which you can cut and paste into your own Excel spreadsheet.

After all that we finally get there,

Thanks.

oasisfeverish

Am moving to a new build in early November and will have to sort out all utilities, phone, etc.

Have been with BT for nearly 20 years, and currently on the renewable plan for evening and weekend calls at £13.90 per month. This is due for renewal in May 2012.

Question is am I likely to be charged a £130 for connecting the phone line to the new build despite being an existing customer for this period?

If so, what are the chances of a discount off the £130, or is there a cheaper alternative for connection.

OldGreyFox

oasisfeverish wrote: »

Am moving to a new build in early November and will have to sort out all utilities, phone, etc.

Have been with BT for nearly 20 years, and currently on the renewable plan for evening and weekend calls at £13.90 per month. This is due for renewal in May 2012.

Question is am I likely to be charged a £130 for connecting the phone line to the new build despite being an existing customer for this period?

If so, what are the chances of a discount off the £130, or is there a cheaper alternative for connection.

"£30 Connection Offer: Customers who require a new line will benefit from a £100 discount on the standard line connection charge of £130. Customers who are benefiting from this offer are not eligible for Line Rental Saver and must agree to an 18 month contract (applies to the Unlimited Weekend Plan or the Unlimited Anytime Plan). Minimum call commitment also applies – you must make at least 10 chargeable or inclusive calls per month (30 calls per quarter). You'll need to pay a charge of £5.15 for every month (if you are billed monthly) or £15.45 for every quarter (if you're billed quarterly) in which you don't make these calls, as compensation for not making the minimum number of calls required. These charges are not subject to VAT and will appear in the one-off charges section of your bill."


http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=32331#phone-connection