MSE News: BT cuts 'free' evening calls by one hour

savemoney

BT announced today about plugging a blackhole in its pension, wonderful if this is it to get customers to pay £4.99

Bogof_Babe

savemoney wrote: »

BT announced today about plugging a blackhole in its pension, wonderful if this is it to get customers to pay £4.99

I thought the same thing. Wouldn't be a bit surprised.

TooNice_2

Searcher2 wrote: »

TooNice,

See my post #127 on this thread to see how to contact BT via email. The advantage of contacting them this way is that you will have evidence of putting in your request for termination before your 10 days. It doesn't matter thereafter if they mess you around with excuses like they did with me as you complied with their terms (even though the "10 day" term probably wouldn't stand up in court there's no point pushing it).

The disadvantage is you will get a reply from India - hopefully they are equipped to handle it but they weren't with me.

There is a post on here advising which department to go through to when ringing so you got a department (in the UK) who could handle it properly but I couldn't find it.

I would email today (you will probably get a reply today or at latest tomorrow) and if you don't get a satifactory reply follow up with a call tomorrow.

Hi Searcher2 (ah, you are the one who started the thread on Hexus). To be honest, I've not used the phone much (but just made a 2h call from 6PM xD) in part because I was out of the country for 2 months, and I have a fairly generous allowance on my mobile, so I am a bit weary of what they may say. But still, the odds of me making a call at 6AM is virtually zero, whereas 6PM is far more likely, so I am not pleased with the change.

I'll write them an email now, and from the sound of it, I can expect a call tomorrow. In fairness, it sounds like they are at least responsive (O2 has been very impressive for Broadband, so I may look into them, but I still find BT better than TalkTalk).

I'll update accordingly.

Edit: Email sent:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in regards to the email titled: 'Important information about your BT service' (02/02/10), where I am informed that you will be changing the evening call period from 6PM-6AM, to 7PM -7AM starting from the 01/04/10.

As I am far more likely to make calls between 6PM to 7PM than 6AM to 7AM, this change of term is to my material disadvantage. I am therefore requesting, on basis of paragraph 45-48 in your T&C, a termination of the current 12 months contract and a switch to the standard Unlimited Weekend Plan.

This will allow me to find an alternate supplier who defines evenings in a way that is suitable for me.

Kind regards,

Me

Sorry for the minor plagiarism

brewerdave

Another far from convincing performance by BT spokesman on BBC BREAKFAST just now. Challenged to put his money where his mouth is over Anytime package ie if anyone is worse off after taking package won't charge them - obviously refused such an undertaking. Wouldn't even admit that it was going to improve BT financial performance !!! Wot a wally he is - Director of Consumer whatever - not for much longer methinks !!!!

Berisford

brewerdave wrote: »

Another far from convincing performance by BT spokesman on BBC BREAKFAST just now........ Wot a wally he is - Director of Consumer whatever - not for much longer methinks !!!!

I agree, what a prat he was, and to be in such a well paid position. It doesn't say much for the so called 'managers' higher up the food chain in BT that gave him the job does it?

Victors_Bruvver

Berisford wrote: »

I agree, what a prat he was, and to be in such a well paid position. It doesn't say much for the so called 'managers' higher up the food chain in BT that gave him the job does it?

I was thinkng along the lines of "I bet his bosses now wish they chose someone else to go on the telly".

He has obviously, to get where he is - managing director? - done his business school training but they must have forgot to send him off to the b******g school, sorry, a course in public relations.

Red_Ant

He was truly dreadful ! He couldn't look the questioner in the eye for long periods, and just appeared generally shifty to me.

He kept on carping on about getting people to spend the extra £5 per month to give them the free calls between 6 and 7. It was a shame the interviewer didn't then reiterate the question about how much that would save the average customer on the free evenings and weekends package. It was also a shame they didn't hit home with a question along the lines of "I understand this Anytime offer has been available for a long while - if it is as attractive as you say, why haven't more people taken advantage of it ?"

dfarry

He was absolutely terrible on Breakfast TV..... perhaps he's been on some fastrack graduate scheme that missed out the all important people skills bit!!

I doubt he'll be a director for long.... he sounded completely incompetent.

Red_Ant

I've just watched his performance on Working Lunch on the Iplayer - and he was even worse today on Breakfast TV.

To be fair to BT though, I called them this morning, and after beating off all the usual arguments from the first-line agent about how the number of hours weren't changing and that there was an early termination charge, I got put through to the options team - and when I stated I would be materially disasdvantaged by this change they agreed I could cancel early without charge.

TooNice_2

Well, that was straightforward, I guess that they must have been briefed by now.

Dear <Me>

Thank you for your email dated 11/02/10 regarding your calling plan contract.

I tried calling you this morning at 11:10 hours on your contact number <MyMobile>, to discuss this matter but I was unable to speak to you.

I understand your concern with regard to the change in the call period and you wish to quit the contract.

As requested, I confirm that I have cancelled the Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan at no extra cost with 12 months renewable contract and placed an order for Unlimited Weekend Plan. The reference number for this is VOLXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX. The Unlimited Weekend Plan will be activated within 24 hours.

I can assure you that your account is not in a contract now. You will not be charged the Cancellation Charge for quiting the contract before the minimum term. I have raised a note on your account not to charge you for cancellation. The reference number for this is . If in case you are charged on your next bill, you can give this reference number and get the charge reversed.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Thanks (esp. Searcher2), they didn't even tell me how great they are. Now that this has been has been resolved efficiently, I can now comfortably say that I've yet to be hard done by BT even though I often hear a lot of anger directed at their direction.

I can however re-iterate that the way many speaks about BT is how I feel about TalkTalk. It took me many months, and long calls to finally get them to stop billing me when I left them, and getting my money refunded. But that's another story.