BT Option 1

captaincompo

BT seem to be sneaking in a line rental price increase of £5.25 per quarter wef 1st October for those of us who use Option 1 for line provision, but prefer to route calls via another provider. Their "justification" is the provision of Caller Display as part of the standard package.
I do not require Caller Display, nor do I have the equipment to access it, therefore feel a bit miffed at this 16% increase.
I use TalkTalk as my call provider, and am now considering their line rental option as well, since the cost is the same as BT without the proposed increase.
Anyone any experience of Talktalk as a line provider??

PS When I called BT customer service to clarify this £5.25 increase I was told that they were not permitted to discuss it until after October 1st, under threat of disciplinary action!!

heatherw_01

Can I ask where you found this out please?

I heard that they will charge £1 something a month unless you make 2 calls a month.

espresso

captaincompo wrote:

BT seem to be sneaking in a line rental price increase of £5.25 per quarter wef 1st October for those of us who use Option 1 for line provision, but prefer to route calls via another provider. Their "justification" is the provision of Caller Display as part of the standard package......

Confirmation and discussion here.

HTH

Heinz

captaincompo wrote:

BT seem to be sneaking in a line rental price increase of £5.25 per quarter wef 1st October for those of us who use Option 1 for line provision, but prefer to route calls via another provider. Their "justification" is the provision of Caller Display as part of the standard package.
I do not require Caller Display, nor do I have the equipment to access it, therefore feel a bit miffed at this 16% increase.
I use TalkTalk as my call provider, and am now considering their line rental option as well, since the cost is the same as BT without the proposed increase.
Anyone any experience of Talktalk as a line provider??

Welcome to the MSE forums captaincompo.

That first paragraph's an interesting interpretation, to say the least!

The £5.25 charge you mention may be applied to customers on BT Together Option 1 with Caller Display who make less than 2 calls per month (monthly payments) or 6 calls per quarter (quarterly payments). There's no charge if you don't have Caller Display or make the 'required' number of calls.

OTOH, TT charge an additional £1.50/month for Caller Display so, for those wanting Caller Display, leaving the line rental with BT and making 6 evening or weekend UK calls (33p) via them would be cheapest.

I'd suggest you read some of the other threads if you want feedback about TT's line rental. Although it's acknowledged that, normally, only the dissatisfied post, there certainly appear to be some interesting reports of billing &%$@ups - especially from those trying to leave!

captaincompo

Heinz, Thanks for your comments.

The £5.25 charge you mention may be applied to customers on BT Together Option 1 with Caller Display who make less than 2 calls per month (monthly payments) or 6 calls per quarter (quarterly payments). There's no charge if you don't have Caller Display or make the 'required' number of calls.

My interpretation is based upon the paras 1 &2 of the revised BT Privacy T & C's.....

BT privacy helps........(by) giving you caller display at no extra cost.
From 1st Oct customers who do not make some chargeable calls with BT will be charged for caller display

It is not clear that you will not be charged if you do not have caller display, and I would be please dif your interpretation is, in fact, correct. But why would customer service not tell me that when I called for clarification?

Heinz

A leaflet detailing the changes arrived with my BT bill yesterday. One paragraph reads:

Customers with other call providers can still benefit from BT Caller Display at no extra cost if the following calls are made. Customers who bill monthly must make at least two chargeable calls with BT in that month, otherwise BT reserves the right to charge £1.75 a month for BT Caller Display. Customers who bill every three months must make at least six chargeable calls within those three months, otherwise BT reserves the right to charge £5.25 a quarter.

The italics and bolding are mine.

I think the 'reserves the right' part indicates they are going to have difficulty policing the requirement but, for the sake of 33p a quarter ........

I can't see anywhere to indicate that Caller Display is now added by default (i.e. you still have to 'sign up' for it either online or via a freephone number) so don't think there's any possibility of those not using it being charged the £5.25 (i.e. if you haven't opted for BT Privacy, you won't be charged even if you don't make any calls on BT).

Lyncroft

This is the major thing that p*sses me off with companies like BT - it's the vagueness of it all. The customer shouldn't be left in this position. No wonder people look to circumnavigate terms and conditions.

bbb_uk

Lyncroft wrote:

This is the major thing that p*sses me off with companies like BT - it's the vagueness of it all. The customer shouldn't be left in this position. No wonder people look to circumnavigate terms and conditions.

I'm afraid most companies operate very similar like trying to hide increases, etc.

As mentioned before, BT have always said they may impose terms like having a few calls routed via BT to continue to get CLI for free. I've also said before that it is rare that a company would offer anything for free without some kind of catch, etc.

Other teleco's actually still charge for CLI unless you threaten to leave them when they may agree to provide it for free. No teleco obviously wants to provide it for free and BT only did it so for those that routed their calls via CPS, etc would still route some calls to them and keep their linerental with BT instead of other teleco's that currently all charge for CLI.

As I mentioned in another thread just then, we have the Orchid Dialler box so I route 084x/087x calls routed via BT. We don't actually make that many 084/087x calls to these numbers anyhow - mostly thanks to SayNo. I hope we make enough calls to continue to get free CLI though. Failing that, I could route the occasional geographical call over the BT network during evening & weekends when it is only 5.5p for upto an hour. Either way, its cheaper than paying £1.75 per month.

captaincompo

I hope that Heinz's interpretation is correct, time will tell!!
I know it only costs a few pence to manually route sufficient calls via BT to meet the "free" CLD qualification, but I am frequently away for periods in excess of 3 months and am thus not always in a position to do so. That is why I want the absolute minimum cost of maintaining a line to my house.