Bt Price Hike

mau408

Hello there. I was wondering why its one rule for one person and a different for a big company like BT?!

My theory is this:

Lets say you take a contract out with BT, and pay x per month. Lets say their internal costs go down. Are they going to pass this cut onto their customer. Hell no - the consumer takes the hit. They signed up to the contract and thus must continue to pay the full amount until their term finishes (or possibly a get out fee if it was in the contract).

Now lets say you've signed up to the contract and their internal costs go up. Now instead of taking the hit until everyone's contract runs its course (like a customer has to) they say they are going to hike their costs to everyone on the 1st October and the only way to get out is basically to walk. I can't find any reason as to why this is fair.

I wonder if a bright spark out there could explain to me how on earth can these equate to being equal.

brewerdave

All about the t & cs you sign up to when you take the contract out. In an absolute sense it isn't fair ...but you do have the choice initially, and if the change in terms is to your detriment (as in this case)you can get out of the contract.

mau408

I understand that it is in the t&c of a contract but then consider every home phone landline contract has this clause in whereby prices may change. I'm pretty sure that all - BT and Talk Talk & Sky & .....etc. have this clause in. Aren't they all unfair.

Remember if you've signed to a 12month agreement. If BTs costs go up they are passed on and if not then BT are forcing you to walk, and put up with the hassle of going elsewhere. So then can I pass the costs of (time, energy, set up) moving to someone else onto them? As I have been forced to leave the contract because of their inability to stick to an agreed price. What about the compensation for them changing the contract?

Aren't contracts meant to be reasonably fair or void? So isn't every landline contract written with clauses like this sense ready for the bin.

Absurdly can I twist this another way - lets say:
I am in a 12month contract. I want to pay more than my current contract to BT. Can I get out of the contract if they say I can't pay them anymore than what I signed upto?

Surely its one thing for them and another for the rest.

mobile48

It is an interesting question you ask whether the ammount of changes made by BT in recent times is fair or not?

A few months ago I called and asked the question to Otelo and OFCOM. This was before the current new increases.

Otelo said they do not deal with commerical issues.

OFCOM focus seemed to be geared to ensuring customers can switch contracts quickly which is very good. You can end your BT contract at no cost if they make a change to your material disadvantage but it needs to be done within 10 days of notfication of change. Also costs for ending contracts in other circumstances will be much lower shortly (information only available after the time of my call).

However in doing this I got the impression OFCOM have currently taken their eye of the ball with regard to what you discuss letting BT repeatly push prices up.

I wish more people were aware of what OFCOM have done to make switching contracts easy and how easy it was to switch then telecoms companies might think twice about making changes. Without people being aware it does little to control telecom companies like BT.

You can log a complaint with OFCOM if you think what BT did to you was unfair.

INT1

I had a letter saying my bill was going up 50p a month, Luckily I had transferred to sky...

I then had a letter saying my bill was going up £1 a month...Just can't win wherever you go!

mobile48

INT1 wrote: »

I had a letter saying my bill was going up 50p a month,

If you turn the BT letter over you will find out on the back bills were in fact going up a lot more than 50p. There is a 50p increase in line rental on the front of the letter and a 10% increase in call connection costs (plus other call increases) on the back.

However your point is a very good.

Some other providers tend to follow BT and moving is not a guaranteed way to avoid increases.

When I moved I asked myself which providers had business reasons to increase calls costs and which had business reasons to keep costs low.

Heinz

Keep BT for your line rental (yes, 50p/month increase) but use them for inclusive calls only.

For everything else, use www.18185.co.uk

mau408

Thankyou for your replies. I agree with all you've said Heinz.

It's a little more complicated than that as weve managed to get Orange Home Starter for 18 months with 5 months free at £7.50. I rang 3 days before end of contract and said I was going to move to Plusnet. It works at equivalent of £5.50 (accounted for little VAT hike next year) a month but my calls are routed through orange - ugggg, but as I'm used to this as I've been on it for 18months previously its not bothering me - re our/your previous comments/posts a year or so ago and it saved the hassle of setting up the plusnet account.

But to further any comments on 18185. I noticed recently that the security on the 18185 site is somewhat a little lapse. The invoice email I receive has the customer number in it and my telephone number to login the account. Maybe it could be suggested that safer passwording of accounts could be used to reduce chances of anyone accessing peoples accounts and adding their numbers to other peoples 18185 account without consent. What do you reckon?

Heinz

Yes, that's not the most secure of systems but, if the password on your email account is strong enough, how would anyone else get to see that email?

If you think about it, a friend visiting you might be able to pick up your phone and dial 0808 170 18 18 to get your A/C number!

mau408

Ha I didn't know that, but if it was passworded then I suppose its harder to log into the account.

Its a bit like a car. Leave it sitting almost anywhere and it could be nicked. Stick a crook lock on and it still might get nicked but it'll take a lot longer to nick it.

Also hackers maybe able to get into your email account without password and emails by other means!

mobile48

Found the following PDF document that may be of some interest but is does not cover the specific question asked by the OP - are price increases fair. It instead asks are additional charges fair.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/telecoms/policy/addcharges.pdf