BT broadband - Have I been had?

Beltane

I recently took out a contract for BT total broadband. The sales rep said over the phone that I could get an unlimited package (12Mb DSL) for £28 per month. Having looked at the other options (TalkTalk, Virgin, Sky, etc) I figured £28 was fair and, having gone with BT before, decided to take it out.

Today I received my first bill and was dismayed to discover line rental hadn't been included in the quote. The total monthly cost is actually a whopping £42. By comparison, TalkTalk do the same package (unlimited 12Mb DSL broadband with free line installation and router) for £22 per month.

I feel suckered. Either I'm missing something or being charged £20 over the odds for comparatively low speed DSL is nigh on daylight robbery. Does anybody else use BT and can justify why I should be satisfied with this? I'm locked into the contract for 18 months and I fear contacting BT and complaining is unlikely to achieve a great deal.

A little perspective would be very welcome.

Mark_In_Hampshire

The bit you're missing is that Talk Talk will also charge the line rental. Don't know how much, but it's probably similar. So the difference is not that great.

People migrating from cable can get caught out in so far as cable broadband doesn't need a phone line so there's no line rental to pay.

I personally find the fact that line rental isn't included in the advertising or quotes annoying because it is a required component if it's DSL based, you cannot have it without it. By comparison, and because cable broadband doesn't need a phone line - a 10Mbps service with Virgin Media cable would be £21/mo on a 12 month contract.

If you asked for clarification of the total cost to you of having the service, and were told it's £28/mo, then I'd suggest it was mis-sold.

N9eav

Did you ask the sales rep if the line rental was included?
Did he say or infer it was?
How long ago was it, you may have a cooling off period?
All phone calls are recorded, so if you think you have been had, there are grounds for complaint especially mis-selling over the phone.

renegade

Why would you want to go back to BT having had the 'experience' before is beyond me.
I don't think you can get out of this contract unless you can prove that you did ask for a Total cost, they keep records of all calls made, and they check back in cases of disputes., they are wily little beggars and their sales reps are extremely careful of how they word new contracts over the phone.

bod1467

TalkTalk LLU connection have "free" broadband. So a £22 per month cost includes line rental and call plan. (Non-LLU connections cost £15-ish extra per month to use BT's IPStream service).

@OP - did the first month's charge include any connection fee? What is the actual breakdown of the invoice?

Beltane

N9eav wrote: »

Did you ask the sales rep if the line rental was included?
Did he say or infer it was?
How long ago was it, you may have a cooling off period?
All phone calls are recorded, so if you think you have been had, there are grounds for complaint especially mis-selling over the phone.

I heard the word "package" and assumed the £28 quoted at the end of the call meant everything. I should have been more on my guard, but I would never believe a company like BT would offer such a deal in a competitive marketplace and expect to be taken seriously. It seems that BT don't have pricing tiers for line speed, but instead go for bandwidth. So a 2Mb DSL link would cost the same as a 50Mb fiber optic connection. The cooling off period lasts until the line is activated (5 days ago). I could try complaining. If they have a record of the call then it might be worth it. I'll e-mail BT and see how they respond.

bod1467 wrote: »

@OP - did the first month's charge include any connection fee? What is the actual breakdown of the invoice?

No, the connection was free which seemed a good deal as my flat needed a new line installed by an engineer. TalkTalk would likely have charged me for that. However, the difference in rates over 18 months is still a huge amount and so worth the initial outlay.

zagfles

Beltane wrote: »

No, the connection was free which seemed a good deal as my flat needed a new line installed by an engineer. TalkTalk would likely have charged me for that. However, the difference in rates over 18 months is still a huge amount and so worth the initial outlay.

TalkTalk are doing free connection at the moment plus half price broadband for £3.25pm for the whole 12 month contract, including ev/we landline calls (used to include local but think they've stopped it for new customers). They've just put their line rental up to £13.80 so a bit over £17pm total, but have some new deal where you pay up front for the 12 month contract and it's even cheaper.

Either way a hell of a lot cheaper than BT, and you get the same service (they sent out a BT Openreach engineer when I had a fault!).