BT Rip Off Is there an alternative?

rozeepozee

I moved to North Pembrokeshire in Wales last August and am about to move home for the third time.

I'm on a BT 18 month Broadband package paying £16 per month with free calls in the day and evening/weekends. I have already paid two lots of new connection fees of £130 as the homes we moved into were either new build or refurbed.

As we are now about to move to a place up the road (permanently thank heavens) which has a different exchange, BT want to sign me up to a new 12 month contract on the phone line as we'll have a new number. I don't want to be tied in beyond August.

Can they do this? I can't see any justification for it apart from a revenue raising exercise on their part.

Are there any alternatives to BT in the countryside?

Itismehonest

Hi rozee

I can't help with the issue of having to re-sign on a new contract but on the countryside providers I have some experience.

As you know I live in a very rural area - about 8km from the nearest exchange.
People here use various providers but we stick with BT for one main reason. It doesn't matter which provider you use it is the same BT Openreach which deals with all issues on the line itself & that is where most of your problems are likely to crop up.
It is very evident (& has been privately admitted to me) that Openreach prioritise a BT Broadband customer's problems over those of other ISPs. If you stop to think about it the more companies involved is pretty much bound to complicate &, therefore, lengthen all proceedings. There's no BT monopoly in the countryside as such but, in effect, if the internet is important to you, there's little or no choice for the best-of-a-bad-job service.
Things may be different if you live where there is a mobile signal, however, & I have no experience of using the net that way

It doesn't help you to break free of BT, I know, but it is worth considering.

Heinz

BT's T&Cs specify that a new/reconnection require the subscriber to agree to a minimum 12 month contract for line rental.

macman

BT's standard fee for a reconnection or a new line provision is £130. However there are frequent offers reducing this, for example if you take other options as well, eg broadband.
Other providers will do this much more cheaply (eg Plusnet, the PO), but since you've already locked yourself into an 18m minimum term. you have no option but to take the free move with BT unless you want to pay the ETC.
Yes, there are dozens of other providers, you don't have to use BT-do an exchange search on ww.samknows for the new postcode to see what your LLU options are.

rozeepozee

Thanks for all your replies. To every silver lining, there is a cloud

It's frustrating as we're only moving less than a mile but are just over the border of a different exchange, which is why we have a new number and are being forced into a new 12 month phone contract, but it looks as though we're stuck with BT anyway as this is the best option on balance.

I'll have to take some in some fresh country air and Breathe!

It could be worse, I could live somewhere else

macman

A change of exchange makes no difference to a home move or your existing minimum term. You'd be in a new 12m minimum on the same exchange.

Buzby

I don't believe there is any rip-off, you're not completing you contracted minimum terms, and as it is your circumstances that are changing you should be looking at these as a legitimate cost to your moving requirement. I don;t believe you would be treated any less by any other telco, as they are pretty much of a muchness.

If services are required less than the minimum term, then go mobile or agree a short-term contract if the term is less than the usually provided minimum.

Capitano

According to the latest email I have from BT , from 22nd June 2012 they are increasing their early temination charges by as much as 60%. A rip off? You bet. How can they justify that increase? I havent agreed to that. Just like the call setup charge that they keep increasing way above inflation - again when I signed up with them I didnt agree to those prices.

Bt keep bothering me to change to them as ISP - with their history of price hikes, no way.

I think that probably the only alternative is to ditch BT and fixed landlines. Instead, go for a mobile pay as you go - Giffgaff for example - and use 3g broadband at a tenner a month.

macman

But what you agreed was not a fixed price contract-they can increase the price at any time.
Mobile broadband is rarely an adequate substitute for ADSL or cable broadband.