BT - Incomprehensible

HarlequinXV

I am having trouble getting my head round what BT are doing here. Suffice it to say that their telephone salesman did not say what was going to happen.

If you are on Unlimited Weekend Calls, Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls for Landline and Mobile calls or Unlimited Anytime Calls for Mobile they charge a "set up fee of 15p". This doesn't get mentioned, of course in their sales call.

Now, in my view a set up fee, is charged on set up of the account or system. Not with BT. The setup fee is charged for setting up every single phone call.

So, on Unlimited Weekend Calls every call is charged at 9p per min for landline and 12p per min for mobile + 15p for every call. 21p or 27p a call.

AND on top of that call charges are rounded up to the nearest minute. This means that a one second (dropped call) is charged at 15p + 12p = 27p

for Unlimited Anytime mobile calls are charged at a minimum of 22p per call.

Is it just me or is this just completely barmy? I would welcome people's opinion on this.

mattyprice4004

It's been like this for years, loads (or all?) other providers do it and it makes sense.
A set cost for connecting the call (this takes hardware to route the call initially) and per-minute rounding has been done since as long as I can remember.

I don't see what's so hard to understand about a setup fee - they're setting up the call.

scoobers

It's the same with all of the major providers and when BT increase their call set up fee, the others follow their lead like a load of lemmings.
I'm not sure when BT increased to 15p - it used to be 13.87p until recently. They seem to put the charge up every 6 months.

I would never dial direct to a mobile over BT, there are much cheaper ways such as calling from a mobile (if you have inclusive minutes) or some of the over-ride providers charge 1p/min to call the major mobile networks - you still have to pay the call set up fee by the p/min rate is much lower.

I don't see what's so hard to understand about a set-up fee - they're setting up the call."

Yes, but it's not costing them anything even if the call is terminating on a different network, they only pay a p/min rate. It's money for nothing IMO

Buzby

Honest? If it is disclosed up-front, yes. (Which it is). The cost to networks is always highest at call set-up, as fees are paid to interconnection networks to route the call to its destination. They want paying - and if the distant party doesn't answer, they never used to.

The connection fee does not indicate the distant end has answered, so you can be billed simply by ringing a mobile (say) with two rings, but the connection fee still stands.

iniltous

HarlequinXV wrote: »

I am having trouble getting my head round what BT are doing here. Suffice it to say that their telephone salesman did not say what was going to happen.

If you are on Unlimited Weekend Calls, Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls for Landline and Mobile calls or Unlimited Anytime Calls for Mobile they charge a "set up fee of 15p". This doesn't get mentioned, of course in their sales call.

Now, in my view a set up fee, is charged on set up of the account or system. Not with BT. The setup fee is charged for setting up every single phone call.

So, on Unlimited Weekend Calls every call is charged at 9p per min for landline and 12p per min for mobile + 15p for every call. 21p or 27p a call.

AND on top of that call charges are rounded up to the nearest minute. This means that a one second (dropped call) is charged at 15p + 12p = 27p

for Unlimited Anytime mobile calls are charged at a minimum of 22p per call.

Is it just me or is this just completely barmy? I would welcome people's opinion on this.

If your call plan has inclusive calls, then a standard landline to another landline call would have no charge raised, set up or per minute , mobiles though, blame OFCOM, mobile pay virtually zero to connect a mobile call to a landline, that's why contracts have hundreds of inclusive minutes, but fixed line operators have to pay much much more to terminate a fixed line call to a mobile network, that's why you dont get 'anytime' call plans that include mobiles..this termination fee has reduced and is being reduced further over time but OFCOM doesn't seem act in the best interest of the consumer by not abolishing termination charges, as there probably is now an even distribution of mobile to landline, and landline to mobile calls

jb66

Virgin do a anytime plan that includes mobiles

iniltous

jb66 wrote: »

Virgin do a anytime plan that includes mobiles

Yes, but it's £43 per month, because to get it you have to take another VM service as well as the phone/call plan.

DUTR

HarlequinXV wrote: »

I am having trouble getting my head round what BT are doing here. Suffice it to say that their telephone salesman did not say what was going to happen.

If you are on Unlimited Weekend Calls, Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls for Landline and Mobile calls or Unlimited Anytime Calls for Mobile they charge a "set up fee of 15p". This doesn't get mentioned, of course in their sales call.

Now, in my view a set up fee, is charged on set up of the account or system. Not with BT. The setup fee is charged for setting up every single phone call.

So, on Unlimited Weekend Calls every call is charged at 9p per min for landline and 12p per min for mobile + 15p for every call. 21p or 27p a call.

AND on top of that call charges are rounded up to the nearest minute. This means that a one second (dropped call) is charged at 15p + 12p = 27p

for Unlimited Anytime mobile calls are charged at a minimum of 22p per call.

Is it just me or is this just completely barmy? I would welcome people's opinion on this.

I think it's just you, it is well documented and not hidden so where did you miss it?

brewerdave

If you use 18185 (or similar), you just get charged 5p set up charge -then to landlines (01,02,03) its 0p per minute for the call -MUCH cheaper than going via the supplier's systems.

dulcieb

Hi all. I've been looking for stuff on here about BT's increasingly annoying practices.

In my case I got BT Infinity and six weeks later have discovered that my phone calls have all returned to BT. I certainly didn't ask for that and wasn't told that this would happen. When I was being sold Infinity they talked about call plans but I told them it didn't matter as I had carrier pre-selection so BT plans didn't apply. They didn't tell me that CPS would automatically be cancelled and I think that they should have.

I now suddenly have weekend-only free calls and a bill of £50 for the last month. Staff at BT don't know and the complaints system has slowed down to a standstill.

I wouldn't have taken notice of set-up fees because they were irrelevant.

It seems that customers have to unravel all of these things for themselves. I do take notice of terms and conditions. But staff really should mention these things when making sales.

scoobers

Your CPS provider should have warned you that your calls were going back to BT. There are processes in place for your protection and they would have been notified, I would contact them and ask why you were not informed.

dulcieb wrote: »

Hi all. I've been looking for stuff on here about BT's increasingly annoying practices.

In my case I got BT Infinity and six weeks later have discovered that my phone calls have all returned to BT. I certainly didn't ask for that and wasn't told that this would happen. When I was being sold Infinity they talked about call plans but I told them it didn't matter as I had carrier pre-selection so BT plans didn't apply. They didn't tell me that CPS would automatically be cancelled and I think that they should have.

I now suddenly have weekend-only free calls and a bill of £50 for the last month. Staff at BT don't know and the complaints system has slowed down to a standstill.

I wouldn't have taken notice of set-up fees because they were irrelevant.

It seems that customers have to unravel all of these things for themselves. I do take notice of terms and conditions. But staff really should mention these things when making sales.