MSE News: BT reveals price rises - but you can escape the hikes

pmcguigan

anna2007 wrote: »

I've copied my email to the CEO below (gavin.e.patterson@bt.com)

Dear Sir,

I have just received the email shown below from BT's online support centre, in response to the notice I sent yesterday to cancel my BT account, following notification of your proposed price increases and changes to the contract terms. As you can see, I have been sent a generic response, which does not in any way address my cancellation request.

I would therefore be grateful if you could arrange for a member of staff at your executive office to deal with my request; I have copied my original email below, as it has been omitted from the eCustomer Services Team's email:

Account No. GBxxxxxxxx

Telephone No. xxxxx xxxxxx

Following your email of 22 October 2013, giving notice of your proposed changes to the prices and terms of contract on the above BT account, I wish to terminate my telephony and broadband services with BT. As stated in your email, and BT's terms and conditions of service (specifically paragraphs 21 and 54), I understand that I am permitted to cancel my account without incurring a termination charge, if I give notice within 10 days of receipt of your email.

The changes that I object to, and that give rise to my notice to cancel, are:

The increase to the telephony standard monthly line rental, from £15.45 to £15.99 per month. Although I have prepaid my line rental via Line Rental Saver for a period of 12 months from June 2013, I entered into an 18 month contract in June and will therefore be affected by the price increase once the Line Rental Saver period expires. I had no intention of renewing this option for the remaining 6 months of my contract, given that it effectively ties me into a further 6 months beyond expiry of my contract.

I currently benefit from a free service for "BT Privacy with Caller Display", for which you will now charge £1.75 per month.

Also, I do not accept the changes to the agreed terms of our original contract, relating to early termination charges, as detailed in your email.

I would appreciate it if you could confirm receipt of my notice to cancel, along with confirmation that this will be processed by BT on a penalty-free basis, in line with the terms of our contract. Please also confirm that you will issue a pro-rated refund for the remaining prepaid line rental period following cancellation of the telephony service.

Once I have received confirmation of the above from BT, I will make arrangements to transfer the services to another provider.

Regards,

Thank you - This has been a great help. I have sent this message to residental.services@bt.com as advised by the Lice Chat advisor. If/When this is not successful, I will send it to your contact above.

c-m

I've cancelled my line rental with them and that was all handled well, but now they've put by broadband that should be £16 per month up to £26.

Doesn't seem right somehow

anna2007

pmcguigan wrote: »

Thanmonths- This has been a great help. I have sent this message to residental.services@bt.com as advised by the Lice Chat advisor. If/When this is not successful, I will send it to your contact above.

No problem, glad if it's helped you out

It does feel like cancelling my BT account has been a little too easy... but I had to fight T-Mobile over their price increase in May, which dragged on for months, and has left me extremely wary of all the telecoms companies!

teddysmum

c-m wrote: »

I've cancelled my line rental with them and that was all handled well, but now they've put by broadband that should be £16 per month up to £26.

Doesn't seem right somehow

Most companies charge more for stand alone broadband and some don't even provide it.

c-m

I've cancelled my line rental with them and that was all handled well, but now they've put by broadband that should be £16 per month up to £26.

Doesn't seem right somehow

Scrounger

anna2007 wrote: »

... the remaining line rental saver (around 7 months' worth) will be paid back once the final BT bill is produced.[/url]

For anyone who has been told by Customer Services that they will lose the remaining line rental saver, it may be worth contacting BT's CEO office to request a refund.

Fantastic work Anna, you're the first person on here that has managed to negotiate a refund of LRS.

'Robbie' the BT company representative had told us it wasn't possible:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63372503#Comment_63372503

This should be a great help to those with BT locked into LRS and who wish to cancel.

Scrounger

brynhh

Hi all, I received the email a few days ago, but only having a chance to read through it now. As the price will go up by just short of £6 for me, I want to cancel and go to a different provider. However, I'm moving home 3 weeks today but still require my internet connection at my current address until then (or for as much of it as possible) as I work from home. Any time I don't have landline internet I can use tethering on both my work and personal mobile, but would rather not have to rely on that.

Depending on the situation at this address with BT I would plan to cancel outright and then sign up fresh with a new provider at the new address, or arrange a home move with BT then transfer to the new provider after I'm there.

So basically I'm wondering what the situation is regarding giving notice of cancellation within 10 days. Will they end the contract straight away, after a minimum period such as 30 days, or when I do a transfer?

GrahamN_2

BT advised me the service will be withdrawn at the end of this year (2013). The cost implications for me are astronomical!

At present, I can keep in touch with my wife by 18866 for 2p per minute. After the end of the year, BT advise the cheapest rate, with Freinds and Familydiscount, will be 48p per minute! What's that, 2300% increase?

c-m

Got my mac now. Turns out that my telephone and broadband were a package, so moving away my phone line trigged and increase in broadband. BT have recognised this and provided my MAC for my to move broadband away without any out of term charges.

Quentin

GrahamN wrote: »

BT advised me the service will be withdrawn at the end of this year (2013). The cost implications for me are astronomical!

At present, I can keep in touch with my wife by 18866 for 2p per minute. After the end of the year, BT advise the cheapest rate, with Freinds and Familydiscount, will be 48p per minute! What's that, 2300% increase?

Look into using 18866's 0808 number when bt stop you using 18866. It will be considerably less than 48p a minute!