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

MillicentBystander

tommy45 wrote: »

Well for a start i wouldn't belive anything that the Daily Fail publishes they IMO are worse than rupert murdoch for BS and policital properganda ,when the press are suposed to be neutral are they not? But they have an agenda i don't like, just as i don't like this CON-Dim AKA Tory government we didn't elect

Yes it would appear that the telecoms Monopoly BT is saying that they will keep caller display free for those who already have BT privacy, in fact the way i read it, they are offering BT privacy FREE for 12mths if you sign up for another 12mths line rental, so by taking LRS you should qualify for this automatically?

The only thing that they did mention was if the free voice mail 1571 is part of BT privacy, i'm fairly sure it is ,certainly for legacy customers, if not I would drop it without a second thought, as £1.75 pm is a joke,

The press are reporting that LRS isn't being increased on 4th Jan 13 , i should hope it isn't as that would be the 2nd price rise for LRS in 12mths it was increased only a few months ago , so it hasn'r escaped a increase in reality, they just assume we all have very short memories i think,

As for BT basics LRS and free 1571 , As yet BT haven't announced anything regarding the 2 free features, BT privacy, unless the announcement covers BT basic also, which i may do,
But finding out via their customer support won't be easy,(it should be) but in pratise it isn't 99% of the time thank's to their outsourced script reading monkeys that are based in bangalore or some other far away place

Reading your post I'm surprised you remain a customer of the company. If they were actually cheap I could understand it. Or maybe they are your only option?

Heinz

Sounds like it's time to dump 1571 (now where have I heard that before?) and buy an old-fashioned answering machine.

Paying £1.75/month = £21/year and there are plenty of answering machines on Ebay for less than that.

Heinz

Graham1 wrote: »

According to

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/nmr-13/statement/statement-summary

"we are removing BT's obligation to offer carrier pre-selection (CPS) and indirect access (IA) where BT's retail arm provides the retail access line"

This could be bad news for people who rely on indirect codes for making their calls.

Removing the obligation does not, of course, mean the facility will definitely be withdrawn immediately but, in time, I think it will.

This is extremely worrying for many MSE-ers who, some time ago now, took Martin's advice and opted for Primus CPS and/or using 18185/1899/18866 via a BT line and are still making considerable savings by doing so.

The loss of CPS will hit me and others on Primus's Penny Mobile 2 CPS package hard (we get calls of up to 20 minutes each to any UK mobile for a flat rate 20p).

The loss if IA (I use 18185 for my wife's long calls to her sister in Spain) is, hopefully, of much smaller consequence. It will mean changing to using 18185's freephone access number (0808 1 703 703) where, at the moment, the call cost will be the same (4p connection + 1p/minute).

Reeves

Guess who signed up for the BT 1571 and BT Privacy services just last week?

Atidi

OK here's the lowdown on the price changes for privacy/caller display.

BT Privacy at Home will continue to be a free service

but...

BT Privacy at Home with Caller Display will now cost £1.75 per month (which is cheaper than the £3.30 per month, rising to £3.50 per month for caller display as a calling feature)

Existing customers can still get BT Privacy at Home with Caller Display for free for 12 months, but this will tie you into a 12 month contract with BT.
You need to pre-register for this by 6th December.
Pre-registration available only to existing BT Privacy with Caller Display customers

All the details here (at bottom of page), direct from the horses mouth
http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=31936#pegasus_Phone_PC2

I'm not sure what happens after 12 months? Perhaps they will offer to renew for a further 12 months on agreeing to another 12 month contract? That's what they've done previously with the free evening & weekend call package.

Edit: Apologies to jrawle who posted a link earlier that takes you to the same place.

Atidi

As as regards 1571, BT Answer 1571 is being enhanced so you will be able to save more messages for longer and retrieve them remotely. Yes it will also cost £1.75 per month.

Mind you with my own answer machine (which happens to be a BT one) I can store messages until I decide to delete them and can retrieve them remotely already

Gastines2

Just try contacting BT to discuss anything,it's a nightmare.It would also be nice to speak to someone talking in English that you can understand.No offices or showrooms anymore,just another faceless corporation.

thunderella

Gastines2 wrote: »

Just try contacting BT to discuss anything,it's a nightmare.It would also be nice to speak to someone talking in English that you can understand.No offices or showrooms anymore,just another faceless corporation.

Why do they need expensive showrooms? They provide telephony services.

You can call them on the telephone

150 from an existing BT line or 0800 800 150 from any telephone. And guess what? You speak with real people, real people that speak English.

Now if you find that a nightmare and difficult to understand, well ... :cool:

teddysmum

thunderella wrote: »

150 from an existing BT line or 0800 800 150 from any telephone. And guess what? You speak with real people, real people that speak English.

:cool:

You may be lucky (very, very lucky) to speak to a UK based person, but most are abroad and , obviously, work on a script which works like a flow chart . ie They get stuck in a loop, repeating a question over and over , until you give up.

I_luv_cats

Years ago there used to BT personal enquiry centres and then the BT shops.

At least you could see if they were interested (and not playing with themselves) in your enquiry and giving you there undivided attention.



I thought BT privacy (with caller-display) was FREE for life. An honourable thing now charging £1.75 dis-honourable.

They can keep their 1571 as I have a dect synergy 5500 answerphone (need to find the destructions!)