Escaping BT/The Price Of Your Calling Plan Is Changing

johnniegif

Hi All.

Long story but in essence, I'm trying to help my mother escape from the perpetual BT contracts:

My mother is a 72 year old pensioner. She currently has her landline with BT and her broadband with PlusNet. She lives in a small village with a "Market 1" exchange, i.e. no other ISPs have a box in her local exchange, only BT, so broadband is more expensive and she has fewer choices than most.


This time last year, she had a letter from BT asking her to sign up to a new 12 month contract so she continued to get free evening and weekend calls plus free caller display, or be charged extra. So she signed up.


In April, she renewed her line rental in advance for 12 months to save money.


She makes only a few short calls a month and mostly uses 18185 via her pre-programmed Orchid dialler. So she gets the cheapest calls when they are not free. I know that indirect access won't last forever but until then, it works fine.


For broadband, she pays £10.99 on a legacy PlusNet tariff for 3Gb/month with unmetered access between midnight and 8am. She is now on a monthly contract with PlusNet and has never had any equipment sent from them - so in a position to move supplier.


I've been patiently waiting for her contract with BT to end so I can move her to Post Office "Unlimited" (100GB/month) Broadband and Weekend calls pacakge for £120/year upfront line rental and £10/month broadband. In a rural exchange, this is the cheapest product I've found. She won't have to surf the web in the wee small hours and might even be able to use streaming services like NowTV, Netflix, IPlayer etc. to her TV to keep her entertained. When the grandchildren come, she won't have to buy more allowance at £1.25 per extra GB.


BT sent her a letter a week ago saying that the package she is currently on - Unlimited Evening & Weekend Calls is changing and from 1st December 2014 her plan will cost £3/month more unless she re-contracts for 12 months, then it will be free.


Under the circumstances, she doesn't want a new 12 month contract. If it wasn't for her advanced line rental payment, she'd move at the end of her contract.


My question is: If she moved from BT's Evening & Weekend Calls to their Weekend Calls plan, would that be a new 12 month contract? I haven't asked BT because I don't trust their call centres.


Otherwise her options seem to be:
1) Stay with BT & PlusNet indefinitely (no)
2) Pay BT £3/month for "free" Evening and Weekend calls until April 2015 when her advanced line rental expires, then move.
3) Leave now and sacrifice advanced line rental saver payment from now until April 2015 - ouch.
4) Reject BT's price increases now and still lose her advanced line rental payment? Or is a refund of advanced line rental payments possible under this price rise?

I know that along with all the others, the Post Office's prices are also increasing, but for a rural Market 1 area, their phone & broadband can't be beaten. Oddly, even by Talktalk who provide their services for the Post Office!


I have looked in this forum but can't find the answer, so I'd be very grateful for any advice. I'm sure it would help others in a similar situation too.


Thanks in advance. :A

JJ_Egan

You can try for repayment of line rental but after initially saying yes BT said no we will not refund .

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5062632

Broadband and line rental from Plusnet at the end of the contracted line rental is where i would look .

johnniegif

Thanks JJ Egan.


So it looks like we'll have to wait until her advanced line rental saver expires.


PlusNet costs more in rural Market 1 exchanges. As an existing customer, she'd be paying £17.49 per month for unlimited PlusNet broadband (no chance of fiber) and £12.99/month advanced line rental saver = £30.48/month. I'm not sure what PlusNet's price rises will be, if any.


Post Office Unlimited Broadband & Weekend Calls = £10/month + £10/month advanced line rental saver = £20/month. After the prices rises, this will go to £12/month line rental saver + £8/month unlimited broadband & weekend calls = £20month, so will stay the same price and will stay much cheaper than PlusNet in a rural area.


If anyone knows of a better deal, please let me know.


Just need to find out about changing from BT Evening & Weekend to Weekend without contract, or she'll have to pay the extra £3/month until the line rental saver expires.


Thanks again.

talktalktobt

johnniegif wrote: »

Hi All.

Long story but in essence, I'm trying to help my mother escape from the perpetual BT contracts:

My mother is a 72 year old pensioner. She currently has her landline with BT and her broadband with PlusNet. She lives in a small village with a "Market 1" exchange, i.e. no other ISPs have a box in her local exchange, only BT, so broadband is more expensive and she has fewer choices than most.


This time last year, she had a letter from BT asking her to sign up to a new 12 month contract so she continued to get free evening and weekend calls plus free caller display, or be charged extra. So she signed up.


In April, she renewed her line rental in advance for 12 months to save money.


She makes only a few short calls a month and mostly uses 18185 via her pre-programmed Orchid dialler. So she gets the cheapest calls when they are not free. I know that indirect access won't last forever but until then, it works fine.


For broadband, she pays £10.99 on a legacy PlusNet tariff for 3Gb/month with unmetered access between midnight and 8am. She is now on a monthly contract with PlusNet and has never had any equipment sent from them - so in a position to move supplier.


I've been patiently waiting for her contract with BT to end so I can move her to Post Office "Unlimited" (100GB/month) Broadband and Weekend calls pacakge for £120/year upfront line rental and £10/month broadband. In a rural exchange, this is the cheapest product I've found. She won't have to surf the web in the wee small hours and might even be able to use streaming services like NowTV, Netflix, IPlayer etc. to her TV to keep her entertained. When the grandchildren come, she won't have to buy more allowance at £1.25 per extra GB.


BT sent her a letter a week ago saying that the package she is currently on - Unlimited Evening & Weekend Calls is changing and from 1st December 2014 her plan will cost £3/month more unless she re-contracts for 12 months, then it will be free.


Under the circumstances, she doesn't want a new 12 month contract. If it wasn't for her advanced line rental payment, she'd move at the end of her contract.


My question is: If she moved from BT's Evening & Weekend Calls to their Weekend Calls plan, would that be a new 12 month contract? I haven't asked BT because I don't trust their call centres.


Otherwise her options seem to be:
1) Stay with BT & PlusNet indefinitely (no)
2) Pay BT £3/month for "free" Evening and Weekend calls until April 2015 when her advanced line rental expires, then move.
3) Leave now and sacrifice advanced line rental saver payment from now until April 2015 - ouch.
4) Reject BT's price increases now and still lose her advanced line rental payment? Or is a refund of advanced line rental payments possible under this price rise?

I know that along with all the others, the Post Office's prices are also increasing, but for a rural Market 1 area, their phone & broadband can't be beaten. Oddly, even by Talktalk who provide their services for the Post Office!


I have looked in this forum but can't find the answer, so I'd be very grateful for any advice. I'm sure it would help others in a similar situation too.


Thanks in advance. :A

I would be careful with Post Office broadband on BT wholesale. We had 18mbps with BT, moved to Post Office and it fluctuated between 0.2 and 1 mbps and when we tried to get help about this they were awful!

Anyway, this is our experience and it may be different for you.

johnniegif

Hi talktalktobt.


Thanks for the warning. Your speed was pants!


I have moved 7 friends to the Post Office broadband and 'phone - only in rural areas in the last 2 years. They all get 3+ Mb/s, a couple of them near to 8Mb/s and are all happy users - and no, I don't work for the Post Office!


Broadband is always hit & miss but I would hate to have received your speeds, which I think and hope must be rare. I have enough skills to get BT Openreach out if such a problem came to light and kick the ISP into providing a proper service.


Currently my mother connects at 8Mb/s and gets around 5Mb/s on a wired Ethernet connection. I'd expect similar speed with the Post Office.

JJ_Egan

Where is the 3mb dropping or do you mean the service is up to 8mb .

johnniegif

JJ Egan,


My mother's router connects at 8Mbps and speed tests over wired Ethernet achieve around 5Mbps actual download speed.