BT Sport fiver a month

VisionMan

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Free if you renew your BT TV contract for 18 months is what BT are saying / have said .

Yes JJ I know that. But that doesn't mean one has to renew early. Its free for BT TV users who are currently in contract.

iniltous

Telephoto , Not sure your grounds to cancel are as clear cut as Martins post implys you are not being forced to pay more as you can elect to continue to get BT Sport free ,just the lite version, or you could cancel sport completely , it's only the extra £5 if you get the full BTSport package,and you are not forced to get it.
it's a grey area , are you materially disadvantaged ?, probably not financially , but certainly it terms of what you once got 'free' compared to what's now on offer, but in your case, as the changes appear not to come into force until August , presumably you will continue to get what you currently get for 6 more weeks,up to august, then you have a month of less or no sport TV , or pay the £5, cancel in august then presumably the ETC would be less than cancelling now, but then you may lose the Sky deal
you obviously see this as a way or getting out of your current contract penalty free, you may get what you want, but I don't think it certain, you may get an early termination fee added to your final bill
The post about raising a complaint to OFCOM relies on the fact that it costs BT regardless if a case is raised against them and that they may consider it's less cost to release you without penalty , than pay for an OFCOM review as even if OFCOM find in BT's favour, it's still costs them anyway, but large organisations don't always consider these things, they probably have a budget for OFCOM reviews , and the customer service reps probably don't consider what a OFCOM review costs when deciding if ETC 's are due, it may even be done by the billing software not manually calculated and descresionary

Jakg

I would be interested from hearing if anyones used this to cancel their broadband contracts - BT made a similar blunder last year but getting them to cancel it was hard going.

telephoto

Thank you iniltous.

A large part of the decision to take BT was the free sport package - I don't watch football, but I have used the rugby coverage, which is now being removed.

My understanding is that I have 30 days from notification of the increase to complain and "escape" - that is the basis of the complaint.

I will send a complaint via Resolver and see if I get any co-operation, but having to wait 7 days for a manager is not acceptable.

Telephoto

pint

I have just been online with BT. A bit of a process.
I have Broadband and phone with BT, and utilised BT Sport for free as a result. I had not been contacted by BT about this change, but my partner had seen on MSE. I checked my BT account and it showed that I had automatically ben 'upgraded.' I read the MSE pages, and this forum, and embarked on contacting BT. They were clear that I couldnt 'downgrade' to BT Sport Lite without re-contracting for 12 months, I therefore instructed them to cancel the free BT Sport section, making clear that my contract is Broadband and Phone only. They did that.
They could not confirm that BT Sport Lite would be free for the duration of 12 months.

Amanda27

VisionMan wrote: »

Why did you do that? As its free for BT TV users.

Hi it is still only free if you recontract, this is where the problem lies, as then by upping the broadband cost it doesn't make it free! Discussed with sales and the 'leaving BT' department but their system has no provision to allow a current customer in contract to recontract for the said 18 months and receive any discount.
This is where any existing customer just automatically recontracting, and currently receiving a discount is going to get a shock.
I didn't recontract!

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Just sent my official complaint to their CEO prior to escalation to the ombudsman.

I tried online chat complaints first but they fobbed me off.... Will update back here when I hear from them.

RoofusDoofus

What does BT say?

John Petter, chief executive of BT consumer, says: "When we launched BT Sport we promised to make televised football far more accessible and affordable than it has been to date. We have opened the market to millions of new customers and we want to build on that as BT Sport becomes the undisputed home of European football.

"We are of course giving our best offer to existing customers – broadband customers will get the new BT Sport Pack for the heavily discounted price of £5 whilst customers who take broadband and TV from us will get it absolutely free."

So there you have it. Having signed my broadband contract renewal on the promise of free sport I am hit with a £5 hike to pay for the football I neither want or watch. My sport is rugby, which they are planning on spreading across on to the new channel. Surely if BT is committed to making BT the undisputed home of European football then make those people that want to watch it pay for it - put the new football content on the new channel and ringfence it there, along with its associated cost of financing it, leaving the existing sports content where it is and allowing me to enjoy the "Lite pack" at no additional cost, as per BT's contractual commitment. My friends who have BT sport for the UFC or motorbike coverage of course share this view

dave8204

BT Sport was never going to stay "free". Right from the start Financial Journalists were saying the figures don't stack up and basically the package was a loss leader to "hook" viewers until the inevitable price rise.
Even so BT have handled this very badly and I sorted out my elderly parent's "downgrade" for them last night via their website,neither of whom has much very positive to say about BT right now.
As others have said my Dad won't miss the football,BT's biggest achievement was to finally prove to him quite how dire the Premier League really is but he will miss the moto GP and Rugby. He could afford the extra fiver,I'd happily pay it for him,but unlike BT he's big on that old fashioned thing called principle.

poppasmurf_bewdley

dave8204 wrote: »

BT Sport was never going to stay "free". Right from the start Financial Journalists were saying the figures don't stack up and basically the package was a loss leader to "hook" viewers until the inevitable price rise.
Even so BT have handled this very badly and I sorted out my elderly parent's "downgrade" for them last night via their website,neither of whom has much very positive to say about BT right now.
As others have said my Dad won't miss the football,BT's biggest achievement was to finally prove to him quite how dire the Premier League really is but he will miss the moto GP and Rugby. He could afford the extra fiver,I'd happily pay it for him,but unlike BT he's big on that old fashioned thing called principle.

You've hit the nail on the head with this. Many of us could afford the extra fiver without blinking, and I think this is what BT is banking on.

But it has underestimated the volume of animosity it is conjuring up by the use of its inertia selling of the product.

I too, out of principle, will not succumb to BT's devious and underhand sales method. I would love to watch the Euro football games but I will not be blackmailed. I have downgraded to Bt Sport Lite. I have also cancelled BT Sport HD, thereby denying BT of £36 a year income. So, far from gaining £60 a year from me, they've lost £36pa. That's some strategic plan!

I have also made a note in my diary of when my current 18 month contract expires so that I can either negotiate a substantial reduction in my £33.99 per month charge for landline and broadband, or move elsewhere (but certainly not to Talk Talk).

I have also made a note in my diary when 12 months are up so I can cancel Caller Display as I have no intention of paying BT's outrageous charge for the two or three calls I get each month on my un-needed landline number.