Haggle with BT - our new guide

mac.d

NikiG, if you have received the email from BT saying your price is going up, then you can leave penalty free, as long as you do so within 30 days of receiving the email, and as long as you tell them that you are leaving because of this price rise.

Phone them up and tell them you want to leave because of the price rise, and you are giving them notice that you are leaving (don't tell them you want to cancel, just say you are leaving to join either plusnet or sky because you can get a deal for £30 per month). Then sign up with another provider. Plusnet or Sky are both fairly popular (Plusnet is actually owned by BT), and both offer deals for around £30 per month for line rental a fibre broadband. Sorry don't know much about any TV deals.

BT have sent automatic emails to people saying they will be charged for leaving mid-contract, but you just need to keep telling them you are leaving because of the price rise, so you don't need to pay anything under their own terms and conditions.

Edit: sorry didn't see JJ Egan's post which is much more succint and to the point!

HaggleThemLow

NikiG, as the other posters said, you have the right to leave penalty free.

The best number to call in my experience is 0800 800 150 and when prompted say cancellation. Tell them your leaving and if they make you an offer say no, tell them you want a deal at the same price as new customers. If they don't give you a good price then continue with the cancellation.

Research the best deals with other providers and sign up to one that suits you, set the activation date to 5 or 6 weeks time. Phone BT about a week later, they should now have been contacted by your new provider, and ask them if your transfer has been activated.
They will now be prepared to give you the best deals as they know you're serious about leaving, if you are offered a great deal you can then contact whoever you signed up to and cancel the order during the cooling off period.

Always be nice to the BT customer service representative, never become confrontational, and they will then give you the best deals. I have made a lot of calls to BT over the last few weeks and they have always been pleasant and willing to help.

I upgraded in the middle of a 2 year contract even before they sent the email notification of the price increase.
I went from ADSL to unlimited 52mb fibre and LR for £23.99 fixed for 18 months, and with the black Friday deals managed to get BT sport in HD free for 18 months as well.

neilsedaka

For those of us on FTTP we have very little bargaining clout. It's a choice of BT or BT. I have to say that it is an excellent service though, so I don't mind too much about the price increase. It is still wonderful value for money.

NikiG

BT didn't want to haggle so am now going to EE with a much cheaper deal.

phillw

HaggleThemLow wrote: »

The best number to call in my experience is 0800 800 150 and when prompted say cancellation. Tell them your leaving and if they make you an offer say no, tell them you want a deal at the same price as new customers. If they don't give you a good price then continue with the cancellation.

You should never cancel broadband, that is what the new provider does. You don't want a cease charge. With BT you raise a complaint that they have put their prices up and tell them you are arranging to leave. They then immediately close the complaint.

It's possible that showing naivety by saying you want to cancel might get them to bother offering you a better deal, as anyone clued up is likely to reject any deal they offer anyway. Just don't whatever you do actually cancel it.

HaggleThemLow

I agree that you shouldn't allow your BB to cease, but as I stated later in my post, you then sign up with another provider and they initiate the transfer.

There is nothing wrong with cancelling, or implying that you will. I asked the agent what charges I would incur to cancel, as I also have BT sport, and I was subsequently offered an upgrade to fibre for £27.99. which I accepted. I had some problems with the order and after several calls, and a bit more haggling, I accepted a new fixed price deal for 18 months at £23.99 for unlimited 52mb BB and LR. This is an excellent deal and proof that my way of haggling worked, but there are many different ways to achieve the same result, I just think this is a bit quicker.

I also managed to get BT sport in HD free for 18 months after haggling with another agent during black Friday, even though the deal wasn't meant for existing sports subscribers.

My fibre went live today, synched at 55/10::j

JJ_Egan

<The best number to call in my experience is 0800 800 150 and when prompted say cancellation. Tell them your leaving and if they make you an offer say no, tell them you want a deal at the same price as new customers. If they don't give you a good price then continue with the cancellation.>

Thats how i do it .
If the initial offer is not acceptable i just say i am giving you the 30 days notice .
Then wait for a better offer.

poggs

Bt Gave no offers for me. just we are putting your price up. Take it or leave.

So I left. BT simply tried to extol the virtues of BT sport, using it as the sole reason to stay with them. As I'm in scotland, the english premiership, champions league and ashes hold little interest for me much to the confusion of the retention agent.

Vodafone was £15 a month cheaper once all the chargeable bt addons like answering service and call display etc were added on. Yes ive lost bt tv and bt sport, but I rarely watched those anyway.

Be back un 18 months though to get the cashback and reward card :-)

grumpygardener

I signed up with BT Sport in late October, annoyed that Sky had lost the rights to the Ashes cricket. £22. 99 on top of the £££ I pay to Sky each month was bad enough, but BT emailed me just a few weeks later bumping a whopping 12.7% on top, many times the rate of inflation. I rang them, telling them that I wanted to leave and the words had only just got out of my mouth when I was offered £15.99 for 12 months and "give us a call just before this expires and we'll see what we can do."
Do they regularly overcharge until someone complains? It seems an odd way to do business.

Neil_Jones

Its a retention deal, common for companies in this sector and typically only offered to people who want to leave to encourage them to stay. You were obviously happy to pay £22.99 when you signed up, though you may have got it cheaper or with some cashback if you'd poked around, but that's beside the point.