Watch out 17 December 2015 at 2:52PM in Over 50s MoneySaving 11 replies 4.7K views

[Deleted User]

Maybe we could warn each other about things

The first is about bt caller display, it was free for me for a year but I now unexpectedly find that I have to OPT IN, even though I renewed my yearly line rental online a week or so ago. This sort of thing gets sneaked in and there must be a lot of people who will be paying an extra £1.75 a month. Be warned you ring a number and go into a pre-recorded loop but be patient, I eventually spoke to a person, I think in India as he sounded faint and I couldn`t understand him but he opted me in to free caller display. I could not find anywhere on the bt site where I could do it, so it is designed to make you give up and pay the £1.75 each month

Deneb

Yes, it is sneaky. I only found out when I checked my first monthly bill after renewing the line rental saver. You can renew it online though. After logging in to your account, select My Phone and Manage Calling Features.

moneyistooshorttomention

Two things I've noticed.

1. I only found out that I seemed to have been signed up to Amazon Prime somehow when I saw a direct debit taken out for it on my bank statement. I promptly rang and explained that was not my intention and got it refunded.

2. I have both gas and electric supplied from the same supplier. I had separate emails about each fuel from them, suggesting I swop to a new tariff. One of those emails had gone into my spam folder somehow. Anyway - I did duly ring and my fuel bill (ie for both gas and electric together) has now gone onto the new tariff and they calculate I will be using about £53 per month for both fuels together. I don't think that's too bad - as I have a detached house and use my central heating pretty constantly in winter and set at a reasonable temperature (ie 21-22 C). I've definitely got no intention of being cold...

cherie1122

Thank you. I've just renewed my caller display online. I've paid £1.75 for two or three months now and didn't know I could opt in again to get it free.

nobby1963

Just thought I would mention that some companies may tie you to a new contract period when you add these deals ( free caller display etc ).
It may not worry some but if you have a special price for 12 months and then are on a monthly contract after that and then decide to add a calling feature you may well find you are tied to a new 12 month contract.
Not saying that this is definitely the case but worth having in mind.
Nobby.

moneyistooshorttomention

Another thing to watch is Amazon's refunds policy on faulty goods.

I had to argue rather to get a refund on a faulty item (within the guarantee period). Then they only refunded most of the money and that was another argument (ie to ensure the rest was refunded). Now I see that I've only received that major part of refund and am going to have to ring up again to get the rest of my refund.:mad:

moneyistooshorttomention

Another thing I got caught by recently was that I was congratulating myself on saving money on purchase cost of my latest book purchase by getting it from Amazon - and then I saw it for sale in T*sco. I had assumed they wouldn't have it - because of the nature of the book - but apparently genuinely healthy eating is now fashionable and they had the latest "Deliciously Ella" book in for £2 cheaper than I had just paid.

I should have learnt from the fact that I had recently discovered a genuinely healthy cookbook in "The Works" (ie one for sweet foods - without any sugar/white flour/etc in).

Gers

nobby1963 wrote: »

Just thought I would mention that some companies may tie you to a new contract period when you add these deals ( free caller display etc ).
It may not worry some but if you have a special price for 12 months and then are on a monthly contract after that and then decide to add a calling feature you may well find you are tied to a new 12 month contract.
Not saying that this is definitely the case but worth having in mind.
Nobby.

The point of the thread was that caller display is free when paying for line rental in advance - in one lump sum for a year. It's part of the deal, however the experience is far removed. I too was caught out with this 'you have to request it' when doing both mine and my mum's annual line rental payments.

If it's part of the offer then it should be automatic. We both got refunds!

mumps

Got an e mail today purporting to come from Morrisons, quite possible as they do have my e mail address. However, I was a bit wary and made sure my security things were all working, tried to open it and my security software blocked it. It said they were giving prizes out as it was their anniversary and I am a match and more member so easy to open it and if there is something nasty and you haven't got all the security it could infect your computer. I wonder if they have moved on from pretending to be banks?

gfplux

I have had emails from "Apple" asking me to "click a link" I deleted the email.
I have also had phone calls from "Microsoft" telling me I had a problem with my computer. I shouted at the caller that he was a crook and put the phone down.

Grumpysally

Thank you for this Kittie,
You have just prompted me into action
I too have been stung in this way by BT, and hadn't had the time to sit and work out if the mistake was mine or theirs, and subsequently forgot about it. They are now on my hit list.
I've also had a strage email from Sainsbury's energy, telling me that my Gas and Electricity direct debits are going down from £20 to £10 a month. How I wish this was true! ( It was never £20 in the first place!! considerably more.. so where that figure came from is anyone's guess)
This is another thing I will now have to waste time sorting out, no doubt spending considerable time listening to ghastly music whilst being told how important my call is to them!
Grumble grumble grumble,