BT Prices - A little advise please

junkie_ball

So I stop by the parents tonight and dad asked me if upgrading for an additional £1 per month from BT unlimited board band to infinity unlimited (24 month contract) was worth it following a letter he received (also includes free activation and new router). On the face of it i thought it was a no brainer.

BUT i've gone back over his old bills and realised they are charging £20 per month for bt unlimited broadband, £18.99 per month line rental. This means BT would like to charge £21 per month for bt infinity when on their website as a new customer currently you can get it on a 12 month contract for £15 per month (£20 normal price) but the bug bear for me is they have been paying £20 per month for standard broadband which is advertised at £13 per month on their website.

https://www.productsandservices.bt.com/products/broadband-packages

My dad said he had raised this with BT in the past and they wouldn't do anything about it. Being set in their ways they are reluctant to move providers especially as my dad has committed the sin of using the ISP's email address for the last 10 plus years so changing would be a chore. What would be the best approach trying to get BT to charge the prices as advised on their site?

VisionMan

Could you provide a link as to what your referring to? And have they never asked for a discount at renewal?

The_Groat_Counter

junkie_ball wrote: »

...
My dad said he had raised this with BT in the past and they wouldn't do anything about it. Being set in their ways they are reluctant to move providers especially as my dad has committed the sin of using the ISP's email address for the last 10 plus years so changing would be a chore. What would be the best approach trying to get BT to charge the prices as advised on their site?

Threatening to leave, quoting the prices of a competitor, rather than BT's prices for new customers.

Take a look at Plusnet's offerings for example.

Call BT's "Options Team" (UK based) on 0800 800 030, then select option 1.

For what it's worth, unlike with nearly all other ISPs you can pay a separate subscription to keep your BT internet email address (@btinternet.com, or @btopenworld.com) - they call this service BT Premium Mail.

Unfortunately, they have just raised the price from a not unreasonable £1.60 a month to £5 a month as of May 2016.

I wouldn't mention anything about the email address being valuable when calling up BT to negotiate! If you are male then you could always pretend to be your dad and make the call, so long as all the information you should know is to hand.

The_Groat_Counter

VisionMan wrote: »

Could you provide a link as to what your referring to? And have they never asked for a discount at renewal?

A lot of people aren't really tuned in to this new way of doing things, i.e. waiting for the end of the contract minimum term and then negotiating. In the grand scheme of things it's a fairly new modus operandi for landlines (unlike say mobile contracts).

Also "renewal" only happens when customers commit to a new contract - for a lot of people, the old one just keeps on rolling on once the minimum term has passed.

Kjd123

BT customer service in my experience isn't as good as Sky or Virgin.

The_Groat_Counter

Kjd123 wrote: »

BT customer service in my experience isn't as good as Sky or Virgin.

Do you mean in terms of getting good retention deals?

If so, I think that is the case, in that they offer less. However that doesn't mean they offer nothing. Keeping a customer is still cheaper than acquiring a new customer.

If you mean generally, well there are horror stories about all the major providers customer service! The OP's parents seem happy with their service from BT, just not with the price they pay (or rather their offspring isn't happy with the price they pay!).