MSE News: BT to hike prices in January - watch out for a letter

phillw

miller wrote: »

What is the point of letting them know your are leaving due to a price increase? Any penalties should be waived when the gaining provider gets in touch to arrange the transfer without another unnecessary phone call.

Their argument is that they can't know whether you left due to a price increase, unless you phone them to tell them.

In reality it's because:

1. it gives them a chance to talk you out of leaving.

2. some people won't phone, they'll switch away and either not notice or not want the hassle of trying to claim it back.

If they still charge you (which generally seems to be the case) then it helps you honestly say that you followed the process, so they need to refund you.

It's all in the game.

boatman

With regard to BT repaying remaining line rental that was paid upfront

See post 180 by moderator DanielS,

Hi Guys,

I wanted to give you all a new update as of 10/02/2017 about ceasing line rental saver due to price changes.

If you decide to leave because of the Price Changes (letting us know within 30 days of receiving your price change notification) you will receive a refund of the remaining months of your LRS payment on your final bill. This will be done automatically in the background.

Thanks

DanielS


https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/BT-price-changes-April-and-August/td-p/1709458/page/18

bristolleedsfan

Has anyone any experience either at first hand or reading other experiences ( I did see posts somewhere somebody was taking the issue to Ombudsman) of getting BT to refund the 59.99 Infinity Broadband Set up charge following a price increase during first 12 Months.

Openreach engineer informed me 9.99 relates to router deliver and 25.00 relates to setting up fibre and 25.00 relates to removing broadband when customer leaves BT.

minislim

left BT 7 years ago. best thing i ever did. in that time i've had excellent service from other companies (other than the 18 months of talktalk! but at £10 per month all in then i couldn't grumble).
in those 7 years line rental has almost doubled. charges have too.

i'm bordering on nearly £1000 saved by not being with BT.

so much so i've encouraged friends and family to ditch them too!

with wholesale line rental and broadband costs being so low the only thing i can see this latest hike paying towards is more subsidy for BT sport and funding the slight reduction in the phone line only users.

if there is one service that needs renationalising its BT!
they really are taking their existing customers for a ride!

[Deleted User]

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

Has anyone any experience either at first hand or reading other experiences ( I did see posts somewhere somebody was taking the issue to Ombudsman) of getting BT to refund the 59.99 Infinity Broadband Set up charge following a price increase during first 12 Months.

Openreach engineer informed me 9.99 relates to router deliver and 25.00 relates to setting up fibre and 25.00 relates to removing broadband when customer leaves BT.

I'd have thought absolutely zero chance of that happening, it's in the T&C's that you agreed to when signing up that prices could increase.

brewerdave

Caddyman wrote: »

Perhaps if BT stuck to providing Telecoms instead of involving themselves in super expensive sporting sponsorships, then line rental and broadband would be much cheaper for everyone???

I'm betting that within 5 years, we'll see standard fibre broadband and line rental package at around the £70 to £80 a month mark for everyone, and that doesn't include those subscribing to any sports packages. The only way for line rental and broadband, is up, and I doubt there will be much to stop it. It's like Council Tax, you'll never see a reduction, just an ever increasing annual bill. Depressing isn't it?

The only thing that may slow down the increase ,will be the large scale adoption of 4G/5G etc mobile internet connections.

[Deleted User]

brewerdave wrote: »

The only thing that may slow down the increase ,will be the large scale adoption of 4G/5G etc mobile internet connections.

Given BT now own the only company that once looked most capable of threatening their fixed line business, the odds have somewhat diminished. :rotfl:

Three offer decent mobile broadband plans but their coverage indoors is horrendous. And because their prices are very attractive, you'll find speeds drop hugely during peak hours (midday-midnight). Streaming anything becomes impossible during "peak hours".

O2 are expensive and have nowhere near the 4G coverage that BT/EE offers. I've find O2 routinely stuck at 3G speeds even in parts of London.

Vodafone have always been expensive, average coverage, and they are still miles behind the others in delivering faster 4G speeds.

The BT/EE deal basically put to bed any serious threat to the fixed line business.

[Deleted User]

It should also be pointed out, while everyone is moaning about prices going up, government is driving up the costs for service providers. UK ISP's now have to log everything we all do online, and make data available upon request (ok it may require a court order, but it's basically a rubber-stamping exercise) and this is very expensive. ISP's also have to manage blocks on sites they are ordered to prevent you from seeing.

In addition, BT Openreach are soon going to hike wholesale prices in order to fund the rollout of the next round of network upgrades. The government is demanding various targets be met, and the costs of meeting those targets will be paid by all of us. This could add another £10 a month to bills over time on top of all the inflation-busting increases.

I do hope the government won't jump on a bandwagon of blaming these companies for ripping off customers while they are contributing to the problem. It's the same with them and the energy companies, various green policies have driven up costs for consumers. But the government doesn't like to talk about that when they are pretending to be acting to protect the consumer with so-called price caps.

phillw

bristolleedsfan wrote: »

Has anyone any experience either at first hand or reading other experiences ( I did see posts somewhere somebody was taking the issue to Ombudsman) of getting BT to refund the 59.99 Infinity Broadband Set up charge following a price increase during first 12 Months.

Openreach engineer informed me 9.99 relates to router deliver and 25.00 relates to setting up fibre and 25.00 relates to removing broadband when customer leaves BT.

I don't see why. They still delivered the router, setup fibre and will still remove it if you leave early.

You get line rental back because you paid for something up front, that you'll no longer receive.

Caddyman wrote: »

Perhaps if BT stuck to providing Telecoms instead of involving themselves in super expensive sporting sponsorships, then line rental and broadband would be much cheaper for everyone???

That depends on how many people would ditch BT and move to Sky or Virgin, if they didn't have BT Sport and the sport instead went there instead. Because then BT would have less customers and the network costs are not much different if they supply one person in a street to 50.

_Ritchie_

I have BT fibre broadband, landline (anytime calls) and BT mobile. It doesn't seem mobile is directly affected by the price hike, however if I leave BT due to the other hikes, my BT mobile contract will increase by £5 a month (due to no longer have those products). Is there any way to leave that fee free as well? It seems to me I should since they are increasing the prices on a linked contract.