Haggling with BT as an out of contract customer

andy29_2

Hello... I wondered if you could give me some advice with my BT Broadband.

We are on BT Infinity 76Mb and as we're now out of contract the price has shot up to £55.99 a month. That cannot continue when moving to what looks like almost anywhere else a new customer is far cheaper.

The first thing is that we want to move down to 52Mb (or possibly even 41 or 38 with other providers) since we only get 40Mb anyway.

We got BT's January sale card through the post and were hoping to be able to start a new contract for 52Mb for the £29.99 a month it advertised. I know we're not entitled to that so I gave them a call to see what would happen - I thought we had a chance but the best I got offered was 52Mb for £36.99 a month on an 18 month contract. It's certainly better than what we have been paying, and I'm not really much good at this. I know it's still more expensive than switching but it would be nice to save the hassle and keep the free WiFi hotspot access if we could, although it's not the end of the world if we don't - we're not that loyal!

We did look at Plusnet - they have 38Mb unlimited for £23.99 (we don't really worry about calls) - but I've been a bit put off by the sound of their customer service, and a lot of people on the internet seem to talk about speed and other problems. BT have been good to us for the many, many years we've been with them but I guess that's probably mostly luck.

Other than whether the offer looks any good at all, I wanted to ask about caller display - we're currently paying for it, but should it be free with a new contract? I've read about having to ask for it but the more I look and the more BT Privacy gets mixed in, the more confused I get.

Thanks for any help.

macman

You are aware that Plusnet is part of the BT Group? PN CS is not the best, but it's certainly better than BT. Speeds will be exactly the same, as both use the same OR network.
BT charge for things like caller display, others don't, which is why they're expensive.

THEGOBBLER

Hello!

I just did a switch the other way this morning from plusnet to BT. When I originally switched from BT to plusnet 18 months ago I had a similar experience to yourself - everything they were offering was a bit crap, and didn't seem like their hearts were in it.

£23.99 for unlimited 38Mb for 18 months is a good price from looking at what's online for new customers elsewhere, no activation either which is grand. Plusnet are 99 pence per month for caller display, whereas BT looks like it's £1.75. I do see where it says you can sign up to BT Privacy with caller display for free for 12 months (making caller display free for 12 months as it is included in BT Privacy with caller display) but you'd probably have to double check on bt.com/myfeatures. Though it might not be worth bothering looking at the price difference between BT and plusnet.

I did have some issues with Plusnet near the beginning of my contract but that was when they were doing a substantial upgrade to their backend (no excuse for how bad it was but since then it's been rock solid - I'd be staying if they were able to match the overall price with BT). Can't say I've had any experience with their support but they make a big deal out of all their call centres being in the UK.

If you are switching, do yourself a favour and go via a cashback website. Snagged myself £95 whole poonds cashback in addition to BT's £100 mastercard from topcashback, a quick look at topcashback suggests you'll get £70 from them for the package you're looking at. Not sure how the others compare.

Quentin

macman wrote: »

BT charge for things like caller display, others don't, which is why they're expensive.

There is a way to avoid paying for caller display with BT, (see #3), but currently not with PN


No one will be able to charge for it after 1/10/18

[Deleted User]

You should have an "offers" page on your BT account when you login - what is listed there?

You can then call up to take it out or haggle it more - though don't expect them to budge much

andy29_2

Thanks everyone. Yes, I have looked at my account's offers page, and there's nothing for broadband at all! That's after being with BT for decades - loyalty definitely does no pay, as I have read on this site.

I know that Plusnet are owned by BT and it makes the need to switch seem daft to me, but I didn't know if they got lower priority on the network or things like that. It's nice to hear something good (or less bad) about their service and it's making me look at them again. As I said we've had a good time with BT but we haven't ever really had problems except for when our cable under the road outside needed to be replaced... but they didn't cause any unnecessary difficulty with it. With these big companies it seems like you can easily get totally opposite experiences.

I mean, I'm with Giffgaff for my mobile since I got fed up with EE screwing up more than one online account (was with Orange since 2000 or something), and they've been fine, not that I've needed to test their CS with any problems yet.

Still confused with what BT Privacy even is - their site says it "registers you for the TPS", but that's free and you can do it yourself - so basically it's nothing? Surely I've misunderstood. At least this confusion about paying for caller display with disappear later in the year.

Thanks for saying about the cashback. I've never looked at that before, and I think I will be in the future. £70 for nothing :money:

So yes, very interested in Plusnet again. Even if I add in unlimited free calls it's still cheaper, just with a 40Mb speed rather than 52Mb. Apparently you can move up to the higher speed anyway. As long as a 40Mb capable line will get 40Mb if things are working okay, and the lack of throttling or capping is true, I can't see any reason not to really.

Quentin

Your will get an offer if you phone up and give notice to leave!

loulou41

Thinking of going with plusnet when bt contract ends. Are they any good? I get a terrible speed if 2.5 meg with bt not interested with fibre as low user. When contract ends in Mid August it will jump to almost double of what I am actual paying. Will go with plusnet as would like to be able to use 18185 and watch bt sports discounted.

andy29_2

Quentin wrote: »

Your will get an offer if you phone up and give notice to leave!

Do I need to actually sign up with someone else (so BT get the notification) or just tell them that I'm about to do it, since I've already talked to them to see what they'd offer?

loulou41 wrote: »

Thinking of going with plusnet when bt contract ends. Are they any good? I get a terrible speed if 2.5 meg with bt not interested with fibre as low user. When contract ends in Mid August it will jump to almost double of what I am actual paying. Will go with plusnet as would like to be able to use 18185 and watch bt sports discounted.

The cost part is why I'm looking at leaving too. It's a huge jump.

Quentin

You don't need to sign up with anyone to get a new offer


You give them notice of your intention to move, which will spark an offer (probably whilst you are on the phone!)


Read up on how to haggle!

loulou41

I was talking to bt cs about no notification email re price hikes. Got a discount of two months free bb. Told her will not be staying with bb when contract expires she advised to ring two weeks before and there will be a good offer. Would rather stay with bt but no way am going to pay double.