Phone-Only No Contract 'Offers' from Post Office

Grplans123

My 101 year old Mum lives in a retirement scheme and is currently isolated due to Covid restrictions. She is highly dependent on her telephone for social contacts. She has a Post Office HomePhone contract charged at £45 per quarter which doesn't have a commitment period. This means that she's free to end this arrangement at any time and sign up to a new deal with Post Office or any other provider. Post Office sent her a marketng letter in mid-January saying 'We always want you to get the right package at the best price, so we have pulled together the options you have now and the best offers available to you.' The letter includes a logo in its top right corner highlighting the words 'MOST TRUSTED PROVIDER - WINNER' .

Mum's current PO HomePhone deal has 'Anytime' calls to most numbers including mobiles and the landline phones of other providers subject to the calls being of no longer than 60 minutes duration. The deal also includes Standard Voicemail and paper billing (she can't use and doesn't own a computer and is not on broadband). The current deal cost is paid quarterly. The letter illustrates this as costing her a total charge of £92.25 (£30.75 per month). The Post Office letter only sets out one offer as being available to her. Superficially the deal summary appears similar to the existing deal but the total charge is listed as £30.75. A small-print note below the illustration box mentions that this offer is only available as a monthly billing option. When she looked at the letter my degree-educated wife read the letter quickly and thought that the new deal was being offered at £30.75 by comparison with Mum's current bill of £92.25 and urged me to switch on her behalf (I hold Power of Attorney). It was only when I checked the small print and read very carefully that it became clear the 'offer' is significantly worse than her existing deal.

Firstly the charging period is different as mentioned above (existing billing is quarterly compared to the offer's monthly billing). Although the overall quoted cost, line rental and voicemail are all similar the treatment of call charges isn't. Whereas her current deal; includes free calls to most numbers and providers with limited specified exceptions, the offered deal only includes free calls to other Post Office HomePhone numbers at any time - which means that most calls will be charged at the 'Anytime Plus' charge rates.  Anyone looking at this deal needs to understand that 'Anytime Plus' is a very different charging regime to the former 'Anytime' deal and seems to be vastly inferior. The use of the label 'Anytime Plus' implies that this element of the package offered provides additional benefits over the standard 'Anytime' deal (which PO no longer provide to new subscribers) whereas the opposite appears to be the case from the customer perspective.

These points only became apparent on a VERY careful analytical reading of the letter. So, bearing in mind that the great majority of people who are using non-broadband landline-only deals will be elderly, this looks like a deliberately mimsleading and exploitative commercial tactic by the Post Office. It looks as if they are attempting to con old people into switching from their existing deal based on 'Anytime' call charging to their new 'Anytime Plus' charges which for most subscribers will be significantly more expensive. The way this standard marketing letter (dated 16 January 2021 signed by Meredith Sharples, Director of Telecoms at the Post Office Telecoms Service) is laid out reinforces my impression that the Post Offive are trying to mislead vulnerable older people into a switch of deal that will not be in their best interests. Mr Sharples's claim in his letter that 'We always want you to get the right package at the best price' looks extremely dubious in this light!

Have any other Forum members come across this Post Office offer and would you agree that my impressions are correct? Or am I missing something and doing the Post Office a disservice?

Neil_Jones

£30.75 a month?  Seriously?  You can get line, fibre and inclusive calls for less than that from somebody else.

Consider whether your mother is eligible for BT Basic (as a general rule you have to be in receipt of certain benefits):

https://www.bt.com/help/landline/getting-set-up/help-people-with-impairments-or-with-particular-needs/how-do-i-find-out-more-about-bt-basic-

This works out to a flat rate maximum £15,16 a month if she can get it, and that's 48p a quarter more expensive than what she's paying now.  And the calls would be capped to a maximum of £10 a month.  Use it less, you'd pay less that month.

pbartlett

Have you thought of a mobile phone for your mother she could get a high number of minutes and texts for considerably less than she is playing now with no line rental

macman

PO Broadband and Home Phone is at present just a resold TalkTalk LLU service.  They are not currently taking new orders, as the whole thing is about to be sold off to a new provider, possibly Shell.

getmore4less

If she can get an O2 mobile signal then there is a sky mobile deal with calls and text included  3 year plan  £42  TOTAL.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/3-year-deal-ps42-100mb-unlimited-minutes-texts-nokia-phone-on-sky-mobile-3595990

just checked and still available 

Neil49

If you haven't already seen this 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/02/post-office-broadband-to-join-shell-energy---what-it-means-for-4/?_ga=2.214962007.1320720590.1611606781-1019850542.1599831434

happybagger

The deal above from @getmore4less has expired

I'm currently trying to source a better solution for my parents who have a line installed but not connected, they use a mobile on EE but the signal is not good in the house so can be difficult to get hold of them.

Looked at simple telecoms but no deal looks good due to all the family only using mobiles so the cost would rack up way above the advertised "from" figure, along with an upfront £45 or £60 fee

I've ordered an o2 sim as they apparently have great signal in their area, and have unlocked their mobile, will try the sim in it to see what signal is really like when I get it. If it's ok, o2 have a "£5 big bundle" which includes includes unlimited landline and mobile calls, seem like a bargain unless I'm missing something? Can then transfer the number; that way they won't have to start telling everyone their new number too.

Have you thought of that option?

getmore4less

The sky deal is still available. 
(ignore expired on HUKD always check)
https://www.sky.com/shop/mobile/phones/nokia/nokia-105-(2019)?colour=Black&capacity=4MB

Follow the instructions to get it two choices

monthly £1.50*24+£0.50*12
or
£42 up front.

Select 100MB  £0 for calls, text, 100MB per month.

There are O2 classic payg 321 available on eBay, I got two for 20p as backup options I don't do many calls/text but do use data. 

Kelly248

 I enquired about a landline only package from BT - Homesaver. I already have an existing landline with another provider. I was told there would be a £70 connection charge on moving line rental back to BT!
How can BT justify a £70 connection charge if I switch to them, when existing line is owned by them and its just a case of me, at the moment paying the cost to my current provider - Post Office. Was told if I took out broadband and  landline, no charge for connection!  Penalised or what! 
They did offer to help by spreading the cost over 12 months, but this means only saving of £1 month on my current cost of landline/home phone with Post Office.
Does anyone else have experience of this with BT or any other provider? 

JJ_Egan

Normal charge .

Some ISPs will absorb some of the cost .

BT do not own the line , Thats Open Reach .