BT retentions

simon_blay

Hi - my contract ends mid Jan. I called them today but wasn't impressed with their offers, effectively to match what I'm on. Am I trying my luck too soon, 5 weeks away from renewal date?

As an indication, I pay £42 a month for broadband download speeds guaranteed at c.50mbps. Package contains BT Sport and Ultimate which I use, but other channels I'm not so fussed by

I also pay £20 a month to NowTV for Sky Sports.

BT internet is a little temperamental and the Freeview element of the TV box has packed up in the last month so I'm not feeling overly loyal and prepared to switch if I can't get something I'm happy with

Cheers

Neil_Jones

Search the market and see what other new deals are available elsewhere.  See if BT will match them (skip the BT Sport as its a perk I believe of BT broadband, you'd have to pay for it separately if you move away)..

Freeview receivers are available and unless your TV is more than about 15 years old its probably got Freeview already built in.

MalMonroe

Hi I've just had a terrible 8 weeks trying to get to grips with BT after all I phoned up for initially was to change my TV package. . . I have now achieved what I wanted in the first place but I'm exhausted! I must have spoken to every advisor in every office they have in the UK.

Now I have the Entertainment package with NOW tv and Netflix all in for £16 pm but it's only £8 for the next three months.

Telephone with free 700 mins and ex directory and caller display etc. for £7.31 per month

Broadband with speed guaranteed at 55 Mbpd costing £35.99 per month. 

For the next 24 months. They have adjusted the prices further because I was originally offered the TV package at £8 per month for 24 months but they seemed to have forgotten that and denied it was even an offer - I only phoned them because they sent me an email offer - so when I asked, £8 discount was applied elsewhere. In three months' time I'm going to be paying £51.30 per month inclusive for TV, broadband and phone but for the first three months it's £43.30.

They sent me a brand new TV box which records four programmes at once - if required - and the remote control is bluetooth. They tried to charge me for the box but I said no, don't want to pay. They also tried to make me pay for postage but I refused and so didn't pay for either. It's so easy just to say 'no' and the cost would have been £29.99.  BT also recently revised what television programmes they offer customers so that might be why your freeview channels have gone. They did tell me that their TV packages are changing all time. 

You might be better off waiting until nearer your renewal date for a new deal - January's not a bad time - but you can ask them for a new TV box at any time. They now say that they only 'hire' boxes to customers but if you're paying for a service and the equipment is faulty, you need a replacement. Just don't agree to pay £20 or £9.99 for postage. (And don't get sucked into buying Halo3 broadband either. It's no better than what you've got - certainly wasn't for me. I learned the hard way.)

I did some research on where I could switch to because I was so fed up about them not being able to solve my problem - Sky, Virgin, etc. but they really didn't seem to be any better, or any cheaper than BT so I'm stuck with them for a while longer. I didn't consider PlusNet - BT owned or Talk Talk - BT's involved.

matelodave

My contract with BT comes to an end in January, so I'm seeing what's around to arm myself for a bit of negotiation a bit nearer the date. It always helps if you know what others are offering and are prepared to jump, it depends how needy you are to keep what you've got.

In my experience most ISPs seem to have new year deals so I wont be doing much until after New Year - a few days here or there at the end of the contract wont make much difference.

JJ_Egan

Some place in the BT pages they say they will match new deals for existing customers .

iniltous

AFAIK, part of the ‘Halo’  deal is that the monthly charge will never be more than the ‘new customer’ price….as already stated , closer to the expiration date will be the time to look, and often the best deal is by calling the retention department, armed with the best competitor price , see what they can do, obviously it may be hard to directly compare if BT Sport is included as the competitors price won’t include that.
if your broadband is unreliable, report it as such, chances are swapping provider won’t solve that, the line and equipment is the same ( provided by Openreach ) irrespective of the ISP, if the BTTV box is broken , a new box would probably be provided if you ask for one, if a TV pack contract is renewed 

Ozzig

I tried a few months ago after foolishly letting things lapse into full-price
The best they offered on chat and then the phone was the same price I could get from the website for new customers.

So, I moved to VM but decided to keep the BT email service as our email addresses are sort of normal-looking, I logged into MyBT to check everything was still on course for the disconnection and the email charging had been set up.
And in a big banner link was an "we'll miss you, please stay" type deal - half the price they quoted me twice.

To be honest that just reinforced my want to leave! 

JJ_Egan

Are you now paying for the BT Email service ??

Ozzig

JJ_Egan said:

Are you now paying for the BT Email service ??

Yes, I know it's a !!!!!! deal, but the whole family has decent addresses.

JJ_Egan

Now is the time to slowly start switching them to a free service as millions have done .

Ozzig

I know !!!   

But most don't have "normal" addresses available anymore and I don't want to be known as roy228899abc7@somthing and all four of us have decent addresses @bt

There's also something reassuring about a paid service. I have had a lot of free addresses over the years and some have just stopped with very little notice (I had a well know red northern football team address that just stopped) some change their storage policy and delete older emails. My trusty yahoo address must be about 20 years old now.