Will BT help an elderly person change their inappropriate contract they can't afford

Weave

@southsidergs Did you read the bit where we told BT we don’t need most of the services and their response was to try to get my friend to enter into a new contract for the unwanted services for a further 24 months?

If I had not been with my friend he would have most likely done that thinking he was better off. 

Is that fair treatment bearing in mind we told the BT operator my friend is on state pension and struggling and the services are unwanted? We asked for them to help.

I personally feel they acted unfairly trying to continue the problem for longer and should apologise as a minimum and compensate as a good will gesture.

Perhaps I’m wrong and BT are entitled to maximise all sales opportunities regardless of what the costumer has told them they need and want to be the outcome.

Weave

The operator did not tell him he was out of contract on the SIM and TV. They wanted him to do a new contract for those services  when they could be cancelled. We only found out they were out of contract when we rang and spoke to another BT employee in the Values Team.

I think that was misleading at the very least.

Neil_Jones

Weave said:

The operator did not tell him he was out of contract on the SIM and TV. They wanted him to do a new contract for those services  when they could be cancelled. We only found out they were out of contract when we rang and spoke to another BT employee in the Values Team.

I think that was misleading at the very least.

It is the onus of the customer to decide they want to cancel the offerings at the end of the contract/discount deal.  Not for the provider to cancel them or check they are still wanted.  They fall into a rolling contract.  You have to say you want to cancel them.  It doesn't sound like you did, in fact you even were going to go along with the offer of £22 off and the only thing that started the beef was was that it required a new contract.  if you'd got £22 off with no new contract would you have gone with it?  The whole point of being in a fixed contract is to get the lower price and you intend to see it out (hence early exit fees if you don't).

It would be unfair treatment if the contract finished on May 1 and they were cut off on May 1 come what may.  But continuity of service is the default position.  Half the country would have been cut off by now if their connections were terminated the day their introductory deals finished.

MalMonroe

Hi, BT does have a 'vulnerability policy' - and it's not just about being elderly - I'm elderly and can manage my own bills and contracts and finances. Some younger folk are also vulnerable. 

I am a BT customer and haven't used any of their vulnerable customer services but there's some information in the following link 

https://www.bt.com/about/digital-impact-and-sustainability/our-approach/our-policies-and-report/bt-vulnerability-policy#:~:text=If you're in a,you contact us next time.

and there's a special telephone number here - 0800 919 591

In my experience I have to say that BT bills are not the easiest to follow - and I've been with them a long time. But if you could possibly face phoning them again (do not use 'chat', it's worse than useless) you could possibly get something better sorted for your neighbour. If he's been coerced into buying a deal that isn't suitable for him then BT should change it. I currently pay £56 per month for broadband, landline and TV, including NOW and Netflix. Don't forget that there is a cooling off period, so whatever may have recently been agreed can be renegotiated. 

I think your friend has had such a lot to cope with recently, though, especially as his wife passed away. You are such a good friend trying to help him, I'm so sorry that you didn't get what you wanted for him. I can understand that both of you are fed up and don't want more hassle. Obviously if your friend's pension credit application is granted then things will be a lot better. 

I'm so sorry you and your friend had such an awful experience. 

macman

What you haven't told us is the most critical point here: of the remaining services that you haven't now cancelled, when does the minimum term expire? Make a note of those dates and help him to cancel as soon as the minimum term ends. 
You fail to understand that none of these packages ever go 'out of contract': they simply go out of minimum term.
BT are not a charity. The agent's job is to maximise revenue, and your friend seemed happy enough with the monthly bill he had been paying until you intervened.

Weave

Many thanks to those of you offering useful advice, much appreciated, including those that direct messaged help. It all hinges on the pension credit application otherwise I will push on via the ‘Vulnerability policy’ and see if BT get my point as I think not all posters here do.

If we get anywhere I will update for future readers.

Thank you.

longhill

If he as just lost his wife you should speak to the bereavement team as they are better at sorting this out

JSmithy45AD

Weave said:

Many thanks to those of you offering useful advice, much appreciated, including those that direct messaged help. It all hinges on the pension credit application otherwise I will push on via the ‘Vulnerability policy’ and see if BT get my point as I think not all posters here do.

If we get anywhere I will update for future readers.

Thank you.

I wouldn't wait on the pension credit decision myself but would use the vulnerability phone option now. As said above, use the phone, not the chat option. Chat usually gets you a foreign call centre who will only use a script with no leeway allowed. Their mandate is to upsell.

BT have a shockingly bad reputation for upselling and giving free trials that turn into 12/18/24 month contracts to people who simply don't need them.

Weave

UPDATE:
My friend has now received his pension credit award letter confirming he will get an extra £2 ish per week. Although this will not make much difference to him we had hoped it would open the door to social tariffs such as BT Essentials. A couple of days ago I rang BT and told them we wanted to change his expensive £108 to £115 ish a month services to the £15 per month BT Essentials. The first thing the BT agent said was 'let me check if there is something better we can do for you' and tried to get us onto a new 24 month contract for superfast with Netflix etc for £80 per month. He was telling me using a copper line to watch streamed TV (through the existing BT TV DVR) was unlikely to give a good picture which is not true.

I told the agent we are not interested and are happy with what BT Essentials included. The agent asked for my friends NI number and went away to check his eligibility. The agent came back and said 'Sorry, the DWP check says you do not meet the criteria, so why not sign up to the £80 per month deal I have offered you as you will be £28 per month better off.' 

At this point I have to admit I got very cross with the agent, he could not explain why a recipient of Pension Credit did not meet the criteria. It was a simple case of the computer says no even though I was staring at the award letter! The agent then tried to tell me that switching from the remaining 14 months at £108 to the newly offered £80 was a no brainer and why wouldn't we want to save money? I pointed out that 14 x £108 is £1512 and his new offering of 24 x £80 was £1920 but he was convinced we were better off under this new offering.

My friend does not like it when I get annoyed with these people and I don't want to make him feel like he is a vulnerable case. I had pinned all my hope on the Pension Credit working. I will try and get him to talk to the vulnerability people at BT but I don't know if he will want to or if they will actually show him some compassion.

bengal-stripe

Weave said:

UPDATE:
My friend has now received his pension credit award letter confirming he will get an extra £2 ish per week. Although this will not make much difference to him we had hoped it would open the door to social tariffs such as BT Essentials.  

Do check the award letter: are the £2.00 your friend got awarded Guarantee credit or Savings Credit? Only the guarantee element brings the advantages and benefits (health, rent, council tax etc). BT states clearly in their description of the social tariff that the guarantee element is required.

It is also possible that the very recent award has not been entered yet on the particular data bank required. So BT might have gotten not the latest information.