BT charging an extra 14.4% per month INCLUDING on what's already been paid (line rental saver)

What_time_is_it

I'm with BT in a 12 month contract. The contract is £27.99 a month. 
In January I paid the up front "line rental saver" for the full 12 months. This was £220. You get 12 months for the price of 11, so this is effectively £19.99 x 11 months.
I now pay £8 a month.

BT are increasing my monthly bill by 14.4% on ALL of the £27.99. So instead of £8 a month I will now pay £12.03 a month.
So they are increasing the cost of something I have already paid for. And they are increasing the cost on the "free" month too.

Is there anything I can do?
I've phoned them and been told that there is nothing I can do apart from leave my "feedback". They can shove their pointless feedback.
Any advice?

MSE_Chris

What_time_is_it said:

I'm with BT in a 12 month contract. The contract is £27.99 a month. 
In January I paid the up front "line rental saver" for the full 12 months. This was £220. You get 12 months for the price of 11, so this is effectively £19.99 x 11 months.
I now pay £8 a month.

BT are increasing my monthly bill by 14.4% on ALL of the £27.99. So instead of £8 a month I will now pay £12.03 a month.
So they are increasing the cost of something I have already paid for. And they are increasing the cost on the "free" month too.

Is there anything I can do?
I've phoned them and been told that there is nothing I can do apart from leave my "feedback". They can shove their pointless feedback.
Any advice?

Hi there,

Thanks for flagging this.

Just so I understand your current bill, do you just have line rental saver AND one of the following packages added on top (that you're paying £8/mth for)?

Pay as You Go 

Unlimited Minutes 

500 Minutes 

700 Minutes 

Unlimited Anytime Calls 

Unlimited Evening and Weekend Calls

Unlimited Anytime Plan Plus 

Unlimited Anytime Plan

Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan

and because 14.4% on top of £8 is around £1/mth, what you're saying is BT is adding 14.4% on top of Line Rental Saver + the call package which results in a bigger increase?

Thanks,
MSE Chris

What_time_is_it

That's correct Chris.

I pay £8 a month for PAYG on top of the £19.99 line rental. This was £27.99 a month when I signed up in January, and I paid up front for 12 months of line rental.
They are increasing my price on the full £27.99 a month (£4 a month) rather than on just the £8 a month I actually pay.

So my monthly bill has gone from £8 to £12.03. A 50% increase!

southsidergs

I think I go against the grain here BUT you're asking for a higher discount off your bill without paying more up front in essence & they really need to change the name of this from line rental saver.

in your case you pay 27.99 per month you then pay an optional amount up front to get 19.99 taken off that, the increase is applied to the full 27.99 before any discounts/up front stuff is removed so you still get the same 19.99 per month taken off ie what you paid for.

Really think they need to rethink the name on this as it causes people to think BT should be giving them money for nothing, as per their own website foe example line rental is 23.05 anyway not 19.99 anymore so line rental saver isn't really a relevant term anymore

What_time_is_it

southsidergs said:

I think I go against the grain here BUT you're asking for a higher discount off your bill without paying more up front in essence & they really need to change the name of this from line rental saver.

in your case you pay 27.99 per month you then pay an optional amount up front to get 19.99 taken off that, the increase is applied to the full 27.99 before any discounts/up front stuff is removed so you still get the same 19.99 per month taken off ie what you paid for.
Really think they need to rethink the name on this as it causes people to think BT should be giving them money for nothing

I paid up front for 1 year of line rental. The cost of this was £19.99 a month.
The price has now gone up. Why should I pay extra for something I've already paid for?

I'm not asking for money for nothing. I'm asking them to not charge me a price increase for something I've already bought.

southsidergs

As per their own website though line rental is 23.05 & for year bb & line rental has been one bundled package not a separate charge, it ceased to be 19.99 a few price increases ago yet they insist on continuing with this & causing issues like this

What_time_is_it

southsidergs said:

As per their own website though line rental is 23.05 & for year bb & line rental has been one bundled package not a separate charge, it ceased to be 19.99 a few price increases ago yet they insist on continuing with this & causing issues like this

Then I have been mis-sold.
I paid up front for the line rental for 12 months. Charging me extra for this now is taking the p*ss.
Ridiculous pricing structure that is deliberately misleading. 
Like the local mafia knocking on your door with a can of petrol and a box of matches and telling you that the fire insurance policy is going up.

MSE_Chris

What_time_is_it said:

That's correct Chris.

I pay £8 a month for PAYG on top of the £19.99 line rental. This was £27.99 a month when I signed up in January, and I paid up front for 12 months of line rental.
They are increasing my price on the full £27.99 a month (£4 a month) rather than on just the £8 a month I actually pay.

So my monthly bill has gone from £8 to £12.03. A 50% increase!

Interesting, so I'm assuming the £219.84 (Line rental saver) has already been debited from your account?


BT don't mention Line Rental Saver specifically on its 'price rise' page under the 'BT Landline' section, it just says "Line rental" is subject to CPI. Home Phone Saver is a slightly different service. 

I'd like to check this with BT, but without your account information at first. But if it does need this to answer our query, would you be willing to share this direct to me, not on this forum? I'll be in touch with an update shortly.

Thanks,
MSE Chris

What_time_is_it

Thank you Chris.

Yes, I have paid £219.84 in advance. This was paid in January to cover the 12 months of 2023. And, yes, this is called "Line Rental Saver".

Very interesting to see that in the screenshot you posted above BT do indeed use the phrase "pay in advance". That was my exact argument when I contacted them. I have paid in advance.

I pay £8 a month currently, so I would have thought my price increase would be £1.15 a month, taking my new monthly payment to £9.15 a month.

BT are proposing a £4.03 increase (based on 14.4% on £27.99 a month - which I have never actually paid, because I paid in advance for the "Line Rental Saver").

Thank you for checking this with BT. I called them this morning but didn't get anywhere beyond "there's nothing you can do". I feel that I have been mis-sold and that their offer was misleading.

Please do get in touch if you need anything from me to pursue this further.

JGB1955

I have Line Rental Saver, with my Broadband package separately.  Paid £219.84 back in November, currently pay £14.25 monthly for Fibre 1 on a 2 year contract.  I have no idea (yet) what I'll be paying from next month.... but I certainly hope any increase isn't applied to the LRS I've already paid.

What_time_is_it

JGB1955 said:

I have Line Rental Saver, with my Broadband package separately.  Paid £219.84 back in November, currently pay £14.25 monthly for Fibre 1 on a 2 year contract.  I have no idea (yet) what I'll be paying from next month.... but I certainly hope any increase isn't applied to the LRS I've already paid.

If you have the same experience as me, then you will be charged an extra £2.88 a month on your "line rental" (whatever that means), including on the "free" month. This will be on top of the extra £2.05 they will charge you for the Fibre 1. So an increase of £4.93 a month.

I hope I am wrong, but this seems to be what they are trying to do.