BT - Out of Contract?

Stompa

So why are BT sending me emails titled: 'Stompa, did you know you’re out of contract?', and saying

Hello Stompa,
It looks like you're out of contract. But don't worry, renewing is super easy. Plus, do it now and enjoy the exciting renewal deal that we've saved for you.

If I log in to my account it says: 'Your contract ends on 14 Mar 2025 with 112 days remaining'.

Has anybody else had this? It seems rather underhand.

Sarahspangles

I’ve recently had a letter ‘…, we want to keep you up to date’ which opens ‘We wanted to let you know that you’ve been paying the standard price since your most recent deal with us ended’. It goes on to list my ‘Current out of contract price’.

We are out of contract, have been for some time as we’re planning to move. I assume they’ve been told to let people know - it used to be the case you had to ring them to find out when your contract ended.

giraffe69

I queried this a while ago when they did the same to me. Their unconvincing explanation was that they sent offers a few months before the contract ended so that I wasn't rushing and failing to get the best deal. When I pointed out that I wasn't out of contract and wouldn't be for several months , so their email was at best misleading they wanted to talk about something else like the price of fish!

iniltous

Ofcom requires providers to contact customers as they get near to the end of a minimum term , so they don’t inadvertently move onto  the more expensive rate ( the out of contract rate ) without realising it , if you are complaining about that , it just shows you can’t make everyone happy all the time , the reason Ofcom made this notification compulsory was because people complained, obviously your complaint is the exact opposite of their complaint,

 if this communication is so far ahead of your actual end of minimum term date that you are not thinking of changing or recontracting , just ignore it , 3 months does seem excessive but it’s just a notice, what’s more , if you called because , because you didn’t realise it’s 3 months away ( obviously if your intention wasn’t to renew you wouldn’t have called )  , and they offered something acceptable, your new minimum term is for another 12/24 months , not 15 or 27 months .

Stompa

iniltous said:

Ofcom requires providers to contact customers as they get near to the end of a minimum term , so they don’t inadvertently move onto  the more expensive rate ( the out of contract rate ) without realising it , if you are complaining about that , it just shows you can’t make everyone happy all the time , the reason Ofcom made this notification compulsory was because people complained, obviously your complaint is the exact opposite of their complaint,

I'm in full agreement with Ofcom that providers should contact customers when they get near to the end of a minimum term. So why didn't the email say that? What it actually said was that my contract had already ended, and provided a link encouraging me to renew now. I realise I can simply ignore it, but there may be other customers, who are unaware of when their contract ends, that won't.

badmemory

Are you sure you are not in their catch 22 contract.  They fix it so that your phone contract and internet contracts never end at the same time.  So if you want to move away at least one contract needs buying out.

Stompa

badmemory said:

Are you sure you are not in their catch 22 contract.  They fix it so that your phone contract and internet contracts never end at the same time.  So if you want to move away at least one contract needs buying out.

Fortunately, they're both in sync.