Why is BT punishing me for being a loyal customer

Smashtheman

I've been a loyal BT Broadband and landline customer for over eight years, and my contract is now up for renewal. However, the deal I’m being offered is terrible, both on BT and the new EE packages.

BT won’t offer me any discounts unless I either remove my landline or get a new landline number—neither of which is an option for me. My elderly mother relies on the landline, and after so many years, changing the number would be a huge hassle. 

So now I’m stuck being forced to renew at a ‘discounted’ price that’s actually £40 more per month than what a new customer would pay. That’s incredibly unfair to long-term customers. Switching to an EE package isn't worth it either—I’d be overpaying for a lower-tier service, especially compared to their top package, which offers speeds of 1.7Gbps.

Has anyone else faced this issue? Any advice on how to get a better deal or challenge this pricing? It seems like BT is penalising loyalty instead of rewarding it. Do I just have to suck it up and pay it? 

iniltous

There is no reason why a BT renewal should be significantly more ££’s than what a new BT customer would be charged , perhaps you can post the actual prices  and the products you have , that way it can be compared to what a new customer could get .

There is no need to get a new number on renewal ( no idea where you get that from ) , I suspect you have FTTP available but you  are not prepared to convert to FTTP as part of the renewal, if that’s the case it seems perfectly reasonable not to offer you the ‘best’ deal , as a new customer in a FTTP area would have to take FTTP if it’s available.

As stated , quote your products (all of them)  , what you  previously paid , and your renewal price is , FWIW , there is no compulsion to renew just because you are outside a minimum term , but it  is generally more expensive than being within a minimum term.

There was a post on here , or a similar forum , someone making the same claim of unfairness as you , when they quoted the renewal price ( instead of simply saying it was poor ) it turned out it was pretty much the same as a new customer…..BT may not be as cheap as some ISPs  , but BT/EE are not fishing in that pond , they have Plusnet for those that want a ‘budget’ provider .

littleboo

You can always change providers if you don't like the price. 

Olinda99

I am paying BT about £31 a month for fibre 2 with VOIP landline ie the phone plugs into the router. This includes a free backup battery for the router in case the power goes down

If I understand your post it seems like they want more because you want to retain your old number - if you got a new number it would be cheaper. Do you know why ?

Mark_d

Are you loyal or just too lazy to change?  It can be a hassle if you need to give people new phone number/email address etc. but you can make clever decisions so that the next change can be your last.
Do you need a landline phone or is it more sensible to use a mobile eg. Lebara?
If you use email, you can buy your own domain name and then you're not tied to a specific registrar or email provider.

bill888

If your existing telephone handset plugs into the BT phone socket at the wall, are you aware Openreach will start shutting down the old telephone network from January 2027?  

For this reason, all ISPs offering telephone services have been moving their customers to VOIP (BT call it Digital Voice), where the telephone plugs into the wifi hub, instead of the wall.

The downside is if there is a power cut or the broadband does not work, you can't make or take any phone calls.

BT does offer a battery backup option for Digital Voice in the event there is a temporary power cut, for vulnerable customers, but I read it is only good for a few hours, but don't quote me.

I don't know why BT would insist you need a new number.  Could be a mistake by the BT agent you spoke to.

Rob5342

If you've been with them for a long time then they know that you will be less likely to move so they offer you a higher price, that's just common business sense. Just switch to whoever offers you the best price, you can normally keep your number and could get some money from Topcashback. I rarely stay with a provider once the contract ends. 

Pete99

Someone really needs to explain to everyone about the switch off of copper phone lines and how to obtain a VOIP account without tying yourself to BT and their sky high call costs, the answer is to set up a VOIP account with a VOIP provider, you can do this now before doing anything about switching broadband you'll get another number, but since you're not using the VOIP line yet it doesn't matter, get it up and running on your current broadband setup, then choose another broadband supplier and switch then port your old number to your VOIP account, there you are job done, allows you to easily switch broadband supplier in the future without the tie of your phone.

littleboo

I'm a fan of standalone VOIP services but it certainly isn't right for everyone. For a service like BT Digital Voice or similar, the service boundary is the analogue port on the home router. Anything north of that is BT's responsibility and there is one throat to choke. When you sign up with A&A, you have to accept for example, that "Things can break. A&A will try and fix things if they break, but that may take days" Fine for many uses, but not for an elderly and/or vulnerable relative who relies on the phone daily.

Pete99

A&A seem to mainly deal with business customers and they seem to be very professional in the way they deal with all customers, I’ve no doubt that if there ever was a problem it would be dealt with PDQ, in my experience having worked for BT, their response is, it'll get fixed when we get around to it, or when we can find some staff to fix it, as far as I know if you get BT Digital Voice, you're locked to it, making it very difficult if not impossible to transfer the phone number, ( I could be wrong, but I've already gone elsewhere so don't I don't know), complete with their sky high call prices and you've still got the same problem of your phone line if you want to switch to another supplier, the whole thing's a complete mess and most people don't want the hassle, especially the elderly or people with medical problems.