BT Renewal - Advice for others (maybe helpful for some)

Utterlyconfused81

Our 24 month contract was due to expire soon, we received an email notification as such of the price we are paying, would be paying for rolling contract and offers to stay.  None were appealing nor competitive so were instantly dismissed.

Upon doing some research there were many better deals to be had with other suppliers as is often the case.  Many are new with limited history so that was a slight concern, reading very mixed reviews on most, but the same can be said for the main providers, BT, Sky etc.  There will always be those unfortunate to suffer issues with anyone.

Here's where things get interesting.  So email advising end of contract offered (we're on Full Fibre 500) to move to rolling for £55.59.  We could renew for £50.59. which is exactly what we were paying (though discovered we were over paying as it should have been lower as 24 months ago we moved mid contract and were offered a lower fixed price that was never applied, BT have since apologised and credited the account to make amends). 

Given that faster speeds are available in the area I contacted them online to check if this could be bettered and low and behold it could.  Firstly offered £44.99 for the 1st 12 months with a price increase £47.99 next Mar of £3.  

The following evening I was offered the same package again for £36.99 for the 1st 12 months rising by to £39.99 for the next 12.

We ultimately decided BT, despite the flawless service during the 24 months, ignoring the over charging that they rectified, were taking the mickey a little and placed an order with PlusNet.  Given they utilise the same network, and essentially the same company, and were offered the 900mb package for £37.99 it was a no brainer, even more so given it could be lowered with a cashback site to work out as little as £34.90 per month over the 24 months.

Within seconds of placing the order BT sent an email offering to renew the service we were on for £28.99.  Upon calling them last night I managed to get an offer for Full Fibre 900 for £35.99 for the 1st 12 months, then £38.99 for the next 12 months.

I told them I'd think about it.  Tonight after a little haggling and being able to quote other prices, which included 2 visits this afternoon from 2 people from Hey!Broadband (which I found a little odd), I was able to renegotiate this to £32.99 for 12 months, then £35.99 for the remaining 12 months.

The overall is please do haggle, please be prepared to leave, but also please check other prices and have them at hand.  It does appear they will not price match all companies, but they will price match and better PlusNet.  The same should apply to most service providers if you can find their direct competitors. 

Was seriously tempted to try Hey!broadband, but found their reviews far too mixed, being, great to regular issues / outages.  Customer support poor and Engineers not working weekends.  As a company relatively new to the market, this may improve over time and may be an option when next renewing, but for now, felt a better the devil you know vibe, especially when paying less for the next 24 months than I have for the last 24 months. 

Hope the above may be helpful for others in a similar position, least with BT.  Shame that it has to get to the stage of cancelling to be offered better deals, and have to advise, better to call the cancellations / retention teams, far better than the online chat.  Lovely lad from Ireland I spoke to tonight in the Glasgow team, poor guy was made to work for it, but bless him for being polite throughout. 

brewerdave

Absolutely crackers that BT undercut their own "budget" brand, Plusnet !!