www.freeevenings.bt.com

BritBrat

BT seem to be going out of their way to make the many changes difficult to understand - seems like they are trying to get rid of customers.

I think they are trying to keep customers and trap them into a rolling yearly contract to do it.

allanmc

BritBrat wrote: »

I think they are trying to keep customers and trap them into a rolling yearly contract to do it.

YES, they are trying to get your business for at least 12 months. NO, they are not trying to "TRAP" you. They are trying to attract/keep you by offering you inclusive weekend and landline calls (up to 60 mins) for the normal price of your line rental. They are then hoping to make a bit of money from your non-included calls. There really is no such thing as a free lunch.

If you sign up for a rolling 12 month period you get inclusive evening and weekend calls for the price of your line rental. At the end of the 12 months they will contact you and if you don't like it you can downgrade, leave or do nothing and get another 12 months on the same deal. The bottom line is that these calls are included for the normal price of your line rental, which can be as low as £10.50 per month. Astute use of 18185 (or similar) for the calls that aren't included then keeps those costs right down and there is nothing else to pay BT, above your normal line rental.

With a balanced head on, what's so bad about that? As long as you go into this with your eyes open it is a very fair deal. You give BT your evening and weekend landline calls for a year, BT don't charge you for them; all you pay is your normal line rental!!

If you don't fancy the rolling contract, pay an extra £2.70 per month for BT Option 2 without it, or if you can be bothered sorting it out, go for the slightly more complicated BT Option 1 /Primus combination for exactly the same yearly cost as the Option 2 rolling contract. (Please note, at the very least, Option 1/Primus users will have to make inclusive weekend landline calls using the 1280 prefix to qualify for the free Caller Display via BT Privacy.)

Whatever you do, let's not be too negative about BT trying to improve their customer offers. It's not brilliant, but it's getting better and will be a very competitive, uncomplicated, home phone solution for an awful lot of people. Not everyone can be bothered involving at least 3 companies to use their phone, especially if the savings over BT Option 2, rolling contract, are a matter of pennies.

Set it up for year and get on with your life. See how you get on and make any changes required in 12 months. I would suggest, most people would be perfectly happy and would struggle to beat it without quite a bit more effort.

BritBrat

If you don't fancy the rolling contract, pay an extra £2.70 per month for BT Option 2 without it, or if you can be bothered sorting it out, go for the slightly more complicated BT Option 1 /Primus combination for exactly the same yearly cost as the Option 2 rolling contract. (Please note, at the very least, Option 1/Primus users will have to make inclusive weekend landline calls using the 1280 prefix to qualify for the free Caller Display via BT Privacy.)

I am already on that.

Do you work for BT?

Whatever you do, let's not be too negative about BT trying to improve their customer offers. It's not brilliant, but it's getting better and will be a very competitive, uncomplicated, home phone solution for an awful lot of people. Not everyone can be bothered involving at least 3 companies to use their phone, especially if the savings over BT Option 2, rolling contract, are a matter of pennies.

Interesting thought, BT thinking about customers.

allanmc

BritBrat wrote: »

I am already on that.

Do you work for BT?



Interesting thought, BT thinking about customers.

No I don't work for BT; neither do I work for 18185, nor Primus. I also do not have an axe to grind for BT, as some of us seem to. No names, no pack drill.

Let’s be honest here; of course BT think about their customers, even the grumpy ones like you, as every business has to. I doubt they would go to the bother of changing their offerings if they didn't think it would keep/attract customers.

I'm just trying be a bit more balanced about what is really on offer here so that people can make properly informed decisions.

Let's base these discussions around the actual facts and detach ourselves from our prejudices. Using words like "trap" and stating that BT will only give you 1 day to change your mind at the end of your contract, is really not helping to inform anyone. I think we all clearly understand that you are not for this idea and that is absolutely fine.

If you are going to carry on twisting things and making false statements, it would be better for all concerned if you stopped contributing on this, or any other, subject.

BritBrat

So what day can you cancel without breaking the contract?

Please let me know, as I think it is 364 days after you sign up not the day before or the day after.

And I would feel traped if I signed up to a rolling yearly contract.

And if BT had been thinking about customers last May, they would have not decided to charge the ones who paid on time for not using direct debit.

Not that they have collected mine by direct debit, all that happened was I saved £1.50 a month and carried on paying the same was I was before.

Then I took nearly all my calls away so now they get 2 - 3 a month, and my bill is now £11 - £12 a month and before it was £50 - £70. So I guess you can say they did the right thing for me, saved me loads.

Easy to lose a good customer, a lot harder to get them back.

At the time I wrote to BT to complain about the charge G lewis never even bothered to reply so I contacted Ben BT CEO directly, who told me it was a corporate decision, I told him I would make a customer decision and take all my calls away from BT and that is what I did.

allanmc

BritBrat wrote: »

So what day can you cancel without breaking the contract?

Please let me know, as I think it is 364 days after you sign up not the day before or the day after.

And I would feel traped if I signed up to a rolling yearly contract.

There you go again......

twisting a situation that you really don't know what the relevant facts are.

You may think that BT will only give you 1 day to sort things out at the end of a contract that you may want to change or get out of. Most grown ups will appreciate that this will clearly not be the case.

BritBrat

twisting a situation that you really don't know what the relevant facts are.

Do you?

That is the point we don't know how it is going to work and you may be traped.

daveboy

'No reliance should be placed on the above' (signature of allanmc)

Don't worry, no-one is relying on your sales patter for BT.

BT - 70 minutes on hold to answer a call to set up a direct debit, in the end had to hang up as I couldn't wait any longer.

Pay bill online because I couldn't set up the direct debit, get charged £4.50 for doing so. I write a letter asking for it to be refunded - it takes them nearly a month to ring me up about it.

BT has the worst customer service of any UK company. I only pay them line rental because the old NTL (now Virgin Media) were just as incompetent when I've been with them in the past.

BritBrat

Pay bill online because I couldn't set up the direct debit, get charged £4.50 for doing so

I pay online using Online banking, they dont charge me as I ticked the direct debit box.

daveboy

I forgot to mention that when trying to set up a direct debit online it would not allow me to do so, despite many attempts to.

I am the sort of person who knows what to do, it was the website not accepting the correct details for a reason that remains unknown.