New BT line. BT seem to limit my options?

normanmark

infoleacher wrote: »

You haven't tackled the issue of BT's shockingly bad service and their uncompetitive pricing. Incidentally I got so hacked off with BT while trying to sort my mom's line out that I initiated a transfer to talk talk for my own phone line/broadband, so by having these silly rules & service they loses out. Incredibly the whole transfer was completed before we could get my mom's line switched on.

I'm not actually defending their service nor pricing. I'm merely fed up of other providers shouting the odd's that they're not on a level playing field & when the field is brought level they don't decide to invest in the network for it.

infoleacher wrote: »

Furthermore, BT have had it very very good for a very very long time, it has only been recently that we even had a choice for our provisions. I call it Karma, they are reaping the rewards for YEARS of taking it's customers for granted. They weren't complaining about competition when they had the Monopoly!

They're not complaining about it now, they've just brought in some new methods to stop other providers taking advantage. Surely now Talk Talk should be doing something about providing lines as opposed to falling back on the old 'monopoly' for it?

deklan99

Again you miss the point that BT has to provide a service to everyone who asks for it not just in profitable areas.
Talktalk on the other hand pay £2 (two pounds) + VAT for each active line they want to take over and another £30 to migrate to LLU of which £29 they get back as a connection fee. Looks better on the balance sheet which is how they can give away their product.
Even Tiscali can re-activate a disconnected Talktalk llu line or restart a disconnected BT line, Talktalk cant/wont because it costs money which they aren't prepared to spend.

infoleacher

deklan99 wrote: »

Again you miss the point that BT has to provide a service to everyone who asks for it not just in profitable areas.
Talktalk on the other hand pay £2 (two pounds) + VAT for each active line they want to take over and another £30 to migrate to LLU of which £29 they get back as a connection fee.
Even Tiscali can re-activate a disconnected Talktalk llu line, Talktalk cant/wont because it costs money which they aren't prepared to spend.

What the heck has that got to do with BT offering a shoddy service? I only left them because of the outrageous service I received with my mothers order (I was a signed & sold BT customer when all this started, but not anymore). She is also going to pay the BT cancellation fee, just to get the hell away from them. I think you'll find that BT's problems are closer to home, sure I can see the implication of having to supply a line only to see a competitor take it away from you. The big BUT is we are consumers, you can't blame us for taking advantage of a "loophole" to get a better deal and in my opinion a better service.

In fact you can't actually blame Talk Talk for doing this either, is it against the law? I don't think so. Business is tough, how else were the government going to throw open the competition for telephony & broadband services, if they didn't force BT's hand to allow 3rd parties to access to it's network. In fact most of that network was built up at the taxpayers expense, they weren't always a private company.. remember? The other companies have not benefited from years of monopoly and government subsidy to build their business. You will not change my mind that BT are getting what was comming to them.

Power to the consumer, brothers & sisters! :beer: (ok I'm trying to lighten the mood now)

normanmark

infoleacher wrote: »

What the heck has that got to do with BT offering a shoddy service? I only left them because of the outrageous service I received with my mothers order (I was a signed & sold BT customer when all this started, but not anymore). She is also going to pay the BT cancellation fee, just to get the hell away from them. I think you'll find that BT's problems are closer to home, sure I can see the implication of having to supply a line only to see a competitor take it away from you. The big BUT is we are consumers, you can't blame us for taking advantage of a "loophole" to get a better deal and in my opinion a better service.

You made the point about BT Bullying you into a cancellation fee. People merely stated why the fee existed. I don't think anyone has blamed you for wanting to take advantage of a loophole, but the loophole is well & truly shut now i think & thus anyone i see complaining of 'how dare they charge the fee' or they were 'bullied' into it, should question why its there & why its happened to them.

I'm pretty sure that if your employer found 'loopholes' to ensure that he only pays you for 1 months work as opposed to the 12 you've actually under obligation to be paid for then you'd feel frustrated too. But should the employer care as long he's getting a better deal?

infoleacher wrote: »

In fact you can't actually blame Talk Talk for doing this either, is it against the law? I don't think so.

I can blame them. Ultimately its the customer that has to brunt the cost at the end of it. It's very well known that Talk Talk tell customers to go to BT to get the line connected but fail to mention to them that they'll be under a 12 month contract for doing so. Therefore mis-leading the customer & ultimately costing the customer more just to get them on their service. That's good customer service?

infoleacher wrote: »

Business is tough, how else were the government going to throw open the competition for telephony & broadband services, if they didn't force BT's hand to allow 3rd parties to access to it's network. In fact most of that network was built up at the taxpayers expense, they weren't always a private company.. remember? The other companies have not benefited from years of monopoly and government subsidy to build their business. You will not change my mind that BT are getting what was comming to them.

They split up the company, i think BT has 'got' what they were 'coming' to them. The point your missing is that for a good couple of years now is that the network has been open to these competitors. The fact remains they don't want to invest in this network, leaving only BT & Virgin as the only providers who do that to the network. You then have the problems that Joe Public seems to think they have a monopoly still because they're the only provider that really has a universal service obligation to do this work. Its about time more pressure is put on these other providers to invest in the network.

sertav

Quentin wrote: »

BT currently do it for £29.99 subject to an 18 month contract.

Could you elaborate on this please?

Do you have a link to BT's website for reference?

infoleacher

normanmark wrote: »

but the loophole is well & truly shut now I think & thus anyone i see complaining of 'how dare they charge the fee' or they were 'bullied' into it, should question why its there & why its happened to them.

How exactly have they shut the loophole?

I join BT, (I have to pay a £125 connection) 12 months line rental with BT at £11.75 (£141 annually) + unlimited broadband with best deal £14.99 (tiscali £179.88 annually) = £445.88 and I'm only on the weekend included rate.

or

I switch to Talk Talk immediatley after connection. Use the uswitch 3 months at 1/2 price line rental offer. I pay BT connection and BT cancellation £70 (so £125.00 +£70.00 = £195) £30 Talk Talk connection followed by 3 months at £8.25 and 9 months at £16.50 (aprox £173.25) therefor £368.25 (a saving of £77.63) but I'm on the better evening AND weekend included package.

normanmark

infoleacher wrote: »

How exactly have they shut the loophole?

The loophole i was referring to was before BT introduced a cancellation charge.

Quentin

sertav wrote: »

Could you elaborate on this please?

Do you have a link to BT's website for reference?

Good idea - why bark (or search) yourself when someone else can do it for you!

All the info is here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=878915

Hope you save lots of money!

infoleacher

OK Thanks normanmark, I have to say that I have probably been guilty of shooting the messengers (or posters) in this thread so sorry for those of you who tried to help and be constructive.

I am still hopping mad at the shambles I experienced with getting my mothers line connected (it took weeks and hours on the phone) and to be honest I don't want to hear anything that put BT in a good light. But I guess that is just "my stuff".

I will remain a champion of transferring to Talk Talk because I am a consumer 1st if a service can be found cheaper somehow then I feel duty bound (providing it's within the confines of the law) to take advantage of it.

At no stage when ordering the phone provision for my mother, did ANY BT staff even breathe a word of the £29.99 connection (18 month contract) deal, so again why would I stay with a company like that? Frankly I think BT are as morally skewed as all the others.

normanmark

infoleacher wrote: »

I will remain a champion of transferring to Talk Talk because I am a consumer 1st if a service can be found cheaper somehow then I feel duty bound (providing it's within the confines of the law) to take advantage of it.

Thats fine, however from my years of experience as both an employee in the broadband industry & as a customer you get what you pay for. Expect first class service, then expect to dip into the pocket.

infoleacher wrote: »

At no stage when ordering the phone provision for my mother, did ANY BT staff even breathe a word of the £29.99 connection (18 month contract) deal, so again why would I stay with a company like that? Frankly I think BT are as morally skewed as all the others.

If you do the searching regarding that offer, its made clear most BT staff aren't actually aware of it. It exists purely for cable customers only however some staff are offering that deal to non-cable customers. However you don't ask, you don't get in this world. I'm not defending BT in any way, i'm just ensuring that people get a balanced view point of the industry as opposed to the usual blanket opinion of 'BT and its monopoly'.