Help with BT contact required .

mikey888 · 2 October 2019 at 6:23PM

I have recently been shocked to find that for at least the last 2 years my elderly parents are paying a whopping £60.99 per month for BT Superfast Fibre 2 broadband with phone .
The plan includes free weekend calls but does NOT include answer phone 1571 , which is £3.50 extra .

I have just conducted a broadband speed test ( admittedly at 5pm ) which indicates download speeds of 35mb and upload 13mb in London.

Unfortunately, we have lost the hard copy of the last contract which my 80 year old father signed , which he believes was about 5 years ago and so far ( after 2 phone conversations a week ago ) BT have not sent me an email copy of latest contract dates with terms and conditions , as promised .

BT have now offered us a new deal with ultrafast broadband and phone totalling around £48 per month . However , I don't think that we are heavy broadband users . ( 1 tablet , 3 mobile phones, sky tv, 2 smart tv's ) . Also , I have read that switching to another provider once ultrafast is installed is difficult , though I am not entirely sure if this is correct .

I do realise that there are probably much better deals available, but my father is not keen on leaving BT as he has been with them for 50 years now . And he is just not keen on switching .

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Neil_Jones · 2 October 2019 at 7:12PM

So don't agree to Ultrafast then. Just ask for regular fibre.

After five years its probably safe to assume your parents are well out of contract by now, so a price tag of £61 which would be internet, calls and probably line rental on a legacy package wouldn't be that surprising.

If your father is sound of mind and wants to stay with BT, ultimately that's up to him. Get the best deal you can with the parameters you have.

Tharweb · 2 October 2019 at 7:30PM

Those speeds are not good for the product you are paying for. I would try at a quieter time, although you shouldn't see contention with BT.

It is not difficult at all to switch fast fibre providers. They have recently made it even easier. You just sign up with your new provider and they sort the switch out, you don't have to contact your existing provider.

I switched from BT to Plusnet, they are exactly the same, but Plusnet charge a lot less. You can even use the BT router with Plusnet.

I was with Plusnet for 7 years, the service was faultless. I only switched as they wouldn't match some of the new deals around at the moment. I am now, since last Monday, with Vodafone who are offering Superfast 2 very cheaply at the moment.

Check out the deals here https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/#search

Superscrooge · 2 October 2019 at 7:57PM

I also have superfast broadband and swapped from BT to Plusnet. Same broadband speed. But half the cost of BT.

No problems switching provider

mnbvcxz · 2 October 2019 at 8:57PM

Suggest to your parents that plus.net is owned by BT (as is EE actually). Reassures most people.

To be honest moving outside the BT family can sometimes involve working for your money. But cycling within their family of brands and claiming cashback is pretty safe.

To properly assess your connection you should look at the router settings to see what its synch speed is. Or go to the bt dsl checker and see what they detect your recent connection speeds as.
https://www.dslchecker.bt.com
This will give you an idea if the faster package is worth it or if a cheaper 36mb package is fine.

I'm afraid I don't know the difference between ultrafast the superfast and so on to comment.

If I were you I would call BT and ask if you need a mac code as you are want to move to Vodafone and pay just £30 a month with included anytime calls to mobiles and landlines. See if this prompts them to make a better offer.

But don't go to Vodafone they are terrible.

If Bt don't budge switch to Plus.net if you are in a low cost area. Watch out all the comparison sites have different prices so you have to look around to find the best one. But 36mb for £31.50 including £8 for anytime mobile calls and then a £70 reward card is typical.

Once you start to move BT often try to think of a way to contact you and offer a last ditch better offer, up to you. They can be competitive when they try but they don't really offer an unlimited mobile calls package which is a drawback compared to the competition.

Obviously if your parents don't use their landline for calls you may not want that option, but if they do its very nice just to be able to call anytime for free. The BT owned isps also support 18185 prefix dialing if you need cheap foreign calls.

You can use a BT home hub with plus.net but not EE.

Best of luck

jbuchanangb · 4 October 2019 at 9:06PM

I think you should respect your father’s desire to stick with BT. Work out the best 40Mbps fibre deal. When I was helping my elderly father, I would call the relevant company, then he would talk to them to pass security, and tell them he now authorised me to talk to them and arrange things.

For a longer term arrangement they should have a way for him to submit a permanent authorisation for you to act on his behalf.

borkid · 4 October 2019 at 10:10PM

This is the loyalty renewal number for BT 0800 028 3098 Try them thye were very helpful recently for me and they can give you contract details.

hareng · 5 October 2019 at 8:08PM

Just compared Plusnet to BT and it is not worthwhile for the sake of a quid, if that.
2 years you pay £27.99 a month
Includes BT line rental
24 month contract, then £37.99 a month

Plusnet

Unlimited Fibre Extra Broadband £18.00 (£18.00 a month for 12 months, then £20.99 thereafter)
Line rental £18.99
Monthly payment:£36.99 rising £3 after 2 years.

Out of contract i only pay £45 with FTTC2 and mobile SIM, was £61 with BT TV HD etc now cancelled.

mnbvcxz · 6 October 2019 at 4:11PM

hareng wrote: »

Just compared Plusnet to BT and it is not worthwhile for the sake of a quid, if that.
2 years you pay £27.99 a month
Includes BT line rental
24 month contract, then £37.99 a month

Plusnet
Unlimited Fibre Extra Broadband £18.00 (£18.00 a month for 12 months, then £20.99 thereafter)

Line rental £18.99

Monthly payment:£36.99 rising £3 after 2 years.

Out of contract i only pay £45 with FTTC2 and mobile SIM, was £61 with BT TV HD etc now cancelled.

Though if you took the more usual 18 month plus.net package then its £9 for eighteen months plus £18.99 a month line rental. Pay the first year line rental in advance and you save £30. Get a £70 reward card as well.

Add it all together you could be paying the equivalent average of £22.50 a month over 18 months. Possibly another £30 off if you go via a cashback site to a comparison site like broadband choices.

They discount the main packages heavily. The non standard packages are indeed much more expensive.

But if you have a good package with BT then fair enough. There is no reason to join plus.net really except for price.

mikey888 · 15 October 2019 at 5:52PM

This is a follow up to my original post made on 2nd October..
Since my original post of 2 weeks previous I have been trying without success for BT to send me ( either by email or hard copy ) the terms and conditions ( including relevant dates ) of both our current and previous contracts . I think this is something I am entitled to by law ?

My dad who is 80 years old and suffered from a stroke earlier this year vaguely remembers signing something with BT about 5 years but unfortunately as yet I have not been able to locate a hard copy of a BT contract amongst his various files .
He has now authorised me to deal with BT on his behalf but I have so far made 4 phone calls trying to obtain a copy of contract without result . The first 3 times the BT reps were quite plesent although I was put on hold for about 10-15 minutes each time . They stated that the contact would be emailed to my dad's BT email address but nothing has transpired . Also checked junk mail folder .

The last time was a complete disaster. I was transferred to what I think they said was BTs "Value Department " in Glasgow after having been put on hold for about 30 minutes I was curtly informed by somebody with a VERY thick glaswegion accent that I did not have the authority to use my dad's account . ( This after already speaking to BT verbally on by dad's behalf 3 time previously in the last 2 weeks ) . So I handed the phone to my dad and he gave his account number and log in details correctly, yet this particular BT rep was not going to budge .All he was now willing to do was send me an email with a link to BTs privacy policy !!!.

My question today being ; is there a good BT email address that I could ask for the Contract details in writing ? I could not find anything on their website .
I am now really suspicious of BT and feel that they might have something to hide with regards to the Contract . But they might simply be being stroppy with me as they may have sniffed that I am about to switch providers, although I have not told them so directly .

Thanks for any help that you may provide .

[Deleted User] · 15 October 2019 at 7:16PM

This is your original thread:-

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=76339975#post76339975

Neither there or here have you stated what exactly you're trying to do or what you would like to happen?

If your father is out of minimum term he can leave anytime.

Help with BT contact required .

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