MSE News: How to beat BT's broadband, home phone and TV price hikes

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  • vikki2k1
    vikki2k1 Posts: 490 Forumite
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    I called them this morning and they confirmed that I will be switched over and no fees! Very happy now
  • harz99
    harz99 Posts: 3,642 Forumite
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    I'm moving house in a month and was resigned to having to pay BT's charge for transferring my contract to the new house (new build) which doesn't yet have a line.


    When I saw this latest increase I hoped to be able to get away from BT completely penalty free and start afresh with another provider at the new property.


    My current BT broadband and phone contract was taken out 3 months ago. After conversations with an unhelpful Scotsman and a callback later from his manager, they are still adamant that I have to pay £30 disconnection charge despite me quoting both the email from them and the Ofcom ruling. They maintain disconnection charges are not included in the ruling.


    Seems that's it, pay the £30 and change or stay with BT and pay to move. I should add I don't want to swap providers on my current service as that is risky so near the move and would almost certainly incur move costs from the new provider as well.


    Thoroughly T'd off!
  • emh_2
    emh_2 Posts: 137 Forumite
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    I rang BT and they let me go without a single charge at 12 months into an 18 month contract (though I will be happier if I see something in writing). A little too easy considering literally the day before I received the email of price changes I called them to see how much it would cost to leave early, they quoted me around £150. Thank you MSE!!


    They did try to scaremonger me into not leaving by reminding me how much football I will not see now as Sky have lost a lot to BT sport. Ha, I can't stand football, its the hubby who watches it
  • harz99
    harz99 Posts: 3,642 Forumite
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    Well I sent an email complaint to Libby Barr this morning, no response so far though, waiting impatiently.................
  • harz99
    harz99 Posts: 3,642 Forumite
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    clothtabs wrote: »
    If you have a complaint about BT's customer service I suggest that you email [EMAIL="libby.barr@bt.com"]libby.barr@bt.com[/EMAIL]
    In my experience she won't reply directly but within a short time you should receive a response from one of her underlings.
    Emailing the senior management irritates BT no end but I've found that it's much more effective than any of the BT forums or sitting on the end of a phone for ages trying to contact someone who either understands or cares.



    Tried that at 0900 this morning no response yet - what do you call a short time?
  • Tyler_Du
    Tyler_Du Posts: 712 Forumite
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    Are people calling bt and cancelling before ordering from a new supplier ? Once you called BT and cancelled how long does it take to actual cancelled the service ?
  • clothtabs
    clothtabs Posts: 7 Forumite
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    In reply to harz99.

    I left BT last November when they announced an increase in their line rental charges. I sent an email to Libby Barr because the announcement went out under her name, but I'm not sure if she is still chief executive for domestic sales and customer service. Within a few hours I received a phone call from one of her executive team. I asked him to email me rather than reply verbally by phone because I wanted a paper record of what had been said. He said that wasn't necessary because BT keep recordings of telephone calls. I said that as i didn't have access to their recordings I insiisted they email me, which they did. BT tried to charge me for the bthub5 router which I'd had for 6 months and also to return the Youview box. But as I was out of contract I pointed out that I already owned them and wasn't going to return them. The only thing I lost out on was the Line Rental in Advance. I'd paid for 12 months and still had 6 months left. I offered to pay for the 6 months that I'd used as the full rate, as if I'd never bought the 12 month deal, but they wouldn't budge.
    The end result was that I switched to Plusnet -- owned by BT but considerably cheaper and with much better customer services and UK call centres -- and I'm happy with them. My Youview box works fine with Plusnet. The only thing it doesn't have is the BT TV app but I never subscribed to it anyway. When my 18 months contract with Plusnet comes to an end I'll probably look around and threaten to leave if they don't offer me a good deal. But it's very unlikely that I'll ever return to BT whilst they treat their existing customers so poorly.
  • harz99
    harz99 Posts: 3,642 Forumite
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    clothtabs wrote: »
    In reply to harz99.

    I left BT last November when they announced an increase in their line rental charges. I sent an email to Libby Barr because the announcement went out under her name, but I'm not sure if she is still chief executive for domestic sales and customer service.


    Thanks for the response, however in view of what you say above it would have been better not to have posted a link to a specific person, because as you say that person may not still be in the job or even work for BT some 9 months later.


    Anyhow, as PlusNet's cashback deal (pays for the installation cost) was expiring yesterday, it was decision time so we signed up with them. Even factoring in the £30 it looks as though we will have to pay to BT, we are still paying £10 a month less and getting a better package which gives us anytime and international calls, rather than just UK weekend and international anytime for less cash.


    For those doing future posts on here about there experiences in trying to leave due to these latest price rises, it would be very interesting to hear if you are dealing with BTs Scottish based call centre or one of the English based ones.


    I have a suspicion that may be why there have been different outcomes, with the Scottish centre being obstructive and giving out poor information! That was certainly my experience and one of at least one other poster on this thread.
  • stroke
    stroke Posts: 30 Forumite
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    I still haven't received an email or letter from BT confirming the price rises, although when I spoke to BT last week regarding the BT Sport price rise they confirmed it was coming.

    Anyone else not got it ?
  • JJ_Egan
    JJ_Egan Posts: 20,281 Forumite
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    The BT Sports about three months ago .
    As per the BT Sport thread .The line rental etc about two weeks ago .
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