Better offers from BT after starting process of moving to new provider?

Edithgrand wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]I have managed to get some great deals from BT over the years’ am currently paying £21.99 for unlimited 80 Meg Fibre, phone line, weekend calls and even managed to get BT Sport included.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]There was one tim e, a few years back and my contract was about to come to an end and I couln't get a decent deal so I said fair enough I will be moving to PlusNet. I had to call BT 2 days later to check that the switch and gone through.
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[FONT=&quot]The advisor asked why I was leaving. I explained Plusnet were cheaper, he told me they would beat Plusnet price and told me to contact Plusnet to cancel the switch.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I was allowed to cancel and got a great deal then and every price rise since,I have it down managed to get a price reduction.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Don't think I'll manage to get it for less than £21.99 though. At least I would have to do any haggling until March next year.[/FONT]

Wow!! :eek: :T That beats the £24.99 I heard someone get. Still haven't phoned them; will try today. But if I have to change over I'll try the Sky deal first. I'm guessing they'll be the least likely to **mess** up a reversal/cancellation (out of Sky, Plusnet, Vodafone and TalkTalk) if BT offer a comparably good deal.
Thanks for confirming though that good offers come once the switchover has been set in motion!

(I switch gas and electricity every year as a matter of course (and a matter of affordability). I need to get over the notion that a switch of internet provider means automatic hassle and problems with the service ...)

Update ... and to make it a bit clearer:

I've been with BT for seven or eight years. I've got Superfast Fibre Broadband 2 (ca. 64 down/19 up). No call packages. It had been £37.99 on an 18-month offer which I took on via BT's website (without having to talk to anybody). As my bill had had gone up to £53.99 in October 2017, this £37.99 seemed like a bargain at the time!

My 18-month contract is coming to an end and I'd been looking around for cheaper. It was going to go up to the standard £58.99, but after phoning them several times before starting the switchover, the best BT would offer was the same £37.99.

On Saturday 13 April 2019 I signed up online with Sky for Fibre Max (63Mbps average download). Went via TopCashback which offered £95 cashback. £22.28 effective monthly cost.

Today (Mon 15 April 2019) I phoned BT on 0800 800 150, to "check the transfer was going through", and to see if they'd offer anything. This first agent was based in Newcastle. After a bit of back and forth, she offered £29.99 through her manager. Said I could go away and decide and phone her back before 7pm today.

I then phoned BT again but on a different number: 0800 783 1401. This agent was in Liverpool. Straight away, without me mentioning wanting to stay with BT or asking what they would offer, she offered £25.99 "to save me the hassle of switching". It includes weekend calls, and without asking she said she'd send through a new hub (current one is Homehub 3 Type .

I could maybe have dug my heels in and tried to get them to go lower, but I was pretty pleased with £25.99 so accepted it.

I then phoned Sky to cancel the new service. Interestingly the Sky agent offered another £5 off a month -- to bring it down to £22. With the cashback etc., that would mean an effective monthly amount of just £17.28 for 63Mbps broadband and phone line for 18 months!!!

I did just go ahead to stay with BT after all. But for anyone thinking of changing to a new supplier and happy to go through with the switch, it's worth phoning up the new supplier a day or so after signing up with them to say that your existing supplier has come back with a much better offer and so you're going to stay with them. An instant offer of £5 off a month is £90 in your pocket! No doubt they'd knock a bit more off with a bit of haggling.

cb1979 wrote: »

I am recently out of contract with BT, was paying around £35 a month for BB weekend calls and Friends and Family, phoned BT and got through to a UK agent,they started out at £54.99 a month then after much chat offered me £39.99 a month with a TV package, I told them i did not want the TV package o please take that off and do me something cheaper as i only need basic calls and BB, they said that was their best price then offered a Google home as well, i did say Plusnet could do £27.99 a month and they said BT is a premium service thats why its more expensive and could not match that,I then politely ended the conversation as i was getting nowhere, time to look at switching i think, and I always though Plus net was owned by BT

Which broadband speed are you on currently?
If you would rather stay with BT but want them to offer you a much lower price, from my recent experience I would suggest the following:
-- Sign up online with Sky via TopCashbank: https://www.topcashback.co.uk/sky-digital/
-- Work out the effective monthly cost that you will get from Sky as a figure to tell BT: ([monthly cost x 18] plus [£9.95 activation fee] minus [£90 or £75 cashback]), then divide that total by 18.
-- Give it a couple of working days
-- Phone BT on 0800 800 150 to "check that the transfer is going through". Do *not* mention disconnection or cancellation!
-- See what they offer, then say you'll need to go away and think about it, even if they say "You have to accept this deal now or never" (unless of course it's a really amazing deal).
-- Either the same day or a day or two later (whatever you have the energy for!) phone BT on a different number: 0800 783 1401. Click through on the prompts that say "Cancel BT". But again, don't mention "cancel" on the phone.
-- Tell them that Sky have offered you an additional £5 off from the effective monthly cost quoted above. ("I phoned Sky to check the transfer was being processed and mentioned to them the offer that BT gave me on that previous call"). A little white lie to save you phoning Sky at this stage, but this is what Sky offered me when I called them to cancel the transfer after BT offered me a satisfactory deal. BT at this stage offered me £25.99 for 67Mbps broadband, weekend calls, line rental and a new Smart Hub. If I'd known at that point that Sky were going to knock another £5 off, I'd have haggled BT down further. But I was quite taken aback that that was the first offer the agent came back with!

The key is not to be fobbed off with the first offer, and I've had the experience that it's not until you set in motion a transfer to a new supplier that BT actually offer anything decent. It was very easy to reverse out of the decision to move to Sky, but by putting your money where your mouth is and initiating a transfer to a new supplier, BT then start to take you seriously to retain you as a customer and throw much better deals at you. When it came to cancel the transfer to Sky, BT even put me through to them on the same call! So if it takes three or four phone calls until you get a seriously good deal, then so be it!

Let us know how you get on!

PS I picked Sky because PlusNet's billing/admin system has been in chaos for months and I wanted a smooth reversal of the transfer to Sky because I really wanted to stay with BT. If BT hadn't budged though, I would have gone to Sky (ca. £18 effective monthly rate after they knocked another £5 off!)