This topic

Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:02:58 GMT

Firstly I have told again that I cannot remove HALO and secondly any new contract has to be with EE.

Background: my contract with BT ended back in March 2023 and through my own fault (due to working overseas a lot) I’ve neglected to negotiate a new contract. I did try last year, but gave up due to not being able to downgrade from Halo and the complete inconsistency with BT's pricing.

I currently pay an embarrassing £72.83 for Fibre 2 (74Mbps) with Halo 3+ and £87.67 for a Full Works (VIP) TV package without access to Netflix. Plus £9.84 for a 700 min call package and £6.73 for a 1GB Sim Only mobile.

No offers were available under My BT as I supposedly had an outstanding order on my account. This turned out to be an automated switch to Digital Voice order that BT had placed without my knowledge in March.

I called the ‘Retentions’ number (0800 7831401) yesterday and I asked if the order could be cancelled, which would enable me to see the personal deals available. The helpful guy took about 10 mins and removed the pending order from my account. He then said he would look at getting me the very best deal, BUT it had to be with EE……there was no way I could stay with BT, unless I processed an upgrade order myself online.

I stated that I wanted to stay with BT and that I no longer wanted Halo (which is pointless) and that I had previously been told that I could not downgrade from a Halo package. He refused to give me any BT prices. After a further 10mins on hold he gave me the following quotes for EE:-

Full Fibre 900 £61.99 - when the new customer price is £44.99 (£49.99 with BT)
Full Fibre 500 £50.99 - new customer £39.99 (same with BT)
Full Fibre 300 £57.99 - new customer £34.99 (£39.99 with BT)
Full Fibre 900 with Halo (unable to see this package on EE) would be £71.99

Let’s forget the other parts of my current contract for the moment.

I questioned why the prices were so high compared to new customers and he just said that they are treated differently. I then stated that the Halo price promise stated that you would never pay more than a new customer. He stated that this only refers to ‘like for like Halo packages’ and NOT all prices. What a joke.

Retaining a customer should be a simple process, but BT would appear to make it as hard as possible. I've been with BT for decades and have no problem with the service, but they overcomplicate everything when it comes to contracts and renewals.

Time to look elsewhere, unless anyone has managed to get a retentions deal in the last month?

I suppose I could always leave BT and then rejoin as a new customer with EE.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 13:20:51 GMT

To be completely honest, the prices over at EE right now are good and offering 24 month contracts, 44 quid for FTTP 900 and 60 quid for all the channels in the world. Forget about Halo if you dont see any value in it, for some people the backup 4G internet is a decent failover but not for me.

If I was you, Id definitely be going to EE....based on what you posted, the prices over there are the lowest Ive seen them which are similar to the new customer pricing I got with BT when I joined.....never to be seen again for me I expect so ill also have to join EE at some point.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:05:42 GMT

@naylor2006 - The problem is that as an exiting BT customer, they wont allow to me to simply 'move' to EE as a new customer and take advantage of the new customer prices. I would have to leave BT, have a period of downtime and then join EE.

Which to be honest is a ridiculous way of treating an existing customer.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

chrisjp — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:10:38 GMT

I've become convinced that HALO is a bit of a scam and a device to ensure that new customers pay less then existing ones. I accepted an "upgrade" to HALO some years ago and have seen its prices steadily increase at each contract renewal so they are now around twice what new customers are offered with a non-HALO deal.
BT make it very difficult for existing HALO customers to downgrade to the standard deal - you cannot do it online and it's clearly not straightforward even calling the retentions team.
This is very dubious commercial practice - the sort of thing you might expect from a fly-by-night operator rather than an established large provider like BT.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:12:12 GMT

Sorry when you said it was an option right at the end I figured...well it was one of the options.

So is your existing contract up in March 2025 then?

You are right though, the BT line would have to cease then you could sign up with EE and the delay would be there.

Seems no one cares about loyal customer these days, I have experienced the same with O2, I was with them for some 20 years and wouldnt even price match a deal elsewhere, gave me a PAC so quick....

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

gg30340 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:15:17 GMT

You can downgrade from Halo if you wish. If they won't budge on that ask to speak to a manager if they still say you can not remove Halo or downgrade I would make a formal complaint and if need be contact the CEO. You will find the email address with a simple google search.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:26:38 GMT

@naylor2006 - My contract ended March 2023 😂

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:35:49 GMT

@gg30340 - I stated that I was happy to stay with BT, but no longer wanted to pay for the additional Halo extras. I was looking to reduce cost, but would welcome a speed boost.

I was categorically told that I could NOT stay with BT and had to move to EE. The prices though were £10-£17 more than a new customer. A line manager was consulted but would not budge.

Previously I was told that staying with BT and removing Halo would not reduce the price. BUT......now they wont even allow me to stay with BT.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:54:21 GMT

Sorry I didnt get this, I figured if you werent in contract now then you would be free to leave.

I'm getting confused by the BT EE thing now, I thought the idea was they were separate and if you are not in contract you can just sign up there as a new customer and part of that new sign up will cease the existing service....obviously I'm wrong.

For example if you went to Sky as a new customer their order process would take care of ceasing your existing service with BT, I thought doing this with EE would be the same these days, IE not a migration to them but a new order with them, which would what be a few hours downtime or maybe a day.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

NigelB72 — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 15:52:32 GMT

@Puma937 don't be scared of moving. If you move to another provider that uses the Openreach network, you'll get a substantial reduction in cost and there shouldn't be any difference in the end product as it's effectively the same product. The only difference will be your router. I moved our TV, broadband and mobile phone contracts and I'm paying £50 per month less and actually have better products and service now. Forum rules prevent me from naming our supplier but they're above all of us 😆

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:09:17 GMT

@NigelB72 - my neighbour moved to Sky which is far cheaper, but is having a nightmare. So that puts me off.

Virgin Media is now available at our address and the package prices are great, but I really just wanted to stay with BT and migrate to EE when required. It's just the pricing that is extortionate.

I thought the fact that I am out of contract with BT would allow me to negotiate a new competitively priced contract - well one equivalent to a new customer. BUT.....the best they can offer is to remove Halo by being forced to move to EE and expect me to pay £17 more a month than a newbie. BT are taking loyal customers for mugs and forcing them to leave.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:11:44 GMT

Has anyone managed to get a retention deal that at the very least matches a new customer offer?

It's strange that the best advice is to leave BT altogether.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:23:30 GMT

New customers are always offered incentives because most the time we cannot be bothered to change provider and pay the extra money to avoid the hassle. I am in this category, if my price goes up a tenner i'd probably suck it up, 15 maybe but 20 i'd considering having to leave, its just the way companies operate. Luckily though with Openreach infra we are free out of contract to go anywhere.

If is Virgin it is likely Cable? Even so they do operate their own Fibre now, this could be a good idea because the order of a Virgin setup will not interfere with your existing, like me you could run the two together until you are sure you are ready to cancel the other. Then when it comes to moving changing again in 18 months time just go onto a rolling contract with Virgin and setup an Openreach based ISP again, ensure its all good then cancel Virgin. 18-24 months later...I think you get the gist. Doing it this way means you have a backup, jumping to another Openreach provider and back again always means you will change over on a given day and if there is a problem....= downtime.

You are in a position of power here if you ask me.

Also can anyone confirm if this guy can just go to EE and sign up as a new customer without dealing with BT at all? Are the companies that separate yet?

You can change the topic to "does anyone ever try to retain loyal customers", not often.

Actually, as generally dreadful Virgin's Customer Service is, their orders usually go through fine and they do offer pretty nice deals when you want to leave, thats always been my experience, I just wanted off Cable and onto Fibre.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

WSH — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:20:25 GMT

I’ve only scanned the rest of the thread quickly, so forgive me if someone has already covered this.

Have you tried approaching EE directly? Afterall, if you are effectively leaving BT, it’s not up to them whether they offer you new customer terms or not. They’re fond of saying EE is a separate company when it suits them. If that is true, the terms are up to EE not BT.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:27:13 GMT

Yup, I forgive you for not scanning, this is exactly what I said, he is out of contract, just sign up at EE as a new customer and have them cease the existing service as part of the new order, just like if he was going to Sky, Plusnet etc. EE and BT are supposed to be separate now.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

WSH — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:43:49 GMT

Yes, but the point I was making is that they are the same provider when it suits them to be, so will it necessarily lead to a break in service?

Plus EE are probably best placed to answer that, so I wouldn't be wasting my time talking to BT about it. (A transfer is "Gaining Provider Lead" afterall).

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

Puma937 — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 09:11:31 GMT

@naylor2006 @WSH - Quick Update: I called EE twice and was left on hold for 30mins each time, so gave up. Called BT again Thursday evening and spoke to a lady called Amy in Cornwall who was extremely helpful. Ideally I would like to stay with BT to make things easy. We have hours on recordings on our BT Pro box, so switching would mean we lose them.

She informed me that I definitely do not need to leave BT if I don't want to. She then looked at the best price available and quoted £50.99 for FF500......on EE. When I queried why it was EE, she told me that there are NO offers on BT - effectively forcing me to move. I then said that as a new customer FF500 is £39.99 on EE , so I might as well sign up as a new customer. She then said that they were the same company and that my address would be flagged as an existing customer, so I couldn't switch via that method.

We continued chatting and she then suddenly knocked £16 off the £50.99 and quoted £34.99. I asked how she could suddenly reduce my bill by £16, but she had no answer. She then stated that she would pull together all the available options and email me the prices. Surprise surprise.......nothing received.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

brookheather — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 09:47:59 GMT

I am currently on BT FF500 (no Halo or landline) and paying £33.43 - I just checked my EE offers and they are now matching my current BT price so FF5500 Essentials for the same £33.43 and FF Gigabit Essentials for £44.99. Previously the EE prices were more expensive than my current BT price (under contract until March 2025) but now seem to be more reasonable - perhaps they are trying harder to encourage migration from BT to EE.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

naylor2006 — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:00:42 GMT

I would be just exploring signing up to EE as a new customer at this point going directly to them, their prices are great at the moment.

Re: Locked into HALO and unable to reduce costs - do BT ever try to retain loyal customers?

chrisjp — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:01:37 GMT

Ahh, so BT and EE are separate companies when it suits BT to claim that, but are the same company when that suits them better.
Re-inforces my view that, unfortunately, BT/EE has turned into a scam company