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PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-servcs

Mikecl — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:07:01 GMT

Had been paying £7.00 per month for 700 minutes for the digital phone over the last few years which I have only used on a few occasions , in attempt to cut my costs I switched to £3.00 a month with pay as you go, DONT do it I am paying £17 per hour for local landline calls despite the digital calls going over the broadband connection, it’s daylight robbery. I tried calling 150 which was a waste of time, there appears no way of speaking or emailing customer services. To add insult to injury after getting quotes from other suppliers I received an email from BT saying sorry to hear you are thinking of leaving and asking why what could they do and suggesting I call 150. Of course you can’t reply to that email and I won’t be ringing 150 again

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

gg30340 — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:25:14 GMT

Did you not check the call costs for PAYG before changing!

In my opinion PAYG is for people who do not want to do away with ability to receive landline phone calls and perhaps make the very odd call, not as a substitute to a proper call package if you make many calls per month.

As regards the digital call using the broadband connection, there is still a cost implication to VOIP providers for the infrastructure used to route such calls because not every body is connected to broadband and use a VOIP phone service.

If you want free calls use "Whats App" or something similar although you may find you will be unable to call every number that you can on a paid for VOIP service

If you have a mobile phone and you get a signal at your home, you may find that you are already getting "free" calls with your mobile phone package and you could possibly do away with your landline phone altogether.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

Mikecl — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:55:48 GMT

No I didn’t expect to be paying £17.00 per hour, how is that justified, I mistakenly thought it would be a reasonable cost.
PAYG is obviously a misnomer, as explained by the staff on 150, it is for people that only receive incoming calls not for making calls. As you say their are other options which I will avail myself of, in the process cancelling the broadband and tv and phone with BT.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

licquorice — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 18:18:53 GMT

PAYG is not a misnomer you are paying for each call individually. If you are going to spend hours on the phone it doesn't cost in. The charges are clearly published here it is up to you to decide how many calls you intend making.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

gg30340 — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 20:43:47 GMT

@Mikecl wrote:

No I didn’t expect to be paying £17.00 per hour, how is that justified, I mistakenly thought it would be a reasonable cost.
PAYG is obviously a misnomer, as explained by the staff on 150, it is for people that only receive incoming calls not for making calls. As you say their are other options which I will avail myself of, in the process cancelling the broadband and tv and phone with BT.

How is PAYG a misnomer the very fact you are posting about it proves it is indeed Pay As You Go. You paid £17.00 to make calls on it. If it wasn't PAYG the calls would either be free or they would be part of a "Phone Package" such as the one you chose to stop. It is a pity that you changed your package without checking what you were changing it to.

So that you don't incur a further "unknown" charge per chance you have not checked, be aware that if you cancel your broadband, TV and phone with BT while you are still in a fixed term contract you will be charged "Early Cancellation Fees".

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

Mikecl — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 21:25:37 GMT

Thanks for the heads up re early cancellation charges, have already received an email regarding those charges, as I said I have been paying £7.00 per month for the last 23 months so they are asking me to renew. The one call to a London landline to an ill elderly relative lasting 00:58:20 minutes cost £16:63, if you think that is a fair price whether or not it is listed on the link you kindly sent I am better off without BT.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

gg30340 — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 21:41:53 GMT

I fail to see the relevance of who you called. There is not a different PAYG tariff depending on the status of who you called.

It matters not whether I think is a fair charge or not, the fact is that you brought this on your self because you never checked what you were doing by going for the PAYG tariff instead of staying with your phone package.

Many of the complaints on this forum are as a result of the person not reading the Contract, Terms and Conditions or Tariff of what they are entering into before accepting it. It is a sore lesson to learn but you should always read the Contract and T&Cs.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

iniltous — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 07:37:15 GMT

I’d agree with the what’s been said , it’s not BT fault that you moved from a calls plan that had 700 minutes for £7 to a PAYG plan , that saves you £7 upfront, but its then entirely dependent on how many minutes you use ( on PAYG ) if its a sensible move , it’s simple maths question , but to make a call lasting nearly an hour at 28p a minute, you shouldn’t be surprised that the call was going to be expensive, if there was even a chance that you would be making 30 mins or more of calls a month , then PAYG was never a good idea , but you made the choice to switch to PAYG not BT , if you didn’t realise each 10 mins was around a £3 on PAYG , that your fault for not checking , the price per minute is not hidden it’s clearly stated .

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

garybs29 — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 08:53:10 GMT

Sounss very much like you never just got quotes either, think you've actually placed an order with one if got the leaving email

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

Mikecl — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 11:04:38 GMT

Thanks for the responses, yes it’s my fault for not checking the costs on PAYG with BT. I haven’t actually cancelled the bt contract yet but I will not be renewing with them, yes I have read the terms and conditions. In my opinion that doesn’t excuse the rip off call charges. We will have to agree to disagree, I will be removing myself from this forum as there is no point. Thanks for all the helpful comments. 🫣

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

pddco — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 13:36:48 GMT

Just for the future if you have a ‘free’ regrade to a full fibre to the premises with Digital Voice, you’ll find that you are limited to PAYG.

Or for an extra £12 or so per month, Unlimited calls.

The £8.00 for 700mins option is no longer available.

Well that’s what I was told. So now will have to pay an additional £4.00 / month for the ‘free’ regrade.

To rub salt into the wounds, apparently those with FTTC broadband with a land line phone, who get told they’ll be moving to digital voice as part of the switching off of the PSTN (over their existing FTTC connection) can keep the 700mins option.

I really can’t fathom why BT can’t simply keep the 700mins option for every customer irrespective of how they physically get their Broadband. It makes no sense.

Perhaps there are more enlightened people on the forum who can indeed enlighten me.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

licquorice — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 13:36:30 GMT

As far as I'm aware, the only options are PAYG or Unlimited for all customers not just FTTP customers.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

pddco — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 13:45:22 GMT

Thanks @licquorice

Ah so when time comes for their contract renewal they ( FTTC customers) too will only have the two choices.

I dunno, I’m sure that longer term it’ll cost less to maintain and power the network with all the old kit switched off. And yet here we are having to pay more. Canny people those accountants eh?

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

gg30340 — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 17:41:26 GMT

@pddco

I take it you have factored into you assumptions about cost the initial costs that have been incurred by Openreach to change the UK wide infrastructure and installing fibre to every property in the UK and NI along with the ongoing costs to maintain and expand the infrastructre as the technology advances.

Re: PAYG costs on digital telephone service, calling 150 is a waste of time can’t speak to cust-serv

pddco — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 18:31:37 GMT

No, of course I haven’t taken it into consideration 😁. A good point well made. But saying that.. wasn’t the annual increase meant to contribute to the on-going maintenance and infrastructure upgrades? Anyway.. off subject but thought I’d moan a bit.