Free Home Hub upgrade?

[largestherb]

Hi there, we've been with BT for a couple years now. Got upgraded to a Home Hub 4 (Type A) with an Open Reach modem a long while ago.. but now that Open Reach modem is starting to take up space, a plug socket, and adding to the spaghetti junction of cables going on.

I know the Home Hub 5 has the modem built in, but when clicking "upgrade your home hub" on the BT site it only offers the new Smart Hub for £65.

Is there no way to get a free upgrade at all? The HH5 would be fine.. but if push comes to shove we are out of contract.. just feels silly to have to cancel our account and sign up using someone else in the house's name just to get a new free router..

Tried using live chat to ask about this, was told we had to be forwarded to another department, queued for an hour before mysteriously the queue just got cancelled (I guess it was quittin' time).

Will try live chat again tomorrow, but am posting here in case anyone else has the answers and solutions!

Thanks!

[DavidM]

Hi @largestherb and thanks for posting.

Your best bet would be to contact the customer option team on 0800 800 030 and renegotiate a new contract which would include a new smart hub. Can you try that and let me know how it goes?

Cheers

David

[Keith_Beddoe]

As @DavidM has replied, I have deleted my post.

[018125]

Out of curiosity, and not suggesting this, but what would happen if a person disconnected their HH4, called up BT and told them it would not turn on?

I'm assuming they would send out a replacement, and I doubt they have a stock of HH4s...

[licquorice]

Unless you re-contracted, they would do nothing, or sell you a replacement. Why should an ISP send you a free router only for you to move to another ISP tomorrow? Once out of contract, the router is yours and no longer the responsibility of the ISP.

[pottyperson]

Why would BT provide a free replacement? A home hub provided as part of a broadband deal is not a loan and the equipment becomes the customers property once the contract conditions have been fulfilled, with no more rights than if they had bought it at the outset.

EDIT:  Apologies for the duplication; licquorice must be a faster typist than me!

[largestherb]

"Why would BT provide a free replacement?"

Loyalty counts for nothing these days, I suppose. As I said, would be happy with a HH5 (which is surely now considered obsolete stock with the new Smart Hub?)

Anyway, yeah I suppose I'll try and get ahold of the retention branch of customer service. Just feels silly that they don't offer this as a good will gesture until you threaten to take your business elsewhere..

[licquorice]

Couple of things. Unfortunately loyalty doesn't count with any company these days. As I said previously, why would a company send you a router without ensuring they don't recoup the cost. For all they know, you intend changing ISP tomorrow and selling the router on Ebay. I'm not for a moment suggesting you would do that, but they don't know it.

[018125]

You're assuming in my hypothetical scenario that the customer is out of contract? Is that even possible?

Ok let's say the customer is 6 months into a 12 month contract and their HH4 breaks. BT would send out a replacement, right?

[licquorice]

The OP stated that they were out of contract. If 6 months into a contract, then yes a replacement would be sent.