Lack of valued custom or loyalty rewarded by bt

[Cornish_Cockney]

First time adding to this, but has anyone noticed that lack of reward from BT for brand loyalty, other than regular price hikes and generally sense of being a second rate consumer once they have gained your business.

There would appears something strangely out of kilter here, has anyone else had the same issues or have they found a method of receiving BTs blessing and found a way into their good graces and are receiving comparable or preferential offers from them?

feedback would be appreciated.

Disgruntled in Cornwall...

[pottyperson]

It's not out of kilter with the industry standard. All major providers offer incentives to new customers which are not available to existing ones; it's a rule of the game that's called "competition". You can save a few quid a month if you join the game and chase the best deal year on year, but many (me included) think that the effort involved and the potential for things to be cocked up when you change provider are not worth it.

[Andy005]

I was with my previous provider for years, and like many I never phoned them to get the best deal, I paid full whack and moaned to myself about the offers on TV for new customers. When I decided to leave I wasn't impressed with their offer to keep me.

I moved to BT on a 12 month deal, I phoned up at the end of 12 months and I've got another deal that's less than the one I joined on. This makes me think that, together with my experience of my previous supplier, newer customers are more likely to get better deals when they phone up than longer standing customers who have been on full price. They may perceive that the longer standing customers are much less likely to move therefore it makes sense to offer less discount. I don't know if this applies to BT or not, but I have it on good authority that with my previous supplier, it made a difference on which day you phoned as to how much discount ot level of deal you'd be offered.

It's a free market and we have a choice, if we're not happy and think we can do better then the onus is on us to take the initiative.

[conrad]

Ringing up the Customer Value team or whatever they get called is in my experience is completely hit and miss as to what you may get offered and you may need to ring several times and be prepared to tell them what they are offering is unacceptable.

Since joining BT I have been fortunate to have got reasonable deals on renewal but the situation was much improved about 3/4 years ago when a personalised offer on MyBT cropped up which was too good to turn down. More importantly it created a new starting point for further negotiations.

With regard to the MyBT personalised offers ring up to see if they can be bettered as in my case in May I was offered an upgrade to Superfast Fibre for an extra £5pcm (from my cheapish adsl price) plus paying c£50 one off costs but when I rang to haggle a bit I ended up not paying the £50 just the £9.99 for new hub and only paid an extra £3 overall as the person I spoke to had to clear the terms with his manager so I literally said that as he was going to speak to the manager couldn't he try to get it a bit cheaper. Upshot was the upgrade was for £5 extra but I got a £2 discount off anytime calls. Also with the Sept price rise I was able to recontract for 18 months and only had to pay the 49p extra for the anytime increase.

I currently have a MyBT offer to upgrade to Superfast Fibre Plus for an extra £9 for a price well below the £54.99 shown on BT's website. I don't need the extra speed or the other bits and bobs and can't afford it anyway which is ironic as the phone cab has just been reshelled and has a G.Fast pod on its side.