Renewing BT Mobile contract with new deal in email

[barnpiece]

This evening, I received an email saying that my BT Mobile contract was ending. I could stay at the current price (going up by £1.50 at the end of March) or move to a new "BT Mobile 8GB SIM Only 5G Plan" saving some money even if you add the £1.50 which it would go up by at the end of March (shown in the small print).

"Look after the pennies" they say, so I phoned up (no way to do it online!) and got through after 20 minutes.

I said I wanted to move to the deal given in the email but was told I had to go to EE. I said I could not do that and wanted the deal in the email. After over 35 minutes on the call while the operator on the other end consulted with his manager twice leaving me waiting for long periods, I was told the email was wrong - I couldn't have the deal.

No wonder BT is in such a mess - wasting their operators (and my) time and sending out deals that they will not honour.

Richard

[Christopher_G]

Hi @barnpiece 

I'm sorry to hear that the offer in the email wasn't available for you. Did the person that you spoke to explain why it wasn't available?

Does the email explain how you can take out the offer?

Chris

[barnpiece]

Chris,

No, he said that it wasn't available (after consulting with his manager twice). He ignored what I told him that the email said.

The email said my BT Mobile Contract (showing details of BT Mobile 10GB SIM Only 5G Plan) would end on 22nd March.

Under 'Our new deal for you' headline, it gave details of the BT Mobile 8GB SIM Only 5G Plan and gave the price, saying it would increase by £1.50 on 31 March 2025.

It said Call 0800 800 150 (and then gave details of the rest of my BT services).

Richard

[Peter_W]

Thanks for explaining there @barnpiece.

When was the email you received here dated from, and when you spoke to our team were you offered any alternatives? 

Our price plan offers are subject to change, and it's my understanding that if you upgrade after March 1st the price increase won't take effect until March 2026.

It could be a case of the plans have now changed and this offer is no longer valid.

Peter

[barnpiece]

Peter,

I received the email on Wednesday 5th March and phoned early on that evening.

I was told that if I renewed the contract, I would have to go to EE mobile.

(Happy to copy the email privately to you.)

I think someone needs to sort this out otherwise operators and consumers time could be wasted with these going out if they won't honour them. It also looks very bad for BT to be sending incorrect deals.

Richard

[Peter_W]

Thanks for confirming that @barnpiece.

If this is dated as recent as the 5th, then it seems very odd that you've been advised this can't be honored. 

My recommendation would be to get back in touch and speak with another Guide, and it's possible that they may be able to get this put through to you. 

Alternatively, if you continue to struggle you can also look at the option of raising this as a complaint, sending it to the email address contained within our complaints code here. 

That way you can include screenshots of the initial email is proof, and we'll make sure we've done all we can for getting this resolved. 

Please keep us posted on how you get on, too.
Peter

[orozz]

It might be worthwhile logging into MyBT, go to Your Products, Settings, Switch Provider and see if the deal pops up there.

[barnpiece]

If I try 'Switch provider', it just says sorry to see you go and offers a switching code.

I have now sent an email to raise a complaint. Let's see if I get any reasonable response.

Richard

[orozz]

Ah ok, mine offers 2 plans to recontract to.

[chrisjp]

I may be wrong (and I hope I am) but I do suspect that the call centre agent you spoke with was "economical with the truth" when he said the email offer was wrong and you could only move to EE.
All BT's call centre agents are incentivised by commission to convert residential customers from BT to EE contracts, so they have a strong incentive to get you to agree to this.
As for "consulting with a manager" I also suspect that the agent just put you on hold for a while, and didn't speak to anyone else, in the hope that you'd get fed up and accept the EE deal.
I'd be happy to be corrected by the Moderators if they could assure me my suspicions are not true.