Elderly being taken advantage of by BT

[Cakey]

I've just had a very disappointing  2 hours wrangling with BT sales over the extortionate prices they are now charging  the elderly  for copper/adsl and phone line packages. My mother is 88 and only uses the broadband for her email and  ring doorbell and BT are now about to charge her £49 pounds per month for this with an additional £13 pounds for her call package unless she upgrades to digital voice.  It’s corporate extortion of the elderly to force through ill planned pstn closure.   She’s not on pension credit so no hope of getting the charged reduced so she’ll have to go with digital voice just not with BT .. I’ll be cancelling all services  with them as well as my own and I’m sure I’m not the only disgruntled user out there.

[imjolly]

When is your mother's contract due for renewal as should be able to negotiate a new deal

If your mother and you are still in a fixed term contract then cancelling will incur termination fees based on the remainder of your contract. In addition cancelling contract your mother will probably lose her phone number which probably had for year

[-Richie-]

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@Cakeywrote:

I've just had a very disappointing  2 hours wrangling with BT sales over the extortionate prices they are now charging  the elderly  for copper/adsl and phone line packages.

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BT prices are set by the products you take, age doesn't factor into it, your mother will pay the same price as someone who is 18 years old.
The exception being the social tariff for landline and broadband called Home essentials, a mobile equivalent exists with EE called Basics - You've confirmed your mother doesn't qualify for this though.

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@Cakeywrote:

BT are now about to charge her £49 pounds per month for this with an additional £13 pounds for her call package unless she upgrades to digital voice.

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The costs with Digital Voice remain the same as with a PSTN, although some chargeable features on PSTN are free with Digital Voice, you can see that list at www.bt.com/digitalvoice

[licquorice]

I have no idea why you think that 'elderly' people should be given preferential treatment.

Before you ask, I'm in my seventies.

[Cakey]

Thanks for the replies but I think you are all missing the point.  The elderly  usually have more than the basic one phone plugged into a master socket . Moving to digital voice is not as simple as BT would like to tell everyone especially if you have multiple extensions all over the place  as many households  do.  It usually requires rewiring and is not something an 88 year old can easily achieve at short notice . It's a big worry for some people and the fact that BT are ramping up the prices on legacy broadband services and only giving the option of  a lower price by  renewing on a new line with digital voice is immoral.

[licquorice]

There's only one person missing the point.

[c64z86]

Not to be rude, but if you and others are so concerned about the "elderly" becoming confused, then why don't you and these other people that know what is what help them get set up? Help your friends out, help your neighbours out?

The elderly are not being charged more than any other age group for the same packages. 

[DavidM]

Let's keep it friendly and on on topic guys.

Cheers

David

[-Richie-]

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@Cakeywrote:

The elderly  usually have more than the basic one phone plugged into a master socket . Moving to digital voice is not as simple as BT would like to tell everyone especially if you have multiple extensions all over the place  as many households  do.

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BT have that covered, they have a Digital Voice adaptor that simply needs a power socket, existing phones plug into that and connect using DECT, moving to Digital Voice doesn't mean any new wires or new handsets.

What support is it you need? your original post was about costs which I have explained that Digital Voice is the same price as the old PSTN, in some cases customers save money with free calling features but nobody ever pays more.
On your other reply you've mentioned needing extra handsets and having to rewire, I have explained that is also untrue and any customer can use their current setup.

We're happy to answer any concerns you have 🙂