Elderly parents being overcharged

[RCT1]

My parents are both in their 80s and are being overcharged by BT but it's impossible to get a decent price from them as an existing customer on their website.

Their price for broadband and phone is coming out at £66 per month, whereas for new customers it's about £35!

Vodafone (£28) and Sky both offer cheaper deals but they are not keen to switch.

In addition they've paid line rental for the last 2 years at £18.49 per month when most others are no longer charging.  It's absolutely shocking behaviour.

Has anyone had the same issue?

[garybs29]

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@RCT1wrote:

In addition they've paid line rental for the last 2 years at £18.49 per month when most others are no longer charging.  It's absolutely shocking behaviour.

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On this point in particular there's got to be more information, line rental & broadband are under one package, by any chance do they have a 2nd line into the property too?

[chrisjp]

All too common I fear. Can I ask if your parents are on Halo?
This is BT's rather questionable means to be able to offer new customers broadband at around half the price that they charge existing customers.
New customers are offered a no frills non-HALO deal, while existing customers renewing their contracts are only offered HALO deals which add a few bells and whistles of little practical value. That way BT can argue that the pretty much double price for HALO deals is justified by the bells and whistles.
And it is almost impossible, once on a HALO deal, to downgrade it to a new customer type deal. It can't be done online and, if you telephone BT, their agents have no incentive to downgrade you because they will not get any commission for doing that.

[RCT1]

They only have one line in to their house...

I'll give BT another call and see if we can make headway but it looks like they will have to leave.

[iniltous]

Unless your parents were on a SMPF connection ( shared metallic path facility ) where separate bills were issued, one from BT for line rental and another from a different company that supplied broadband then line rental is not shown as a separate item , it’s part of the broadband charge , I suspect you have not interpreted the bill correctly.
If , by some historical quirk , the had broadband from another company in the past , and ‘joined’ BT for broadband ( already having BT telephone) and somehow the bill remained as two elements, then obviously it is wrong and any duplicate payment should be refunded, but you say it’s only two years ……it would have to  be for a much longer period if that were the case as SMPF is and has been very rare for much longer than two years  …..
If they are on a legacy product paying much more than is necessary, then they can’t be also be inside a minimum term so changing to a current product ( and accepting the minimum term that comes with it ) shouldn’t be difficult.

If you are having difficulty on the on line portal, call BT and have a conversation with them 

[imjolly]

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@RCT1 wrote:

They only have one line in to their house...

I'll give BT another call and see if we can make headway but it looks like they will have to leave.

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I your parents are still in fixed term contract then termination costs may be large

try phoning retentions team assuming you are named as account manager and see what you can negotiate 08007831401

[RCT1]

Thanks - no nothing complicated with them.
Despite my advice they have showed continued loyalty to BT and overpaid.
The line rental was paid through the poorly named 'line rental saver'.
They are out of contract this month, I simply need to convince them to move...

[iniltous]

OK , so not line rental but LRS ( line rental saver ) which is now obsolete anyway , which as in return for a £220 upfront payment, 12 ( one per month ) bill credits of £20 were applied to the account, so worth £240 they are credits not debits , so it’s difficult to see how you could see that as a cost and not a saving .

It was for a very long time inappropriately named line rental saver as all it provided was a discount for upfront payment, and not really related to ‘line rental’ especially when broadband was the billable product, however it was never a mechanism to pay line rental , that’s still your misinterpretation

FWIW , BT telephony and broadband is around £30-35 a month , so a little more than VF and Sky and as stated if you parents are not within a minimum term ( and if paying that price its unlikely unless they also have Halo benefits) then obtaining that price isn’t difficult.

I suspect you want to move them from BT for your own reasons rather than it’s their wish , but you should consider the potential negatives such as losing the phone number and convenient access to BT email  as there are plenty of examples of children moving their parents phone  /internet and the parents live with the negative consequences 

[RCT1]

That's right re LRS, but it means they've been paying £60+ per month for the broadband/phone when others are charging £35.
I'd rather them stay with BT too because it's hassle to change over (new kit, lose a day of connectivity etc.), but not for £30+ per month more than the other suppliers.
BTW - the BT price you are quoting is for new customers, their renewal today is showing at £59 per month

[iniltous]

What’s quoted in the ‘My Offers’ isn’t the only offer available, I recently renewed my broadband with BT , the BT ‘guide’ offered various options ,

If your parents are paying so much more than the regular price , that can  really can only have a couple of explanations, one is you are not comparing like for like , so additional products, like unlimited inclusive calls or Halo , BTTV , mobile etc ,  or on a legacy deal that’s been allowed to continue on an ‘out of contract’ basis and is now much more expensive than current products.

You seem convinced that £60 ish is what BT will charge them if they renew , but it’s not necessarily the case , a recontract offer is likely to be very similar to the new customer offer  ( in my case the price was the same as a new customer ) , I suspect the £60 will because of added ‘extras’ , Halo 3+ for example is around the price you quote your parents pay , and anecdotally it seems impossible to remove using the on line portal.