End of Contract move to EE

[Colin_London]

Coming to the end of my 24 month Halo contract and have concluded that I have to leave BT. Despite the so called Halo 'benefit' of not paying more than a new customer I see that they are offering exactly the same package to new customers at £10 a month less. The only 'deal' I am being offered by BT is to recontract my present deal at the same price (with a price rise at the end of March). So how is this 'Halo Benefit' supposed to work?

Additionally the BT Smarthub 2 is well outdated technology now and new customers on EE get a WiFi7 router.

I did get an 'offer' to move to EE as a migration but it was at exactly the same price as my current BT deal. It seems that between them BT & EE are determined to prevent you from getting any price reduction without going through hoops.

So can I just sign up to EE as a new customer at the lower new customer price (£10 less a month than with BT) and migrate without issue? Are there actually any benefits to migrating internally than doing a new customer order with EE?

[Colin_London]

Sorry should have posted under 'Billing & Packages'. I see there the same issue - i.e. BT making it very difficult to reduce the cost of your deal despite being out of contract.

Unless you want to go through customer service stress, arguments and escalation looks like you really do have to move ISP wholesale to get a price cut (despite so called 'Halo Benefits' you have been paying through the nose for for years).

[WSH]

I’ve been there; I feel your pain.

When they say you won’t pay more than a new customer…that’s a new Halo customer, as I found when I queried it.

I suspect you’ll not get away with telling EE you are a new customer as they will have to switch the connection from somewhere, so they'll twig.

I tried to move to Sky for that same reason.  Sky screwed it up by not following my instructions that it had to be a OR FTTP install and instead sending CityFibre.  In the meantime however, BT had got the message and offered me a more realistic deal, the same as new customer price.  I cancelled with Sky and stayed with BT.  The thought occurred though, that it only seemed to have taken a week before I counted as a “new customer”.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into that, but I thought the info might be useful to you.

[Colin_London]

I suspect you’ll not get away with telling EE you are a new customer as they will have to switch the connection from somewhere, so they'll twig.

BT and EE are supposedly different business entities under BT Group. Surely EE have to treat you as a new customer - as far as joe public is aware they are two different companies - they won't appreciate the group ownership (same for Plusnet).

And if they did try to pull this to stop you getting a better deal Ofcom would surely intervene.

[WSH]

I didn't get that impression when I looked into it but give it a go and see.

I wish you good luck.

[chrisjp]

There have been a number of postings on this forum that indicate that if you move from BT to EE you will NOT be treated as a new customer and will be offered the same price as you've been paying to BT (or sometimes actually a higher price!).
However, this does not seem to apply to moving to Plusnet from BT.
The Halo "deal" appears to have been dreamed up by BT as a specific way for them to offer their "price promise" that "existing customers will never pay more than new ones - no exceptions" while not actually honouring it. It apparently applies ONLY if the new customer signs up to a Halo deal - which new customers are never offered anyway.
Ofcom seems to be completely uninterested in this very dubious sleight of hand by BT.

[Colin_London]

As I said, the migration offer to EE when offered through your BT account login is the same price as offered by BT for the equivalent product.

I was asking about what happens if you apply directly to EE as a new customer where you are offered lower prices, and whether there are any technical disbenefits from moving in this way rather than through a ‘BT Offer’ to move to EE.

if you are offered a lower price and sign a contract at the lower new customer price then EE cannot come back later and say ‘err we shouldn’t have offered you that’.

[Kimberlin]

@Colin_London 

I can’t see anywhere if anyone has actually tried it from BT to EE, but try switching using the One Touch Switching process whereby you don’t have to involve actually speaking to either BT or EE, just do it all online and see what happens?

I did this going from BT to Plusnet and it went through with zero issues, but then I don’t have a phone line. Ended up paying ten quid a month in less for exactly the same product. I warn you though, the moment you initiate the switch, your phone will burst into life, Retentions will be all over you like the plague. I had to block their number.

If you can’t switch from BT to EE using OTS without being intercepted as an existing customer of BT and then denied new customer price benefits with EE, then I reckon there is cause for complaint. Unless of course it’s buried deep somewhere in BT or EE’s terms that you cannot switch as an existing customer of either brand using OTS specifically to reap the benefit of new customer pricing.

[WSH]

As soon as you give them your address and phone number you'll flag as an existing customer.

...But, as I said, give it a go and we'll see.  I'd be interested to know for the future.  As the FTTP infrastructure is now in place, any nonsense from BT in two years time and I'm definitely gone.

[gg30340]

You can not use OTS if moving from BT to EE or EE to BT.