Need help/advice - do BT want new customers ?

[Nando33]

Hi ,

I'm with BT  and posting this here on behalf of my sister who is becoming increasingly confused  about switching to BT.

Basically she is currently with some other smaller company i've never heard of and she's out of contract and trying to get the right deal to switch to BT .

Her basic wants are - she's not currently on Fibre for BB  but is in a fibre area and she wants to keep her homephone - that seems to be the difficulty as not many companies are offering her a BB/phone bundle .

The are currently on a Business deal )it's a farm) but as are at retirement age they are open to switching to whatever deal is going to be cheapest - ie staying with business or switching to standard home BB.

But every time she phones up different BT dept's they seem to be giving her conflicting info about switching offers /quotes which seem to bear no resemblance to the offers advertised .

Last time she phoned the BT number and was speaking to someone from EE - who ended up confusing  her even more.

She's not very tech savvy -esp with the new  changes happening but the basics of what she wants is a  BB deal inc keeping her existing homephone  and she would like to have an anytime call plan .This the only thing she wants - no TV deals or streaming stuff just the above. Specifically - how much is an anytime call plan now because nobody seems willing to tell her ?

Is this doable from BT or not and if so what sort of deal  would or should she be getting quoted as a new customer ?

Can one of the mod's give me a contact number i can pass on to her so she can speak to someone giving down to earth info . What should - or used to be a very straightforward process seems to be getting more and more difficult not easier!

Any help or advice please ....

[rbz5416]

Prices can vary by area, so best she just looks online & then places an order if she's happy.

https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals

or

https://ee.co.uk/broadband

There are of course other ISPs offering telephony as well.

[imjolly]

If you are going to use the connection for business as you currently do then you really need a BT business connection with the better SLA and not the residential 3 days to fix any faults 

[Nando33]

quote- "There are of course other ISPs offering telephony as well."

Hi thanks for your reply .

Is that a  subtle hint by any chance ?

[Nando33]

Hi imjolly thanks for your reply .

Well it's not me it's my sister and her husband at their property .

Because they are retirement age she tells me they are now just looking for the better deal whether residential or business  - the main problem  i think seems to be that nobody she speaks to at BT seems able or willing to let her know how much an anytime call package is ....

I've spoken to her again and while she can get  a reasonable quote for Fibre BB (better than what she's on now at least with the MM company) but as she wants to keep her home phone the issue is getting an anytime call plan .

Always assuming BT are still offering anytime call plans to  customers ?

[jac_95]

@Nando33 

For BT Consumer the home phone call plans available are:

• Pay as you Go plan
• Unlimited plan

https://www.bt.com/broadband/digital-voice

For EE home phone call plans available are:

• Pay as you go
• Limited minutes plan (700 minutes)
• Unlimited minutes plan

More information on EE's calling plans: https://ee.co.uk/help/home-phone/getting-started/home-phone-calls-cost

https://ee.co.uk/broadband/digital-home-phone

To note, both BT and EE's home call service will be over Digital Voice (their phone service that runs over the internet) as no new analogue phone services are available anymore as the analogue phone service (PSTN) is due to close by January 2027.

For BT business their call service is a bit more bespoke for business and usually a business grade Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. I believe for small to medium BT Business broadband customers the phone service BT Business usually offers is BT Cloud Voice. I think looking at the following page that some form of inclusive minutes can also be offered https://business.bt.com/digital-workplace/cloud-collaboration/cloud-voice/

[colin2018 · Accepted solution]

"Her basic wants are - she's not currently on Fibre for BB but is in a fibre area and she wants to keep her homephone - that seems to be the difficulty as not many companies are offering her a BB/phone bundle "

As phone line is going digital are you aware there are other companies that you can use on BT broadband just by adding a box? Call plans are longer & cheaper than BT plus you can port your number over.

Also a big benefit when landline goes down as in my case at the moment.

I can't put the company name here as against the rules.

[rbz5416]

---

@Nando33wrote:

Is that a subtle hint by any chance ?

---

Just a statement of fact. I can think of at least five other ISPs off the top of my head that provide telephone services. Maybe she's getting confused about how they'll be provided? As has already been posted, all will be VOIP services, requiring the telephone to be connected to the router.

She also needs to clear about the service. It's either business use or it isn't, age is irrelevant. If they're ceasing the business they can go residential, otherwise it should be business.

There are comparison sites out there for broadband, just as there are for insurance.

[Nando33]

Quote"As phone line is going digital are you aware there are other companies that you can use on BT broadband just by adding a box? Call plans are longer & cheaper than BT plus you can port your number over."

Hi Colin ,

Thanks for your helpful reply - no it's specifically the home phone changes that i think is causing the confusion for her .

So she's certainly not aware of  the point  you have raised which might be the solution for her to keep her home phone  but get a better phone deal - i'll  let her know about this  . I understand the forum rules but i wish there was some way to get some suggestions  i could pass on to her .

Anyway thank you

[imjolly]

just look for VOIP providers using search engine