New contract

[WSH]

@Kodikid  For once, you have posted something useful and I fully agree with you.  (But, I suspect they would block that when they recognise the address/phone no. as an existing customer...I've tried something similar).

@zulu17   Why bother?  If you've got to go to that trouble you might just as well go the whole hog and look at new providers.  In fact, BT have announced today that their mid-contract price hike will now be £4, not £3.

I had an interesting online chat with a Sky rep, two days ago.  Apparently, the policy of compulsory Cityfibre has changed.  I was told you can elect to have Openreach infrastructure for the upgrade to FTTP, although you have to phone to arrange it.  That's the main thing that's been holding me back.

[Kimberlin]

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@Niglywrote:

When I try to 'upgrade' by logging into my account it says it cannot provide this service although out of contract. When I get a quote as a new customer it is nearly half the price. When I go past 'checkout' the price doubles. I did contact customer services to see how it works by talking directly and it seems to be the same, except you get the "I'll talk to the manager" with a minutes silence, similar to what you would get from an Internet fraudster trying to con vulnerable people. You then get additional items thrown in that you don't need. It's so sad to see BT go down this route which will lead to failure.

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That minute silence claiming 'I'll talk to the manager', phone goes silent, call handler sits there quietly making you think they're having a chat to the manager before returning with as much of a clue as they had when they talked to you the first time. Then the hard sell for stuff you don't actually want or need just to get the commission(maybe).

As much as it may look like I don't think much of BT, I actually would have stayed with BT if only their ridiculous annual increases weren't so, well, ridiculous. I have no desire to waste my time chatting to someone in 'Retentions' in order to 'negotiate' a better deal, fuelling my cynical view that they aren't actually BT employees, but someone in an outsourced call centre.  Get the customer in and make sure they stay long enough until the light finally switches on and the customer eventually realises they're being charged well over the top for what a new customer gets with bits of extra equipment that they don't actually need. I despair when I read customers who pitch up on here and tell a story of how they're paying a serious amount of money for something that someone else is getting for less than half the cost.

Good luck whatever you decide.

[WSH]

Quite agree...even though I'm one of the mugs that's only just woke up.

With today’s announcement that the annual increase will be £4, not £3, that means for a new customer paying for phone & 150 Mb/s FTTP at £34.99, it's an increase of 11.4% at the end of the first year.  Even to an overcharged, existing customer, like myself, it's a 6% increase.  CPI is currently 3.6% and has been lower for the last year, so how are those prices rises justified?

Perhaps BT are still trying to hive off their consumer branch but as no one wants to move to EE, they’ve just decided to run it into the ground?

[Kimberlin]

For the record, I don't think you're a mug.

I'm paying less than £34.99 a month for 500mbps on FTTP with no landline and that's without any extra stupid equipment and using my own router. All done using One Touch Switching in 5 working days without having to talk to BT.

[Nigly]

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately we knew we were getting massively overcharged before we activated the last BT contract but we're sold it on the basis that if we didn't take the full halo 3 package we would not get full fibre. The EE 'unbreakable wi-fi' was hard wired in the roof space to see if it would work. We knew it woulnt as there is no signal from any provider where I am. Similar to other recent mis-selling frauds, they get the customer into a weak position and take advantage, even if the truth is somewhat stretched they will stop at nothing to get as much as possible. I won't be returning to BT. Unfortunately their reputation is somewhat tarnished. They have lost 800,000+ customers in the last year.

[Kimberlin]

For balance and fairness, they'll be plenty of BT customers, including contributors on this forum who have been with BT for decades and are more than happy with the service. And of course, they'll be experts in negotiating with BT Retentions to keep those cracking deals whereby they're paying similar prices to brand new customers taking into account the equipment they're using etc etc. I wish I had the time and the patience to listen to a faceless drone insisting I need a Halo or a brilliant TV package to make my interweb experience the best it could ever be. I hope my sarcasm isn't shining through here.

[Nigly]

Unfortunately this is what it has come to. The older generations (me included) don't like change in favour of an easy life based on trust. When you make change all hell breaks loose. My last broadband change put our phone and Internet out for 3 months. The provider also tried to bully £600 out of me. All we asked for was to transfer phone and Internet to a new address. The wife nearly lost her job as a result.

I'm dreading going to a new provider. Personally I would be happier not to have the Internet at home but everyone else seems to need it.  I don't have a mobile subscription for the same reason.

[Kimberlin]

@Nigly  I may not be as young as yourself, I'm almost 60, but I'm pretty tech savvy, have been for a couple of decades.

I consider myself fortunate in some ways that I moved to a new property complete with FTTP so I've had none of the hassle of changing over from copper lines etc. Prior to moving to my new home 4 years ago, I was on FTTC whereby I was necessarily forced to have a landline. We didn't use the landline because we didn't even have a phone to plug into the wall socket. I haven't actually used a home landline since 2015. My Wife and I each have mobile phones and we have great service because we chose providers that have good coverage in our locale. We moved from BT broadband very recently, the broadband hasn't changed, just the provider and the process was super easy. We are of course also paying much less than had we stayed with BT.

Change is difficult I accept for many, especially as you mention those more senior many of whom it seems require the use of a landline. The reality is however, that the more younger members of society are shunning the landline that we all had as kids, often a party line, or in the case of a childhood friend of mine, they actually had a phone you'd find in an old phone box that you had to feed 2p and 5p coins into the slot. The landline will eventually become just a relic of the 20th Century, yup, that century that ended 25 years ago. I'm still trying to get into my head, that a ten year old today, will easily see into the 22nd Century!

Trust I'm afraid, must be earned. I trust very few people, that's why I don't answer my mobile phone because there's too many idiots trying to waste peoples' time, scam them or just abuse them. I applaud silence unkown callers, it's absolutely brilliant. That being said, I couldn't do without my smartphone, I'm a global traveller, it's a lifeline.

In our household, we can't do without broadband and I honestly wouldn't want to be without it anyway, I've learned so much from it.

[Kodikid]

That's exactly the reason the exodus from BT to EE bite the dust. It was alienating the alleged older customer base.

I don't fear change but I do fear my partner going ballistic if our broadband deteriorated because of my quest to save money. 

Our BT broadband works perfectly, always has which is a bloody dilemma if I was to switch.