RETENTIONS - the SCAM of BT overcharging existing customers !!

[Sat27]

BT doesn’t appear to be bothered do they.  I have a call to them on my to do list for next week.  To avoid disappointment I have set my expectations at the lowest level possible.  I’m lucky that I have options and I have decided that I will switch to another provider if I can’t get a reasonable offer from them.  Although it will be inconvenient is some ways, I just want to feel that I’m not being taken for a fool (which I might be by the way!)

There was a time when the generally accepted wisdom for a business was that existing customers should be retained at all costs. Once they were lost they would be very difficult to get back.  Today that has either been forgotten or  business has changed quite fundamentally and looking after customers isn’t that important.
Hope you get what you’re looking for from BT and if not that you have other options. 
Good luck.

[TimCurtis]

Really don't know what's going on at BT /EE these days.

In the past I've got sensible deals via Retentions but these days most of the "guides" are pretty useless and there seems no motivation to retain customers.

I got forcibly switched to EE with a new 24m contract at an increased price when I just called to cancel a 30 day item.

Took a lot of effort on my part to get my price back down. Now not with BT/EE and unlikely to go back.

[Anonymous]

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@Sat27wrote:

There was a time when the generally accepted wisdom for a business was that existing customers should be retained at all costs. 

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That was the matra when I first set up a business over 40 years ago, because the cost of recruiting new customers far outweighs the cost of retention. Nothing has really changed except that all of the mass market ISPs would inexplicably prefer to spend on recruitment. BT are currently willing to pay a new customer up to £245 AND offer a discounted price.

Yet to retain a customer all they'd usually need to do is get close to the new customer price. Yet in the hope that a certain percentage will accept any price offered, they happily wave goodbye to those willing to move, only to offer them huge incentives to return two years later. 

I can only guess that there are sufficient numbers who are afraid to move, or just have blind faith in the good old GPO, who will happily pay inflated prices to fund this model.  

[Kodikid]

Retentions come end of contract are not something that ever bothers me. Guarantee the "personalised " offers are literally ludicrous/comical (£89 for 900mbps that's £37 for new customers) .

But these days I don't bother as Plusnet offer the exact same broadband with a £150 gift card for £34.

Ok they don't offer the landline but like most people these days that's a irrelevance. 

[Kimberlin]

I’m amazed that there are seemingly enough people out there that have the time to sit down for literally hours talking to outsourced retentions staff who are undoubtedly told and incentivised to re-contract customers onto quite obviously ludicrous monthly payments.

I’m also surprised that there enough customers out there who somehow forget they’re out of contract and literally do nothing for sometimes years. Those folks must be made of money. Who in their right mind pays almost a hundred quid a month for a basic broadband package? But then there are people who stick with the same energy company for years and never switch.

Switching ISP is easy and from experience over the last 4 years, if you’re paying over £35 a month for 500mbps (as an example) with no phone line and none of the stupid add ons that people seem to let themselves get sucked into, then you’re paying too much.

As has been mentioned already, the landline is becoming very much an irrelevance for many people, not for everyone, but like High Street bank use, it’s generally a particular demographic that seem to rely on it/them.

The upshot is, it’s literally pointless moaning about BT (in this instance) concerning their pricing structure and the countless excuses and broken promises that the faceless drones in the call centres push out in their quest to retain customers on clearly (sometimes) stupidly expensive ‘deals’. This is why some of us don’t and won’t put up with it and switch. It’s very much each to their own though.

[spireflyer]

Same here, been looking on BT account, i pay currently £51.54, i went via upgrade to EE, first offer was £60.99 or £72.99, that disappeared later that night and shot up to £83.99, then if you want extras ie Router, anti virus etc the price sky rockets, i have 9 months plus on my contract left, i would be a total idiot to accept that, i messaged on X the reply was nothing we can do thats it, you either pay it or you don't, like you a new customer pays £37.99 for FF900...

[Puma937]

Quick Update - haven't had chance to submit the formal complaint yet, but I did give Retentions a quick call tonight to see if Terry had been sacked or left the company 😉

It's been a week since Terry gave me his direct contact details, agreed to speak to his manager and call me back last Thursday to resolve the pricing issues. I sent him a polite chase on Friday and another yesterday, but he's gone AWOL. Just another BT employee promising something they can't deliver.

Anyway tonight I spoke to Brad in Doncaster and asked if any notes had been placed on my account. He said yes, but there was no actions listed to be undertaken by BT or Terry. (Unbelievable). The conversation was polite and Brad asked if I would mind holding whilst he spoke to a colleague. He was gone a long time to the point I thought he had cut me off, but when he did finally return he advised me to do something very strange.

As I am out of contract, Brad advised me to clear the cookies on my laptop, go to the BT website and sign up as a new customer. Do not enter my landline number, which will circumvent the BT system from knowing I am an existing customer. I would then be able to access the new customer prices and select everything I wanted to place a new order. In the notes area I should add my landline, which would enable us to keep our existing number.

'Are you serious, how is that going to work?' I asked. 'Why cant BT just change my account, or adjust the prices?'

'Sorry we don't have access to create a new customer account' said Brad. 'You are joking?'........'No, sorry, that's the only way we can match a new customer price'.

Surely this wont work and is not something that BT staff should be advising? It not only potentially causes issues with our landline, but also a mobile contract on the account. Any 'existing' customer offer migrating from 700mins to Unlimited minutes on a landline is also lost.  

The basic advice was - if you are out of contract, just set up a new customer account omitting certain information. BT staff have lost the plot 🙄

[Kimberlin]

@Puma937  A polite question? How much time and effort have you put into this charade with BT, and has it so far been worth it?

[gg30340]

@Puma937 

Apart from the fact that the BT Customer Service member should not have been offering such advice it is also not good advice.  If you were successful in doing as he suggested it would potentially open you up to a charge of fraud by trying to gain a financial advantage by lying on your application. 

In any event if you were to do as suggested you will be required to input your address, which BT will have on record as being a current BT customer so the application to be treated as a new customer would fail.

Have you actually tried using the online system, "not the offers for you"  by logging onto your MyBT then clicking on the Broadband button in the menu bar to see what prices of the packages are for existing customers rather than going through customer services?

I have advised the moderators about what the CS rep has suggested and how it could have potentially caused you serious legal issues. 

[WSH]

@gg30340   As you say, it doesn't work.  I tried that a few weeks ago.  Not fraudulently as I'm not brave/daft enough for that.  I had no intentions of taking it to completion but out of interest to see how far I could get before it refused me as a new customer.

The answer is not very far.  The system obviously has checks to catch that.  Not only when you put the address in but I would also suspect the payment details would also flag as already existing if I had got that far.  The online system is not quite as stupid as it looks.

You would have thought the guide would have known that.