Digital Voice

[Mckin123]

I received a letter from BT regarding switching to Digital Voice. It says my broadband will be upgraded for Free to Full Fibre and I won’t be entering into a new contract and my monthly price will remain the same. I am currently on Fibre 100 with Halo 3 paying £63.82 and £3.19 for Pay As You Go, with my contract ending June 2026. So I ring BT and they immediately try to put me in another 24 month contract and upgrade me to Full Fibre 500 with Halo at a higher price. I kept repeating no it says clearly on the letter I don’t have to enter a new contract and my monthly price should not change. The advisor at BT was not having this and was desperately trying to get me to agree to a new contract. She even tried to threaten me saying if you don’t agree to it you’ll be cut off and you’ll have no internet. Is this all a scam by BT to try and get more money out their existing customers. This should be reported to the Trading Standards, it’s disgusting on BT’s side. I said I’m not agreeing to anything at this moment and she said I’ve just wasted 1 hour of my time, and if you ring back you will not get offered this price again on Fibre 500.  I wish someone at BT could listen to the call! Has anyone one else had this experience? Why send a letter saying free upgrade to full fibre, you won’t be entering into a new contract and your price won’t change and then you ring up and this is not the case. 

[imjolly]

Did the letter say you had to phone BT or should you just wait for BT to contact you again to inform you when changeover will actually happen

[Mckin123]

It said at the bottom Openreach will be in touch to arrange for an engineer to install Full Fibre at your property. So this was actually going to be another question, should I have just waited instead of contacting BT myself and then getting some advisor trying to rope me into another 24 months contract at a higher price? Should I have just waited instead? 

[iniltous]

A ‘free’ upgrade to FTTP  (with no contractual extension or change in terms ) is part of the  Halo3+ benefits , but lots if customers are offered an upgrade to FTTP irrespective of being on the Halo benefits package as it suits both Openreach and BT to get customers onto FTTP when it’s available.

If you currently are on F100 , presumably you are a Gfast customer as F100 isn’t available on FTTC and FYI , if offered FF100 on FTTP  , full fibre 100 is actually 150Mb , so it  may represent an upgrade to ,( TBH  I’ve no idea if F100 on  Gfast is 100Mb or faster )  .

As stated , did the communication advise you to call (after all an installation appointment is necessary to upgrade to FTTP from FTTC/Gfast ) , if it did and you called the number on the letter/email and not the regular customer service number , then the BT guide was wrong in their actions and also factually incorrect , if you didn’t need to call , but due anyway , the guide was probably unaware of the offer you had been given and simply saw an  ‘upsell’ opportunity 

[chrisjp]

I'm afraid that all of BT's telephone agents are on commission to upsell you, and some of the more unscrupulous ones will resort to anything, including being economical with the truth, to get you to agree to a higher priced "upgrade" and thus secure their commission. Hence the threat to cut you off completely if you didn't agree to a new contract. It's all pretty dire but that seems to be the situation with broadband suppliers these days.
I would just sit tight and wait to be contacted about an installation date for your full fibre and DV

[Mckin123]

On my bill it say Fibre 100 with Halo, but I’ve just done a speed test and it said Download 131Mb and Upload 17Mb so I am getting faster speeds. And I did at first ring this number for more information 0330 1234 150 and that’s when I got the upsell! I kept repeating what was on the letter and she basically said well this is the package Full fibre 500 we can give you a special price today. Probably all on commission for selling 500 because when I mentioned 150 and 300 she said oh no that more money. Do you think I should just wait until they contact me? My current speed is fine for everything I use, mobiles, iPads, Netflix, Sky. I kept saying I don’t have any problems with my speed why do I want to go on 500? 

[Mckin123]

I think you’ve hit it on the button! So right honestly gone are the days of the nice friendly BT advisor, and their broadband prices have gone through the roof. I said, well  if you’re taking my direct line away and replacing it with cables shouldn’t I get a reduction. Well she wasn’t having that ha ha 

[imjolly · Accepted solution]

Yes just wait until BT get in touch about your change to digital voice and upgrade to full fibre. There is no change to your existing package as far as cost and renewal date

[WSH]

@Mckin123  Personally, I think we're at the stage where taking your own recording of any conversations you have with the "guides" is useful.  And informing them that you are recording it may be a great incentive to keep it honest.

[Mckin123]

Yes I’m definitely going to wait until they contact me. Thanks for your advice. I’m glad now I told her I would think about it and didn’t get pushed into renewing another 24 months contract. I found it’s easy to upgrade but you try downgrading it’s an impossible task.