Price rise.

[iniltous]

If people just renew instead of calling and asking for something equivalent to a new customer price , then they are disadvantaged, but that’s not unique to BT , posting on here what a BT customer would pay Sky as a new Sky customer needs to be compared to what an existing Sky customer would pay BT as new BT customer , otherwise it’s not comparable.

I’m certainly not saying BT are as cheap as some  , just that the ‘Im paying BT £49 and can change to Sky for £25 although true , misses out the ‘I also could call BT and get my bill down from £49 to £28 ‘ because this is also true , but never mentioned….Saving £3 or £4 is still a saving and justification enough if justification is needed to switch , no need to make the £25 cheaper claim which generally isn’t a like for like comparison.

Much like you , my renewed BT ‘deal’ put me back to what I was initially paying 2 years ago ,but I accept that in March this year and the following March , £4 will be added , and in just under 2 years , should I renew I’d expect the price to be not the cheapest but competitive.

[Kimberlin]

@iniltous 

I’m currently paying £33.99 a month for 500mbps broadband FTTP with no landline. I accept that come April, I’ll be paying £37.99 a month. Come April ‘27 however, I won’t even be having a conversation with my current ISP about renegotiating a price because I’ve got zero interest in wasting time and the breath in my lungs talking to them, I’ll just switch using OTS again.

All that said, if EE are still offering dosh to break my current contract early at the end of March this year and provided I get the same speed as I get now, I’m sure the new customer price may well be worth jumping ship for. We’ll see.

[Jane2018]

In a few months I may try to get my broadband and landline down from usually over £80 to something else but I am not holding my breath. I don't think i have been in a contract consciously at least ever - we moved here and got the landline and internet in 1997.

[iniltous]

switching providers every time a contract expires is a perfectly reasonable step to take , some may take a different view , possibly thinking better the devil you know , and in my case avoiding the hassle of not having client access to my email …however this has a cost limit , should the differential be too much I’d switch, but ultimately you take your path , others will take a different one .

[somniac]

Switching providers is a reasonable step but I am 74 and can’t be bothered. Frankly I have better things to do. Ringing them to negotiate a better price is something I have done many times in the past but now also can’t be bothered. No one should be in the position of having to haggle over the price of such an essential service. Imagine having to haggle over the price of water or electricity.  BT and other providers are a law unto themselves. I shall probably just renew my contract at the same price which is what they have offered. But my original question still goes. How can a 10% rise be justified?

[WSH]

Oh, I think you will end up having haggle over water/electricity etc.

What do you think smart meters are for, if not to setup for spot pricing on demand in the future?  They’re certainly not to do the customer any favours and someone will have to foot the bill for them at some point.

…but for what it’s worth, I fully agree with you.  I posted many months ago on ISPreview, when they first proposed switching to a fixed price and everyone was getting excited about it.  £3 (as it was then) is 10% on a £30 package.  OFCOM are not doing anyone any favours.

[Kimberlin]

Perhaps I should probably be far less critical of those that literally cannot be bothered to either renegotiate their broadband contract or switch ISP.

Congratulations if you’re wealthy enough not to even care about how much you’re over paying, you’re probably subsidising cheaper broadband for those of us that refuse to be taken for a ride. So please, keep forking out more than you have to so I don’t have to 👍

Literally, switching is now easier than it ever has been with OTS, you don’t even need to talk to your ISP anymore, a few minutes online, pick a date and switch. The process can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be depending on your current set up.

[gg30340]

---

@somniacwrote:

 But my original question still goes. How can a 10% rise be justified?

---

It was answered in message 2.

[iniltous]

@somniac … if you can’t be bothered to call BT or initiate a switch elsewhere, login to your BT account and offers and see what your personalised offers are , In my case the personal offer was quite reasonable, in fact I initially took that route towards renewal but a glitch made the online renewal fail , you may find an offer saves some money on what you currently pay , and you simply press a button to take the offer , but you still get the increase in March , unless you pay a couple of months of out if contract price and then take a deal in March .

[WSH]

In my case those offers were equally ridiculous. 

It was only after I initiated a move to Sky, and they screwed it up, that I went back to MyBT for another look and, miraculously, the offers had changed to something quite reasonable.

....hence, you're stuck with me.