Broadband/Phone contracts
My Bt contract is now expiring. The new offer is £34-99 pm, being, line rental, unlimited broadband and all phone calls. They are however extensively advertising the same deal to new customers at £22-99pm. Looking at other providers John Lewis have a good deal and available here. Anyone any experience of John Lewis deal. Dont really want to stay with BT as their service has been poor and they seem to want to screw loyal customers.
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I haggled with BT on the basis of them discriminating against long standing customers. I got a reduction.
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phone them up 0800800150 and explain you think its too much - then ask to be referred to the customer retention team. when you get them tell them the price you can get it from j lewis and that you will transfer unless they match it.... they did for me...
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Dine all that- the price quoted includes a £15 discount. You spend hours taking or "live chat" to Bt. Everyone gives a different price. At the end you have one option, stay or go. In my case its go but just wanted any feedback from J. Lewis users to make sure they are no worse on customer service than BT
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I know it is not exactly what you were asking but I have just left Talk Talk for a much better deal with Sky, the offer was too good to miss.
I gave BT the boot years ago for the same reason as you.
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I imagine that broadband / phone companies are no different to other suppliers (insurance, gas & electric, mobile phones etc) and you need to keep shopping around for the best deal.
Only problem is that with broadband, you have to change your email address, which is a bind.
NOW TV do some reasonable deals and you only need to commit for a month at a time.
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You keep email addresses, whatever internet provider you use. We have lots of different email addresses, created over the last few years (using a a whole number of providers, and we both have various 'identities' (some for forums, some for personal, some for 'business and banking' and some 'just because we can). Some email addresses are 'provided' by your internet provider, others you can choose, but if you no longer pay your internet provider to provide your internet, the email address is still valid!
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Not with BT. They reserve the right to terminate it after you stop using the service. If you want to keep an email address going after terminating your broadband contract there is a charge which went up exorbitantly last year..
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Well that does surprise me, Husky.
It depends on the broadband provider - some let you keep the address, others cancel it when you close your account. Some charge a monthly fee for letting you keep it.
TalkTalk say they will let you keep it for 12 months (so I'm surprised by what you say).
I believe BT let you keep it but charge a fee.
Sky let you keep it for free.
Virgin let you keep it for 90 days then cancel it.
They are all different.
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I think the John Lewis/Waitrose offer is run via Plusnet which in turn is owned by BT!!! Having said that have been with Plusnet for years and found they always good on service if the need arises. Its been a while since I looked at the JL offer but they used to be quite restrictive on the amount of download allowance so I would check that out. If you use it a lot for catch up TV you will use a lot of data.
As an aside regarding the e-mail address. I have been using a BT e-mail address for well over 10 years. Whilst I still use them for phone services I have not used them for internet for years. Perhaps its the phone that keeps the e-mail address.
David
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We left BT about 15 months back for exactly the same reason, and are presently on a £12 per month deal for phone and BB with SSE.
I expect it to rise a lot when we come to the end of our 2 year deal, so we will probably change provider again. It is quite a hassle, much more difficult than changing energy supplier, which we will probably need to do in a month or so.
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We are also BT customers as no one else can provide our internet 0.5mbs maximum, hopefully this year we are getting connected to fibre, I have to agree there customer service departments in India are a very poor service, the one in Northern Ireland is better, I had a faulty hub & could not get any one to replace it they just kept saying "we will now reset your hub sir that will sort the problem" however it never did , 1 email to head of BT customer services a new hub arrived 2 days later they also reduced my broadband fees as it's so bad,even threw in free caller display and weekend + evening calls
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Bt have just phoned. Loyalty Customer Department, Newcastle. After some chit chat regarding my transfer I have now been offered. 12 month contract. Line rental paid 12 months in advance ( as I have done for some years) which equates to £17-09m. Free Broadband for 12 months. with all add ons like security. Free BT sports package to 19/9/ 17, with option for me to renew free again on that date.(this date may coincide with the original BT sports package deal)Unlimited calls £6-50pm.. Have just cancelled the John Lewis deal. The new BT deal is in fact cheaper than the advertised deals. Why o why did they go to all this parlaver instead of giving a reasonable deal at the outset. They say they will confirm the details within the 14 days cooling off period. I wait.
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I changed from BT to Plusnet some years ago (which, ironically, is owned by BT) because of poor service from BT - and have not regretted it (so far). I would, however, have lost my BT email address which I have had for donkey's years and wasn't prepared to do that so I now pay BT £5 per month for a BT Mail account and it has been the same ever since I~ switched. It is still cheaper than staying with BT, plus service is better.
Plusnet, however, try to increase their broadband rates every year but haggling with them usually sorts that out.
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i use a web-based email @gmail ,others are available ie hotmail stick to these they work with any provider i moved form bt a few years ago because they were expensive you had different advice from different people they lied and i ended up having to pay lots of money because of wromg advice.I will never give them another penny so my advice is to use JL their inhouse customer service is their reputation.
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Update -still problems. Now got Feb bill with a cancellation charge of £68.Dont know why. It took from 8/1 to 27/1 to complete the new order and BT had to reschedule as our exchange could not deal with the new "call blocking". Seems I have been charged for their incompetence. Moral dont get talked into changing your mind once you have decided to leave. Never trust anything BT tells you.
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I changed from SKY to Vodafone fibre broadband+phone recently; a hassle free procedure and a £350 saving on an 18 month contract. No doubt I will have to change to someone else at the end of the contract.
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Still not fully sorted but spoke to a lady this morning to run through the errors again. BT cocked up the renewal but wanted to penalise the customer. It has taken 2 months to get them to confirm it was their error and that refunds are due. Now waiting for a written reply detailing the refunds and confirmation that the bundle expires on a single day. I wait with bated breath. As previously said. If you decide to change provider don't get talked into staying with some extra promise and get everything in writing.
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