Hi,
I have received a email from BT Informing me that from April they will be increasing there day rate to 5.9p per minute.
At one time a land line phone was cheaper than using a mobile. Not any more, I have a Pay as you go mobile and all I pay is 5p per minute. Using my mobile even for short calls I will pounds in over a month

I'm more irritated by the change of 'evening' calls from 6pm-6am to 7pm-7am. For me that works out as an increase in my call charges of a few thousand per cent.

BT have always been a rip off. Don't phone anyone and get people to phone you instead!

That's outragous.How many people will be caught out by that. My mother in law is 80 and won't read any bumph in her phone bill, calls the wife religously on 6pm.

As for the daytime charge.....I haven't used my landline for a daytime call for years now. All this will do is make more people use mobiles, profits will fall even more and they will try to find other ways of making money. Even higher daytime charges, increases of the odious "connection fee" and an 8pm start for evening calls.

I stopped using BT for calls ages ago. With my Virgin National Broadband via my BT line, Virgin gives me free evening and weekend calls 6pm - 6am.

With the BT line I still have access to 18185, 1280 and 1263 so can ring the changes on who to use for calls.

But to be honest, I use my Virgin Mobile with 300/300 which gives me 300 minutes and 300 texts for £10 per month, which equates to 3p per minute with NO connection fee on top.

I will remember to remind my 86 year old Mum about the changes in case she hasn't seen the notice.

BT must have a death wish.

They put up charges to try and recoup for the customers they keep losing but they will just lose more customers.

So is Virgin the only alternative to BT ?

Why haven't any more companies 'sprouted up' ?

BT are moving the evening call rate from 18:00 to 19:00 too.

There are many an alternative.

http://www.primussaver.co.uk/calls.html is one.

Keep BT for line rental, use Primus for calls - Pay Primus no monthly fee and you get evening and weekend calls, 3p/min daytimes - though you'd use the likes of Call 18185 who charge 5p per call. Also Primus Daytime doesn't start until 08:00.

Er. Talk Talk, Sky Talk, Orange, AOL, Primus ......

I just got the email telling me that as well, I bet they are trying to get people to pay the extra for BT anytime or what ever they call it.

I will not be renewing my so called renewable contract. I wonder if the same thing applies to BT broadband talk?

I got the email from BT the day about the price increase.
BT changing the evenings to start at 7pm seems a bit crap.
I use broadband talk to make most of my free evening and weekend calls.
The price increase by BT seem a little crap. Yet they tell you they are always looking at passing the savings on to there customers.
I can see why my sisters moving everything over to the post office when her BT broadband option 1 contract ends this month.
I have been with BT for 4 years now for there broadband and the now I get £5 of a month from there bt total option 2 and I have so far been 98% happy with there servive.
Im maybe thinking myself due the the price increase of there call charges moving all over to the post office as well when my BT contract is up come the BT bill in july.
I will at first miss the extra phoneline that BT talk offers but think I would save £4 or £5 a month with the post office.
If the post office had offered phone/broadband just over 4 years ago when I was moving from a Tiscali dial up package I may have went with the post office then and not BT.

Darren

BT broadband talk have never worked that well for me, the audio quality is awful, people complain about their voice echoing back to them and the only way I can use the hub phone is if I lie it on the arm of my chair and use hands free, other wise everyone says it is too loud and sharp.

when I use BT broadband talk on my mobile phone it is fine or when I use the softphone on my computer, so I presume that it is the hub phone that have a problem,.

You can join the PO for your tel line and still use someone else for BB.

I like the PO no contract just one month notice for tel line but I don't like the PO 12 month contract for their BB.

I think I will wait till my BT broadband option 2 contract is up a week or so after I get the BT bill in July and then think of moving it all over to the post office then. For my BT broadband contrect is up at the end of July.
How easy is it to move it all over and do you losse your broaband for a time after you give your mac code to another ISP. EG post office.
Also how good is the post office for broadband and what wireless router do they use. Also what anti-virus/firewall do they offter and is it free and can it be used on my pc and laptop.

Darren

the post office don't like me, when I applied before they would not take me due to my credit rating, their loss

The change to the evening period is very sly and will catch out many people. It was 6pm-8am not so long ago so why not leave it at the current 12 hour slot?
I'm interested in 02 for home phone provision as they already provide my broadband and are reliable and efficient. I'm currently tied to a 12 month contract with BT for calls until September (and I'm not prepared to pay a penalty for ending it early) but will definitely look at the alternatives when that expires.

This is a very sly move by BT, not impressed at all.

Most people have it in their mind that off peak calls start at 6pm, it's been that way for years.

I seems like they are out to squeeze every last penny out of their customers at the moment.

There are other increases in charges mentioned in the e-mail I received when I looked into the detail.

Did anyone notice a while ago that if you don't make several chargeable calls a month you get charged £1 for BT answer, the "free" service" ?

I ditched 1571 after BT/Talktalk stuffed up my line 2 years ago.Both accused the other of terminating a contract 'on my instructions' and I still don't know wherre the truth lies but hey I'm just the affected party...........
With connection fees short messages are very expensive on 1571 and I just return calls as and when required (using ID on the phone).

Prce increase BT are having a Laugh



BT are a laugh.

Oh well that my landline moving to O2 in March once they get there landline offer up and running.

BT are a joke! I cannot believe they have the gall to make evening charges start 1 hour later after years of being at 6pm.

They'll probably terminate the 'weekend period' at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon next.

Had a phone call from Bt today, price increase is from the VAT going up, so he said. The evening window is because a survey say more people uses the phone between 7-9pm, but why that makes a difference I don't know.

I asked him if BT likes losing customers and that it took me over 4 years to go back to BT. I did also tell him that it is more likely that more people uses the phone before 7pm, which is why they moved the window. Also told him there is plenty of competition and that I will not be renewing my contract and will be looking elsewhere.


Trying to understand him was the problem, the line quality was awful and another Indian call center,. I thought BT was getting rid of them?

Just this email from Bt

Thank you for your email dated 02/02/10 regarding your BT account.

As discussed this morning at 10:52 on 07*******, I have reviewed your account and can confirm that you have been provided with unlimited evening and weekend plan for 12 month contract.

As I understand that you are not happy with the charge increased for calling plan. I like to confirm that the charges for calling plan is increased due to change in VAT amount which changed form £15% to 17.5%.

I also confirm that you are not happy with the changes in timings for evening and weekends.

• Our research shows that two thirds of our customers prefer to make calls after 7pm.
• Our usage analysis shows that our customers spend longest on the phone between 8pm and 9pm.
• Our daytime and evening ppm rates are still some of the most competitive in the market place. Our daytime rate is actually cheaper than Virgin’s evening rate, therefore, calls between 6pm-7pm will cost you less with BT than Virgin.
• We are also aligning our practices internally with our Global Services and BT Business operating units who already have a day / evening boundary of 7am-7pm.
• Customers can avoid this change by signing up to our Unlimited Anytime Plan.
I also confirm that as you are not happy with the broadband offer I have sent this email to our broadband team to look into this and provide you a better deal. Your reference is Blah, blah, blah
Once again, please accept my sincere apologises for the delay that you are experiencing and for the inconvenience that is causing you.
You may shortly receive a survey by email asking how I personally dealt with your complaint/enquiry today. If you require no further action but would like to comment on the service that I have provided please can I ask that you complete this survey rather than replying to this email. I would welcome your feedback to help me improve my customer service skills, as the questions relate to me personally. There is also a box for general comments about your overall experience with BT.


Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Mohammed
Digital Care Advisor

My parents are both in their late 80s and my father also suffers from vascular dementia.

I phoned BT on their behalf today, to try to upgrade their phone package to "Anytime".

I thought that this would be straightforward but instead I ended up talking to the rudest Customer Service operator I have ever encountered.

She told me very abruptly that my parents could only change their package by "going online to do it".

When I queried this she became very rude indeed, so I terminated the call.

I am now changing mum and dad's phone package over to Sky Talk.

I have now moved my own home phone away from BT too.

It's now 3 hours since I made the phone call to BT and I am still gobsmacked at how unbelievably rude the operator was!!!!

I would be gobsmacked as well, not everyone have the internet and even so why should you do it online.

Did you get the name of the person? if you did then best to write to head office.

No I didn't get her name. I was too shocked at her attitude to do that.

I tried to point out that my parents are both 88 years old and do not have a computer. She replied that many people of that age do use the internet so "it's not BT's problem"!

I also tried to ask if the "free 3 month" offer was internet only and she said "well of course it is!"

What a lovely company BT is!!!!!!!