BT

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

I find BT the most infuriating company to deal with. Their website is dreadful, tarrifs confusing and 'contracts' only of value to BT. Just had letter from them blithely stating they are going to 'upgrade me' extra hours of calls that I don't need and extra cost of £4.50 a month thank you very much. This is on a 'contract' set up in March.

Changing provider is not that straightforward where we live, many other providers can't do our area.

Bill D.

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

By contrast had a message from Tesco mobile saying they will 'never change prices mid contract, never have, never will'.

Bill D.

[TomfileryParticipant @tomfilery]

Bill,

I agree with you re the BT website tariffs and contracts – funny how they never manage to show you exactly what tariff you are on and the benefits you get so that you could compare it with the new proposal.

When I got the same letter, I rang them and told them that I felt their charges were outrageous and that I didn't want to pay them a penny more than currently. They looked at my phone usage and decided that there was an alternative to the tariff proposed and they added the technical help as well – something they've been trying to give me for ages at extra cost. My experience has been that every contract tweak doesn't necessarily cost me less, but I'm now at the stage where I refuse to pay more.

You may wish to consider adopting the same approach and should they subsequently ask you to provide feedback, give them both barrels (obviously not the call handler, but definitely the company).

Regards Tom

[OldironParticipant @oldiron]

Had a message this week from Virgin saying prices staying the same this year.

Sister in law just changed from BT to Vodaphone ( she has their mobiles also) and the price is about 1/3 of BT's for a very similar package.

regards

Edited By Oldiron on 13/08/2020 19:38:45

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

BT is the British Leyland of Telecoms

I wish the government would just let them die instead of supporting them

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Changing provider is not that straightforward where we live then I would suggest you dont not go anywhere near Tesco !

H

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Tesco is a step up from O2, omg they are bad

The really good mobile deals usually show up in January btw, I got a nice virgin one

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Ady1 on 13/08/2020 19:39:31:

BT is the British Leyland of Telecoms

I wish the government would just let them die instead of supporting them

Try to keep up Ady, BT has been a PLC since privatisation in 1982. Admittedly the transfer took time to complete, but the company was 50.4% private by 1984 and all government shares and control were gone by 1997.

Although old BT smacked of British Leyland, their misdeeds over the last 23 years are Private Sector. For example they're free to apply annoying commercial techniques like indifferent support, data pimping, and bumping prices year on year because they know I have better things to do than swap provider.

BT are doing a good job if their purpose is making profits, averaging about £2Bn pa this century. Less effective if the purpose is providing top service to loyal customers at rock-bottom prices. C-minus for providing secure national communications to protect personal, commercial, civil and military information. BT understand the need for security, but there's no money in it, and it's so much cheaper to have the likes of Huawai check their own homework…

Dave

[john halfpennyParticipant @johnhalfpenny52803]

And Virgin 'upgraded' me last year from payg to a monthly contract. They took my balance without asking to pay tge first mon the – theft by another name. Needless to say I am no longer a customer.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

They privatised the employees but gave BT preferential landline treatment and various handouts for "national interest" purposes

Government welfare and handouts are the only reason BT still lives and the godawful management of that company are still in business

Great pension scheme for those from the pre nationalisation days though, a model of wealth redistribution

edit: A big part of the reason BT is so rubbish IMO is the government dodging their pensions responsibility at privatisation and then running BT along a kind of quasi communist libertarian business model, so it was always going to be a mess and almost everyone ended up a loser

Edited By Ady1 on 14/08/2020 09:04:23

[Bill DawesParticipant @billdawes]

My wife and myself have been with Tesco mobile for some years now and we can honestly say never had a problem.

My gripe with BT (well one of them) is the difficulty of finding simple straightforward information on what you've got, what options there are etc. and how they managed to design the bill to be such a mess is a masterpiece.

Sky are not much better in that respect, always difficult to find ways of reducing your bill if you need to, the important things the consumer want are buried away somewhere.

We have just had Truespeed broadband run down our lane, can't justify the cost but looking at their website it appears to be simplicity itself, just a few simple tariifs depending on what usage you want and similar for phone usage, otherwise no installation cost, no extra for line rental etc. I'm tempted.

Bill D.

[RMAParticipant @rma]

I have found with all utilities I can get deals on my terms if I tell them I'm leaving. BT always gets a bashing, and a few comments on here refer to individual assessment of the company, and of course everyone is entitled to their opinion.

However some research into the facts might be a good idea. The company might not have been the best when it was Nationalised, and it did have a monopoly (except for Hull), prior to Thatcher's intervention! I remember when goodwill and customer service was a priority. Unfortunately Thatcherism was all about making a profit and to hell with anything else. PO telephones became BT via a few name changes, a private company with many government strings attached. For example, the 'phone box network had to be kept and maintained by BT after privatisation, a massive loss for the company, and proved when Mercury was set up thinking it would be a money spinner…..how long did that last? The BT infrastructure also had to be made available to any new kid on the block.

The communications industry in this country is not straight forward nowadays, most new companies are foreign owned and OFCOM is pretty pathetic. From my experience it's best to shop around as soon as an increase is announced by your current supplier, it's surprising how good a deal you can get!

 

Edited By RMA on 14/08/2020 10:59:09

[clogsParticipant @clogs]

if u think BT is bad try the French system….basically 1 provider and customer beware….

Now in Crete, for €31 per month…..unlimited downloads with a good wifi box…..every TV national station (all carp), hahaha) plus National Geogra plus a few others in voice original….some call's nationally free…..

paid about the same in France for just a land line……..wouldn't have the land line if there was a Mobile signal….

need to text, walk up the hill for a Kilometer and get 1 bar………

internet at the same level as Greece was €50per month extra….

At least in the UK u got competion…..U aint that bad off…..honest…..it just seems bad….

what was that, travel broadens the mind……hahaha….

[Author]

Posts