In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I am not sure, as they are very confusing.

Seems to be, yeah!

As I said before, if it turns out 6 months down the line that people cannot renew their LRS because they opted in to BTP+CD thee will be a lot of unhappy people. I would have imagined this fact would have had to be made very clear on the website, unless they consider "A new 12 month line rental contract applies" to be sufficient (i.e. LRS cannot be renewed until the "new contract" expires).

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

They said someone normally going to the free privacy offer is required to commit for 12 months and becomes not eligible for a new LRS deal. Apparently the one offered to me was via goodwill.

This is extremely ugly if what you are being told is true.

I've already commented on the vague terms and conditions when pre-registering for free BTP+CD, also that the Price List terms and conditions for Line Rental Saver permit excluding customers taking "certain special offers or deals". This appears to allow BT Retail to exclude those who have taken free BTP+CD from taking or renewing Line Rental Saver. Worse still, BT Retail need not make any sort of public statement about this exclusion from LRS.

In other words, those who have taken the discount of free BTP+CD commit themselves to a new 12 month minimum contract period and may have unknowingly excluded themselves from the larger LRS discount for that period.


Such a situation seems difficult to attack under contract law. BT seem to be attempting to place any Line Rental Saver exclusion outside the contractual terms of someone who has taken free BTP+CD, which does not appear to allow escape from the new minimum contract period that is part of free BTP+CD via a route such as the fairness test in The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/2083). I can see ways that such an exclusion might contravene The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/1277), but those regulations give no right of remedy to an individual consumer at present (and a draft amendment will only give a right to unwind the contract during the first 90 days).


If this is the level BT Retail have stooped to, I am even more determined to look for alternatives once my current Line Rental Saver is up. This is beginning to sound like a huge scandal in the making.


MrSaffron / Seb - can you get a clear statement out of BT Retail about the interplay between free BTP+CD and other BT Retail products?

Edited by deleted (Fri 01-Nov-13 21:47:24)

In reply to a post by David_W:

that the Price List terms and conditions for Line Rental Saver permit excluding customers taking "certain special offers or deals". This appears to allow BT Retail to exclude those who have taken free BTP+CD from taking or renewing Line Rental Saver.

Would you not expect those "certain (but not others) special offers that prohibit LRS, to explicitly state that they do not allow LRS to be taken if the special offer is taken up?

Moreover, that Price List is already out of date. Have a look at BT Privacy at Home in Sect 1 Part 31 http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Exch_Lines_boo/341... . No mention of the new charges and conditions. I expect that to appear later in Notices 2014.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

In reply to a post by David_W:

that the Price List terms and conditions for Line Rental Saver permit excluding customers taking "certain special offers or deals". This appears to allow BT Retail to exclude those who have taken free BTP+CD from taking or renewing Line Rental Saver.

Would you not expect those "certain (but not others) special offers that prohibit LRS, to explicitly state that they do not allow LRS to be taken if the special offer is taken up?

Just because the implication is there is a closed and definite list of special offers or deals which are incompatible with LRS does not require BT to publish that list. BT must publish certain information for contractual or regulatory reasons, but they have no obligation to publish any other information. You could argue it is in BT Retail's interests to make it as hard as possible to discover which offers and deals prevent you from taking Line Rental Saver.

In reply to a post by XRaySpeX:

Moreover, that Price List is already out of date. Have a look at BT Privacy at Home in Sect 1 Part 31 http://www.bt.com/pricing/current/Exch_Lines_boo/341... . No mention of the new charges and conditions. I expect that to appear later in Notices 2014.

The BT Price List lays out the terms available from BT Retail today - not the position at some point in the future. At the appropriate time, I would expect the Privacy at Home section itself to be updated.

The Notices are mainly about limited derogations from terms elsewhere in the Price List. A Notice is most often published when BT ceases to rely on a contractual term for regulatory reasons, though sometimes a Notice gives details of a limited special offer.


Exactly how BT will handle the Price List aspects of the Privacy at Home changes is unclear. Most likely, they will just amend the Privacy at Home section, effective from 6 January 2014, though we may see something published earlier relating to the pre-registrants. Upcoming changes typically appear in the Price List notifications a few days before their implementation, unless contractual or regulatory reasons require earlier notification. The last change in the Privacy at Home section was notified four days before implementation.

Not suggesting BT publish LIST of LRS busting offers but with each such offer individually to state that LRS wont be permitted, within its TandCs.

Often used Notices to back up a Special Offer like 1GBP pm off line rental or 3m free Call Plan.