BT call display charge: breach of contract?

There has been some discussion of BT's increased charges which come into effect next month. I have a contract until July with line rental paid in advance. From January 4 I shall have to pay £1.75 per month for caller display which I have had free on my existing contract.

If I want to keep this free service I shall have to take a new 12-month contract; this implies that my existing contract has been changed. In view of this change, would I be entitled to leave BT without penalty ?

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

There has been some discussion of BT's increased charges which come into effect next month. I have a contract until July with line rental paid in advance. From January 4 I shall have to pay £1.75 per month for caller display which I have had free on my existing contract.

If I want to keep this free service I shall have to take a new 12-month contract; this implies that my existing contract has been changed. In view of this change, would I be entitled to leave BT without penalty ?

It would depend how the Caller Display was described in your existing Contract.

If it described it as a a free-add-on, then it might not necessarily be regarded as part of the existing Contract.

But if it describes the Contract as specifically including the Caller Display, then you could possibly argue the case!

However, it is likely that BT has had their Lawyers go through the small-print very thoroughly!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

It would depend how the Caller Display was described in your existing Contract.

I don't think BTP+CD was ever written into the contracts, it was just a free extra for those who were eligible.

All Calling Features are separate add-ons, some chargeable some not, to your Line Rental and Call Plan contracts. BT are changing the charge for BT Privacy + Caller Display (not Caller Display alone which is already chargeable) from free to £1.75 pm from 4 Jan, unless you sign up for a new 12-month Line Rental contract.

It will depend on whether BT will allow those on LRS to sign up and. if so, how it will work. BT could easily say that those on LRS are not eligible, but haven't seen anything on BT.com to say either way, and they would be within their contractial rights.

Do your Calling Features, from http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProduc... , contain an entry:.

o BT Privacy with Caller Display free for 12 months....................................................... £0.00

Includes the option to register for the Telephone Preference Scheme (TPS) to help prevent unwanted sales calls. A new 12 month line rental contract applies

If so, presumably that are allowing you but you need to speak to them to find out how it affects your LRS. If it is not there, presumably you are not eligible.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I don't think BTP+CD was ever written into the contracts

Nor are the chargeable Calling Feature, e.g. Caller Display itself or Call Minder. It is no diff from those.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

There has been some discussion of BT's increased charges which come into effect next month. I have a contract until July with line rental paid in advance. From January 4 I shall have to pay £1.75 per month for caller display which I have had free on my existing contract.

If I want to keep this free service I shall have to take a new 12-month contract; this implies that my existing contract has been changed. In view of this change, would I be entitled to leave BT without penalty ?

I can't see how they could claim that this wasn't material detriment, so according to OFCOM they should allow you to leave:

In reference to consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/contracts/:

... if you believe the change will cause you material detriment, your provider should consider this and, if they agree, allow you to end the contract without penalty.

If you believe your provider has not followed these requirements, contact their customer services department and explain your problem.

If this doesn�t resolve your problem, ask your provider for a deadlock letter. This enables you to take your complaint to an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme.

This is no more detrimental than any other BT price increase affecting all of us.

The additional amount for caller display and/or 1571 is a huge percentage of the line rental, in effect being added to it.

Complain to BT, if they persist with the charge, get them to send you a deadlock letter, and send it to Ofcom.

Do any mobile phone companies charge for caller display? and how would you feel if they started charging?

The best long term strategy is to quit BT.

Thanks for your views, folks, you confirm my own views. From my BT accounts page:

Included in your phone package
Unlimited calls to UK landlines all weekend
Inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers all weekend
Get BT privacy, BT answer 1571, and BT 1471 calling features at no extra cost

Caller display has always been part of my contract. I have been offered free caller display but this is tied to another 12-month contract, so nothing doing, come July I'm off!
Just another example of a big company assuming its long-term customers will pay up regardless at renewal time. Sad to see BT join the insurance companies on the trophy list for killing the geese that lay golden eggs

My BT email from the start of Oct. advising of these changes stated:

"If this change means you want to end your service, you can do that by telling us within ten days of receipt of this email without needing to pay a charge for ending your contract early."

So I guess you've missed this 10 day period to leave early.

I'm just about to leave BT for Zen's phone package as I'm also unhappy with BT's plans

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Get BT privacy, BT answer 1571, and BT 1471 calling features at no extra cost

That doesn't prove you have it; that is merely an invitation to take it up. You should look at your actual Calling Features from that page I pointed you at.

Yes I was given this offer but could not see how to recover my seven months of line rental paid in advance.
@xrayspecs: quote came from my accounts page behind my BT login. Point taken but it's not worth the hassle.

Finally, to anyone considering leaving BT before their contract ends, I've just seen BT's increases from January 4: for example BB option 1 and unlimited calls, termination charge goes from £11 to £19.25 per outstanding month, an increase of 75%. I suppose those £zillion sports rights must be paid for somehow.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

@xrayspecs: quote came from my accounts page behind my BT login. Point taken but it's not worth the hassle.

I'm fully aware where it comes from! Everyone has the same words whether they have those features or not. So quoting it to us is meaningless.

> The best long term strategy is to quit BT.

Most Telco firms charge more than that for it, though, if someone wants/ needs Caller Display.

I thought it was only free if it was part of BT Privacy, otherwise it was just an optional network service, and carried a monthly / quarterly fee. Not sure how it came to be free for the OP.

Actually, some of us are NOT using BT for our line, so it is not a complete waste of effort quoting from it. Seems odd the OP says it is free - maybe there was a special offer on at the time (I had a line installed free in 2010 so long as I made a couple of calls a month for 18 months - I wasn't allowed to take up the Line Rental Saver in 2011 when the rental fee went up).

Since most of these firms charge plenty for the basic line rental, I switched in August 2011 to Primus, continued to use them when I moved home in early 2012, and earlier this year my line rental dropped from 7.99 to 5.99 (no included calls). I use 1899.com for international and some (01/02) landline calls, and my mobile for most others. ISP is Plus.Net (so at some point they may charge me a little more for not having Plus.Net line rental too).

Edited by deleted (Mon 30-Dec-13 07:42:14)

That states you can get BT Privacy for free it does not explicitly state it is part of your contract. Therefore when you sign up for BT Privacy I believe it gave a separate set of Ts&Cs for the service (including a requirement to make at least 2 calls per quarter) - these are a separate set of conditions to the main line conditions and therefore are potentially a separate contract.

I guess somewhere out there is paying BT for line rental plus all the calling features and caller display. If so, that's a staggering £26.55 per month. And to avoid the eye watering call charges have perhaps signed up for a call plan as well for another £7; somewhere around £34 a month per line.

It's not surprising that many have opted out of dealing with BT and found an alternative that suits them best. So in many ways this constant chat about the caller display charge from BT is somewhat irrelevant. Pay up or shut up really.

In my case a cheapo phone/broadband package plus VoIP was the answer for me, especially as I had a two line requirement. For others a mobile service seems to be the ticket plus using free Wi-Fi for their broadband needs.

So instead of moaning about an unjustified £1.75 charge for caller display, simply seek out alternatives where it remains free.

In reply to a post by ultra:

Most Telco firms charge more than that for it, though, if someone wants/ needs Caller Display.

BT's two largest competitors (aside from VM) are Sky and Talktalk, neither of whom charge for voicemail or caller display.

Of course there are loads of minority providers using WLR, but I think it's more sensible to compare alternative telcos by volume of subscribers.

Yet another bite from BT: if one exceeded one's BB allowance (10gb for option 1) BT sent a warning email but did not charge for the first breach. I see that charges now apply from the first breach and have been increased from £5 to £5.30 per extra Gb. As trolleybus says these are small amounts; but add them up and BT prices appear exorbitant. Unfortunately those of us still in contract cannot take the choices he suggests. Yet.