BT Broadband Retentions

Hi All,
I have just rung up BT to see what deal they can do for me over a 12 month contract. I have been out of contract since last year just not got round to sorting anything out and with the recent price rises my Monthly bill has creeped up to £66 p/month.

my current my package / bill looks like this:

Broadband and Calls
Calling Plan Unlimited Weekend Calls
Broadband Unlimited BT Infinity 2
Entertainment Plus
£10.00
Access to AMC Channel and On Demand
TV BT Sport
BT Sport Pack
£0.00
Total rental and other charges
£63.99

BT Retentions have just quoted me:

12 Month Contract
Broadband and Calls
Calling Plan Unlimited Weekend Calls
Broadband Unlimited BT Infinity 2
BT Sport / £2 a month

SO
£53.99 p/m on a 12 Month Contract.

I have asked them to remove the TV package its worthless and I have also asked them to give me Internet/App access to the BT Sport only. But still I'm only saving about 10 p/m on my last contract and purely because they have took the entertainment plus tv package off. Doesn't seem like they have offered me anything Great to be honest.

I have not looked at the competition lately, I am happy with BT broadband service and thats all that matters and I wouldn't know who is reliable to jump ship to nowadays. My internet is normally solid, no congestion or down periods so happy to stay to some degree.

Should I take this deal or is there more room to haggle if I give them notice of me leaving?

Has anyone been offered any better deals from BT or elsewhere?

Absolute best would be £44.99 for new customers on BT Infinity 2

If you just need up to 76 Mbps then others are doing 12 month or longer offers at around £30/month, just watch out for cost of 'activation', PlusNet has free activation at present which helps.

Thanks Andrew, £30 a month for a 76Mbps service is pretty good in my eyes. Especially with no activation fee's.

How do they go about swapping the line over nowadays? downtime to phone/internet does the end user even notice other than a quick drop of Sync? or can there be some downtime?

I haven't switched suppliers for over 10 years now.

I am a little nervous leaving BT to another supplier as I don't have any issues with the service.

Do PlusNet throttle speeds? have poor congestion? would I notice the difference in service between BT and PlusNet?

I dont really want to leave BT but £23.99 a month difference £287.88 a year is a LOT.

Migration these days you just contact your chosen supplier.

As for whether PlusNet - best to ask those using the service

If you are considering PN as your next ISP have a look around the Community forum for the various views from members.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Forum/ct-p/Forum

I'll tell you what I am NOT happy with ALREADY from PlusNet is they have just this second called me up asking if I need help signing up with them.

Since I have inputted my Post Code and Phone Number into their website and got as far as viewing the package details page but then not proceeded with the Order just yet they have decided I need help and have called me up.

The advisor said we can see you have been on our website recently and then proceeded to give me the salesman tactics and even when I politely said I didn't need help just checking up packages myself he continued to talk about cash back. So I let him know I have finished considering it for tonight and I would rather call them if I needed help to which he politely ended the call.

This type of sales tactics really annoys me though.

Edited by Scoot (Wed 31-May-17 19:02:06)

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

If you are considering PN as your next ISP have a look around the Community forum for the various views from members.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Forum/ct-p/Forum

Thanks for the link Apprentice but unfortunately the nature of the internet and support forums is, if you go looking for complaints about a companies service you will undoubtedly find them. Not many jump on forums to give good feedback.

I will say this my BT broadband service has been nearly flawless for many years. Would be nice if some PN customers could say the same before I jump ship, but that phone call albeit maybe good natured has annoyed me.

Note sure why you are unhappy about them contacting you

it clearly say the following before you need enter your phone number

"If you don't complete your order we may use your contact details to understand what went wrong or to promote our products or special offers. Contact may be made via phone, email, post or text. Please un-tick the box if you don't want to hear from us."

it's your fault for not un ticking the box or reading what is displayed

Edited by deleted (Wed 31-May-17 19:26:44)

When it comes to following through with purchases i.e clicking Submit or Signing up to services/websites etc I always read and check the tick boxes.

However I didn't notice that text and check box when running my Post Code and Phone number through the Checker and have never known another ISP to do this?

I like to make my own decisions and don't appreciate the hard sell or sales people ignoring you saying "No thank you. I don't need any help" for them to change tactics and speak about other offers or cash back offers.

They should always take the "No thanks" first time and say "No problem give us a call if you do need help". As you say my own fault for not unticking the box.

Back on topic, BT haven't given you an offer at all, really.

When I was with BT I managed to negotiate:

£15 a month for Infinity 2
£5 for Unlimited Anytime Calls
£5 for Entertainment Plus & HD Extra

In addition to the standard £17.99/£18.99 line rental. I prepaid that with Line Rental Saver for the time I was with them, anyway. So you haven't been offered anything any good at all - you should be looking at getting what I got above, less the anytime calls (as weekend calls are included in all packages). Meaning aiming for £38.99 or so.

PlusNet is actually owned by BT nowadays, but their customer support and operations are separate. That said, PlusNet use the BT Wholesale network to get the traffic to and from the exchange (as do many other ISPs), so switching from one to another should incur little to no disruption depending on the way it is done, maximum 30 mins or so. Of course they might mess it up, but that's always a possibilty.

PlusNet support has a reputation for being really slow to get through to, especially at peak times - and they still don't support IPv6 which is ridiculous given how many other major providers do and how long it's been around (since 2000 or so). They seem to have the same "ask again in 6 months, every 6 months" attitude that pervades most of BT.

All that said, if you threaten to leave BT, or actually initiate the process by ordering a migration with PlusNet, you'll probably be given a retentions offer much closer to what I had. If you don't already have a Smart Hub modem-router (Home Hub 6, came out last summer) then you should also negotiate to get that thrown in for free, or at most the cost of postage.

With any of these major providers the customer service, support and technical stuff is never going to be very good, but generally in terms of new customer pricing you get what you pay for in the ISP world (BT excepted - their standard pricing is regulated by Ofcom). That's why I'm with AAISP now...

Any further questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

Edited by deleted (Wed 31-May-17 22:35:34)

BT have access to 'super save' offers - if you cry and give off enough you'll get it much more, I know as i worked for the executive level complaints team, so just demand a super save deal, any manager/complaints agent will have access to them.

If I log in to MyBT offers I have BT Infinity 2 inc line rental for £34.99

& I currently pay £25.99 inc line rental for infinity 1.

I would keep pestering, but ultimately do not be afraid to switch.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Thu 01-Jun-17 09:33:14)

Through that offers page earlier this year I got phone and Infinity 2 for £33.49 - which was an improvement on the offer I had got via the phone in January. Seems the website offers can be better than the ones you get by default from the BT staff.

Thanks for the replies guys, I am going to call BT 1 last time and give them a chance to offer me a better deal. Otherwise it looks like I will take the plunge with PlusNet for 12months.

I am worried about moving suppliers as I am very happy with my service but the cost savings may prove to be worth it if PN is just as good.

Thanks

Just as good? Their support is perhaps a little better quality but slow to get through to. The service should be similar otherwise - you get what you pay for!

Should be fine. Just ensure you do not ask BT to cancel, as that will cease the line and prevent plusnet taking over (as there wont be a line for them to takeover).

Check the cashback sites before going with plusnet. You can get about £80-100 for signing up.

In reply to a post by BuckleZ:

BT have access to 'super save' offers - if you cry and give off enough you'll get it much more, I know as i worked for the executive level complaints team, so just demand a super save deal, any manager/complaints agent will have access to them.

I have called BT 2 more times since my last post, thinking if you get a more experienced staff member or more willing person they might be able to offer a better deal. I mentioned any Super Saver deals or if there was any management to speak to before reluctantly moving to another supplier and they said the only deals they have are the ones on the system now and there are no management deals.

The 2nd time I called the advisor mentioned PlusNets contention ratio MAY not be as good as BT's. where BT have a 50:1 ratio, it may be the case PlusNet have 150:1 for example.

I have spoken to them 3 times now and they have all quoted the best possible price for a 12 month contract at £53.99 which includes.

BT broadband infinity 2 unlimited
Line Rental and Free Weekend Calls.
BT Sport Web Access. (£5.50 approx)

In reply to a post by pernickitypedant:

Just as good? Their support is perhaps a little better quality but slow to get through to. The service should be similar otherwise - you get what you pay for!

I don't know if I have been lucky or if this is a testament to BT broadband, but support team accolades dont go far with me, as preferably the service should just work and you should not need to contact them. Thankfully never really needed to use BT support.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Should be fine. Just ensure you do not ask BT to cancel, as that will cease the line and prevent plusnet taking over (as there wont be a line for them to takeover).

Yes thanks for this advice, I have picked this info up when reading another thread but its nice to know other people have this knowledge and you have taken the time to pass it on to me. Thanks

I don't know if I am asking for too much or being a tight *** but £53.99 a month when I can see deals of £31 p/m from PlusNet feels like BT are screwing me. Just don't wish to move providers and regret it.

I think you have been unlucky with your calls to retention. I call them direct near contract end.

For £47. something pence I get Phone Unlimited Weekend, caller display. Infinity 2. BT Sport, AMC on a recording box. BT Mobile Sim only 500Mb package (unlimited calls as I got in on a deal early on).

The BT TV package will incur a charge from August I believe.

I have been with BT for many decades, maybe that affects the deals you are offered, who knows!

Are you actually getting through to the Retentions team, or are you talking to the first-line support or their manager on the phone?

Only the Retentions team can go beyond the standard offers.

What the best way to get to them at BT is I don't know.

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 06-Jun-17 18:05:46)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are you actually getting through to the Retentions team, or are you talking to the first-line support or their manager on the phone?

I have been calling BT on: 0800 783 1401 which when answered the 1st option is: "if you are calling to cancel your service press 1"

I found the number from here: https://www.bt.com/help/home/contactus/#/home/billing
Cancel a product or service Link.

1 advisor did put me on hold after I asked if a Manager could do better and came back with No, that is the best they can offer me on a 12month contract.

They are basically offering me £48.49 for the phone and infinity 2 unlimited service. As the add on BT Sport is approx £5.50 p/m the advisor told me. To be honest if they had chucked the Sport Web Access in for free and offered me £48.49 I would have took it, with the added knowledge I have had a pretty much faultless service the last 10 years.

They just don't seem to want to keep my custom, but I am hesitant leaving them for a cheaper maybe more congested service.

Edited by Scoot (Tue 06-Jun-17 19:12:27)

Recently it does seem for plenty of users, BT only offer good deals ONCE they see a migration on your account. IE if you signed up for Plusnet today, and called BT tomorrow there would be super deals on your account.

This is a long process as it requires you placing an order elsewhere, then calling the standard 150 number and speaking to cancellations. Negotiating a good deal, calling plusnet and cancelling. Calling BT back 24 hours later to confirm said deal has been applied.

Give em one last shot on 0800 800150

Ask over and over for cancellations.

When they offer no good deals ask calmly for a manager or supervisor. This is when I usually get the deals. Explain if no deal is given now an order with plusnet is going in immediately after the call. Only the manager has ever offered me anything good & I usually get transferred (not just someone asking).

I often call around this time, usually works fine for me.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 06-Jun-17 19:15:25)

Direct number: 0800 022 3263 - Customer options team

The number I use, UK based.

In reply to a post by radiomarko:

Direct number: 0800 022 3263 - Customer options team

The number I use, UK based.

Interestingly that is where the 150 number always takes me and I get transferred as necessary.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

In reply to a post by radiomarko:

Direct number: 0800 022 3263 - Customer options team

The number I use, UK based.

Interestingly that is where the 150 number always takes me and I get transferred as necessary.

Gave it one last shot today, with the 0800 provided above. Got through to someone in Warrington. I explained this was my last attempt and they must log the calls and he said he could see I have called in about 5 times now trying to renew and he was not going to waste any of my time and said he would go speak to a manager straight away and explain as a long standing customer trying to stay with them this was there last chance.

So all in all I have come away singing up to a new 12 month contract with them. Ended up with

12 Month Contract
Broadband and Calls
Calling Plan Unlimited Weekend Calls
Broadband Unlimited BT Infinity 2
BT Sport & BT TV

For: £47.99 p/m

He also mentioned the TV/BT Sport package was going up in price later this year but the manager is inputting it manually to give me this at half price for the length of the contract.

Maybe this isnt deal of the century but I am happy with my service from BT and finally got them to drop it below the £53.99 mark and I have kept the TV package purely to get the sport really but he ho, finally got somewhere with them.

Thanks all

Edited by Scoot (Mon 03-Jul-17 18:30:10)