I just received details of the following new calling plan from Uswitch with First Telecom.

It seems that at least somebody is trying to strike back against BT's attempt to force everybody to sign up for Option 3 and to bring in high call connection fees and per minute charging on weekdays for those who dare stay on their basic free weekend calls plan. :o >:(


Quote:

talkeasy – Free package and line rental at £10.40 per month. No minimum call charges, connection fees or contracts. Calls charged per second. Evening & weekend calls to UK landlines 0.2p/min and daytime calls cost 1.2p/min. Compare totaltalk – Package £3.50 per month and line rental £10 per month. No minimum call charges, connection fees or contracts. Calls are charged per second. Evening & weekend calls to UK landlines 0.15p/min and daytime calls cost 0.3p/min. Only available on uSwitch.com!

However obviously BT do free weekend calls for only £10.50 per month as long as you sign a 12 month contract so this is only really of interest to those who don't make many calls altogether but are sometimes at home on weekdays and don't want to have to sign up to BT Option 3 and a 12 month self renewing contract.

See Uswitch link for more info.

~ Edited by Dave: Link amended

BT do week end AND evening calls (up to an hour) for free if you sign up to the 12 month contract.

But who wants to sign up to a 12 month contract with BT.  Once BT have you on the 12 month contract they will then later drop the evening calls being free while still having you contractually locked in.

Also the weekday datime cost on this calling plan at 1p per minute with no minimum charge or connection fee is far lower than BT's 4p per minute with 6p connection and per minute call charge rounding up.

It is outrageous that Ofcom allows the incumbent with Significant Market Power to try to restrict the freedom of its customers to move elsewhere.  If BT don't plan to raise their prices later then why do they need to lock these customers in for 12 months at a time? ;) ::)

Primus Saver Option  2 CPS gives free evening and weekend UK 01/02/03 calls of up to 1½ hours each for £0.00 per month - 30 day contract.

I might be a bit naive here and I realise that NGM has far more knowledge about all this than I do, but surely it is a two way contract, I mean if they ask us to sign up to a 12 month contract 'giving'  us free week end and evening calls, they have to honour that part of the deal just as much as we honour our part for signing up for 12 months. Or have I completely mis understood the meaning of the word contract?

After so many months the free evening calls disappear and then at the end of the 12 months the contract auto renews for another 12 months with you committed to paying the extra for the free evening calls plan for the next year and unable to leave (without big penalties).  BT won't tell you when the contract auto renews (you will have to remember to cancel at the right time) and this is the whole point of their suckering you in with the initial free evening calls offer.

This First Telecom plan is interesting for someone who is sometimes home on weekdays but doesn't make enough calls in total to justify paying the extra for BT Option 3 or equivalents.  Obviously no one can beat TalkTalk's broadband and phone deal but then you have to accept both a crap slow broadband service and sign up for 18 months.

Also this First Telecom plan has no connection fee and no per minute rounding up on weekday daytime calls.  Again pretty unusual these days.

My understanding is that they (BT) remind you after eleven months that your contract is due for renewal. If you ignore the letter they automatically renew. So it is up to the customer to do something in that remaining month if they want to cancel.

People are often busy when the renewal comes through and put it on one side.  That is what they are relying on.  Also BT might forget to send their renewal letter and blame it on the post or email spam filtering (if using online billing).  ;)

I repeat if BT intends to go on offering these attractive call plan deals and to offer customers excellent service then why do they need to lock anyone in for a 12 month term?

Unlike a broadband connection fee there is no high up front initial connection fee or one off free broadband wireless router cost being subsidised so why do they need to lock you in for an extended term?  Presumably only because they expect to recover the free evening calls period by you then paying the full cost of the evening calls plan (formerly Option Two) for the next year or two?  ::)

Perhaps the reason why they want to 'lock' you in, is so that they can be sure of their inome for the coming year. I mean if they have x number of customers guarenteeing a certain amount of income, I guess it will make their planning easier as they know what their minimum revenue will be...if you get  what I mean.

I have to say that I have been with BT for 32 years and so far they have never given me any problems with the telephone or Broadband.

It would appear you have never moved home for instance then and that you are an undemanding broadband customer (not downloading movies or other large files).  BT consistently get one of the worst customer ratings for broadband at www.dslzoneuk.net  Even TalkTalk now do considerably better than BT and their rating is rising month by month while BT's is not.

I am mystified at this bizarrely sense of loyalty and warm fuzzy feeling that some people seem to feel towards staying with the old bloated, highly inefficient state monopoly operator.

I have always found BT to have some of the rudest and most indifferent customer service staff of any company I know.

Wrong, I have moved home three times. Right I don't download movies or other large files. Wrong, I have never had a problem with their customer service staff. In fact once when I could not understand what an Indian guy was saying, I politely asked if there was someone English I could speak to and I was passed over to a very understanding English lady who sorted my problem out. Actually the only times I have had to phone them is about my Broadband and in the 15 months that I have had it, that has only been 2 or 3 times.

Like with all companies, you have to speak as you find.

That is not mose people's experience of BT as a company.

Still there always has to be the exception that proves the rule. ;)

I am very happy to use BT,unlike First Telecom they allow me to cps my calls to another supplier,use the likes of 1899/18185,and allow me to place cheaper calls through them via 1280,and providing  i put a couple of calls through them a month they will give me virtually free caller display. Also when my cps provider network crashed recently i could still use 1280 to place some calls.

I see that First Telecom charge £1.75p a month for caller display.

oldharryrocks wrote on Apr 15^th, 2008 at 7:06pm:

I am very happy to use BT,unlike First Telecom they allow me to cps my calls to another supplier,use the likes of 1899/18185,and allow me to place cheaper calls through them via 1280.

They only do that because Ofcom says they have to as the incumbent telco with Significant Market Power.  If they didn't have to do that they would stop you calling with other companies at the very first opportunity.  Look at how they have rushed to lock people in to 12 months rolling contracts as soon as Ofcom removed controls that stopped them from doing so.  When you are as large as BT there should be no need for 12 month rolling contracts.  When you are building up a brand like TalkTalk or Tiscali and giving huge subsidies to new customers there are more reasons to lock them in contractually at the outset.  Also your BT line rental is only as high as it now is because you are paying to give BT customers who are too idle to move elsewhere or use other carriers free weekend calls as a way to squash out innovative companies like yourcalls.net (who now canot compete)

I have more time for yourcalls.net and PostOffice Homephone neither of whom have to let you make calls with their competitors but both of whom choose to do so because they want to offer a service directoy equivalent to what is available with BT.

BT would force me to sign a 12 month minimum contract to return to them even though there is no cost to them in my line going back to them.  As a result of this they will never enjoy my business again. >:(

The BT 12 month rolling contract ,is the subject of an Ofcom Investigation as the result of a complaint by CPW.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/07/cnbt107.xml

NGMsGhost wrote on Apr 15^th, 2008 at 6:04pm:

sherbert wrote on Apr 15th, 2008 at 5:51pm: I have to say that I have been with BT for 32 years and so far they have never given me any problems with the telephone or Broadband. It would appear you have never moved home for instance then and that you are an undemanding broadband customer (not downloading movies or other large files).  BT consistently get one of the worst customer ratings for broadband at www.dslzoneuk.net  Even TalkTalk now do considerably better than BT and their rating is rising month by month while BT's is not. I am mystified at this bizarrely sense of loyalty and warm fuzzy feeling that some people seem to feel towards staying with the old bloated, highly inefficient state monopoly operator. I have always found BT to have some of the rudest and most indifferent customer service staff of any company I know.

As I have said before NGM you have far more knowledge than a lot of us, but help me out on this. I thought the speed of Broadband depended on the distance you were from the exchange and also what type of 'wires & cables' were underground like if you have fibre optic or whatever and if that is the case it does not matter what supplier you have.

Also BT (formerly the GPO who also owned the Post Office who are now competing against their former parent company) invested in all the telephone infrastructure and are now forced to rent or lease it out to their rivals. So what I am saying is whoever you have your telephone or Broadband with it  still belongs to BT in the first place. I would assume if you had your system with Talk Talk for example and your phone broke down, Talk Talk would get in touch with BT or Openreach to dig up the road and get it sorted, so surely the by going direct to BT you are cutting out the middle man?

I can not believe us millions of BT customers are as upset as you are. Perhaps you have been unlucky and have had a bad experience.

On another issue, until these companies bring their call centers back to the UK the customer service will never improve. O2 are certainly UK based and are very good. I did actually in my naivity email BT once having a moan about the Indian call centers and yup you have guessed right, the email went to India!!