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Author Topic: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes  (Read 10087 times)

WesBez7

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Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« on: June 07, 2016, 12:47:07 AM »

Frustrated with the constant price hikes of BT. My 3rd in 18 months.

1 - My line rental is increasing by £1 again. £18.99 just to be connected. The % hike has gone up greatly in the last few years. Especially the last two. £19 for no "perceived" value.

2 - Broadband & calls are set to increase by £3.  Seriously unacceptable because I don't use the house phone. It's 2016 & because smartphone. Calls are free. iPhone with the help of inclusive unlimited minutes, FaceTime &  whatsapp service all my needs. Contracts for mobile phones are data based.

I'm on the highest package and they've offered me nothing for three pounds.  The speed for their highest paying customers receive no speed increase. But if you're paying for a tier below you get an increase from 30's to 52mb. BT want bragging rights for fastest "standard" fibre (ie people who don't require the throughput) and basically these customers would not use it to capacity frequently enough otherwise warrant being on a faster package.

3 - While I find the BT TV to be good value for money for what I pay its another £1 added to my bill. Not so bad as I said it's good value but the fly in the ointment is the removal of FOX without any warning whatsoever. When was it removed? Annoyingly in the middle of the walking deads' final season. I was livid as I love FOX & yes I know SKY are playing hard but so is BT with sport. (SKY is evil for the record) I would have to pay to watch the rest. Got a nominal £20 rebate. One off only because I complained and not because I was told about the change. No monthly discount. I was an early adopter of BT tv and it's come a long long way. The value is there for me.

The HD channels are slightly annoying in as  far as 1080p is concerned as it doesn't display in full hd. I have a 4K TV and normal BBC HD is better. The ultra HD is great and it's always good to be first. The one annoying thing about having a old youview box is you can't use it as a free view box in another room and connected to the Internet for (Netflix or freeview catchup) as it'll interferes with the ULTRA HD boxs' paid catchup services. I learnt the hard way and only once I got the customer service call to the UK was it fixed. (Very painful calls to foreign call centres)

The extras are as follows

BT offer 300gb of cloud data on my package. Up from 50. I don't need it but I can't get a discount for not wanting it.

80% uk based customer services. It's welcomed especially for moving phone calls or difficult problems with services. The frustration calls even though very infrequent.

All this after the big spat between ofcom and the other players. Prices just can't keep going at the rate they are. I'm a loyal BT customer and enjoy the fast internet speeds they provide but this all boils down to perceived value and I feel as a customer that I'm being taken advantage of.

Would like to hear other members thoughts in terms of perceived value.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2016, 01:07:22 AM by WesBez7 »
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Chrysalis

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2016, 04:22:00 PM »

The problem is all the big players copy suit so there is no competitive pressure on BT to lower the line rental, there is a few small players who dont profiteer so those are options, but you then may have the issue that the larger providers will either refuse to sell you broadband without their line rental, or they will add a penalty fee to the price for having the landline elsewhere.

This imo clearly needs regulator intervention but ofcom seem to only care about wholesale price regulation.  They have more concern about the CPs been able to make money rather than saving money for consumers.

Sky imo is slightly better value as caller display is inclusive.

Whats interesting this time round is infinity is getting a price hike as well, it seems all the line rental price hikes are still not enough to pay for those football rights.
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WesBez7

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2016, 04:38:41 PM »

I would gladly give up all BT sport. I'm not a football fan in the slightest. Again. It's not a choice. Free should mean they eat the cost or charge people for it.
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roswellgrey

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2016, 05:22:09 PM »

Agree with all the above.
I just voted with my feet  - I was more than happy with the quality of service on Infinity, but got more and unhappy with every price rise having to pay directly (or indirectly) for services that I didn't want or need ...
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gt94sss2

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2016, 05:38:42 PM »

2 - Broadband & calls are set to increase by £3.  Seriously unacceptable because I don't use the house phone. It's 2016 & because smartphone. Calls are free. iPhone with the help of inclusive unlimited minutes, FaceTime &  whatsapp service all my needs. Contracts for mobile phones are data based.

I'm on the highest package and they've offered me nothing for three pounds.  The speed for their highest paying customers receive no speed increase. But if you're paying for a tier below you get an increase from 30's to 52mb. BT want bragging rights for fastest "standard" fibre (ie people who don't require the throughput) and basically these customers would not use it to capacity frequently enough otherwise warrant being on a faster package

Or there lines don't support higher speeds - no point paying for 80MB if your line isn't capable of it.

I understand that BT are moving their customers to a higher SLA for faults as well but understand your basic premise about perceived value - obviously there are many other providers as well.

In terms of the pending price rise, have you seen what https://www.bt.com/myoffer is offering you? You could also try calling their customer options team (i.e. Retentions) and seeing what you can haggle..
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WesBez7

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2016, 11:28:19 PM »

Or there lines don't support higher speeds - no point paying for 80MB if your line isn't capable of it.

I understand that BT are moving their customers to a higher SLA for faults as well but understand your basic premise about perceived value - obviously there are many other providers as well.

In terms of the pending price rise, have you seen what https://www.bt.com/myoffer is offering you? You could also try calling their customer options team (i.e. Retentions) and seeing what you can haggle..

I did try that. Thanks for the link. Not any better and they tried giving me a sim contract. I will ring up BT and see what and also see what plusnet offer as all I need is pure speed with no frills. I run my own hub because of the restricted features. But as a consumer Hub BT HH5 is good for a set it and forget it.  Decent wireless. My parents had sky until I got them a BT HH4R to run as a AP. They are now BT customers.

Does BT take preference over other ISP on the network? I totally understand prices go up but it doesn't help retain customers and also because of the hassle of changing and there not being a smooth progression of the next provider. Just try change address with BT.
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gt94sss2

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2016, 11:50:21 PM »

No, BT do not take preference - they are treated like any other ISP.

If you are purely interested in price you could try SSE (http://forum.kitz.co.uk/index.php/topic,17791.msg325242.html#new) as long as you are prepared to change or haggle with them in 18 months time.

Though as that thread makes clear there isn't much feedback on SSE's service yet.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2016, 12:03:53 AM by gt94sss2 »
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WesBez7

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2016, 12:13:01 AM »

No. Price is not a priority otherwise I would be with the "free" internet choices out there. I need the fast unlimited fibre. Consume copious amount of data. plusnet seems to be a good bet with the youview system I like. BT own it so it shouldn't be far off.

They supply line only broadband £16.99 with the same speed I'm getting now. £10 month going up to £20 after six months on a 18 month contract. Spend £5 on tv and add HD @£3 & the entertainment package at another @£3 (less than BT but most of what I need)

Currently pay £15 for BT max extertainment
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highpriest

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2016, 04:35:17 PM »

Frustrated with the constant price hikes of BT. My 3rd in 18 months.

1 - My line rental is increasing by £1 again. £18.99 just to be connected. The % hike has gone up greatly in the last few years. Especially the last two. £19 for no "perceived" value.

2 - Broadband & calls are set to increase by £3.  Seriously unacceptable because I don't use the house phone. It's 2016 & because smartphone. Calls are free. iPhone with the help of inclusive unlimited minutes, FaceTime &  whatsapp service all my needs. Contracts for mobile phones are data based.

I'm on the highest package and they've offered me nothing for three pounds.  The speed for their highest paying customers receive no speed increase. But if you're paying for a tier below you get an increase from 30's to 52mb. BT want bragging rights for fastest "standard" fibre (ie people who don't require the throughput) and basically these customers would not use it to capacity frequently enough otherwise warrant being on a faster package.

I'm in the same boat. Phoned them up and they offered me Infinity 2 (what I'm on currently) for £28.50 instead of the £29.50 that I'm currently paying. Curiously, they called it a "£4 discount". When I queried the obvious discrepancy, they said their price is going up by £3 very soon!

I'm with you - really annoyed about the whole situation. What am I getting for an extra £4 a month? I understand that line rental pays for the upkeep of the infrastructure but this constant price hike is a bit too much to take, especially when a lot of other providers are able to offer it for a lot lesser. Plus where are the higher speeds? The newer technologies? IPv6? Fibre to the home? They have nothing new to offer.

I'm moving as well. Trying to find a good provider to move to. I don't want their free wifi, cloud storage, BT Sport and what not. Plus I have zero requirement for a land line and calls; I don't even have a phone plugged into my line anymore.

The SSE offer is very tempting at £21 a month, but I'm sure it's going to come with a lot of compromises. They appear (at least on paper) to apply some aggressive traffic management policies using deep packet inspection technologies. On the other end of the scale, there's Zen at £30 plus line rental at £17 on a 12 month contract (which actually is less than what I'm paying BT right now).

EE claims to not do any traffic management on their fibre products but they have some silly blanket restrictions like blocking port 25 to "block spam" which I don't like.

Plusnet sounds like a decent alternative but they traffic manage as well.
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loonylion

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2016, 07:39:54 PM »

Plusnet sounds like a decent alternative but they traffic manage as well.

As far as I'm aware, they prioritise voip, streaming and gaming data, but that is as far as their 'traffic management' goes.
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Ronski

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2016, 08:55:41 PM »

That's also my understanding of what PN do as well.
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highpriest

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2016, 11:05:23 PM »

Might have to take a good look at Plusnet then.

Many other ISPs have completely abandoned traffic shaping though, because it's usually more hassle than it's worth.
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NewtronStar

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2016, 11:51:43 PM »

Was looking into Plusnet forums and this change from 40/20 to 40/2 has me bewilder do they do a 40/10 service or just a 40/2 now ?
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burakkucat

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2016, 12:30:12 AM »

As I understand it, Plusnet only now supply 80/20 and 40/2 based services.
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highpriest

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Re: Frustrated by BT constant price hikes
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2016, 12:45:58 AM »

That's right, the 40/20 product is gone permanently. It was a bit of an odd offering anyway as no one else does that ul/dl ratio. But they should have gone to 40/10 instead but they've chosen to really drop that down to 40/2 which is a pretty basic fibre connectivity option. However, they still offer unlimited data usage on that package.

I've just signed up to the 80/20 connection from Plusnet on an 18 month contract. Should transfer across from Infinity 2 in 10 days or so. £27 including line rental for the first 6 months, £37 after that. Plus £154 cashback from Top Cashback. Works out to around £19 a month for the first year, which is quite of a bit of a saving from the £47 or so that I pay BT currently.

Bit wary about their traffic shaping nonsense but will see how it goes. Fingers crossed!
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