BT up to sneaky tricks again

BT sneaks in 'stealth price rise'
By Tim Richardson
Published Wednesday 5th January 2005 18:19 GMT

BT has been accused of slipping in a "stealth price rise" of up to 110
per cent for its telephone customers.

At the moment, BT's more expensive daytime tariff runs between 8am and
6pm. Its cheaper evening rate runs from 6pm to 8am.

>From February, it is extending its daytime tariff with calls made
between 6am and 8am charged at more expensive daytime rates, rather
than evening rates. BT insists that the changes will have a "minor
impact on a vast majority of customers".

But independent tariff comparison outfit uSwitch.com reckons that three
million punters will end up paying more for phone calls first thing in
the morning.

"Those making local and national calls during the extended 6am-8am
period, the cost of their calls will increase by 110 per cent, while
customers making mobile calls during 6am-8am will see the cost of their
calls increase by 48 per cent," said uSwitch.com in a statement.

uSwitch.com's Jon Miller added: "Despite BT's attempts to mask the
increase in calling charges by highlighting earlier price reductions,
this is effectively a stealth price rise.

"The fact remains that consumers will still be charged a minimum
£31.50 a quarter for line rental before they've even made a call.
There are cheaper suppliers in the market, switching is easy and you
can make significant savings by shopping around."

A spokesman for BT played down the changes claiming that three quarters
of its customers don't make phone calls that early in the morning. He
accepted it did amount to a price rise for around 15 per cent of BT's
customers, but denied it was done stealthily. ®

On 5 Jan 2005 10:52:18 -0800, "six-toes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
quoted:

>From February, it is extending its daytime tariff with calls made
>between 6am and 8am charged at more expensive daytime rates, rather
>than evening rates. BT insists that the changes will have a "minor
>impact on a vast majority of customers".

Good for BT! They are making it more obvious what a rip-off they were,
and driving people to look for a better deal.

Who on earth pays BT rates when there are the likes of 18866
available?


--

Iain
the out-of-date hairydog guide to mobile phones
http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html
Browse now while stocks last!

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 5 Jan 2005 10:52:18 -0800, "six-toes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> quoted:
>
>>From February, it is extending its daytime tariff with calls made
>>between 6am and 8am charged at more expensive daytime rates, rather
>>than evening rates. BT insists that the changes will have a "minor
>>impact on a vast majority of customers".
>
> Good for BT! They are making it more obvious what a rip-off they were,
> and driving people to look for a better deal.
>
> Who on earth pays BT rates when there are the likes of 18866
> available?
>
>
> --
>
> Iain
> the out-of-date hairydog guide to mobile phones
> http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html
> Browse now while stocks last!

Just looked at the 18866 website.

Are they telling me a UK national call will only cost me 1p?

For how long can I make a call? Is there a point within the call, where I
will start to incur a further charge?

How come they can make money from these low call charges?

I am suspicious to say the least.... but rather interested in signing up for
UK daytime calls....

Anyone not happy with their service?

Is there any risk in signing up?

John

John,

I have been a 18866 customer for a few months now and have NO problems with
the service. I can't see any catches.

Like yourself, I don't see how they can make money; but whilst the
offer/tariffs are there, I will continue to take benefit from them.

Paul R

"John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news(E-Mail Removed)...
> > On 5 Jan 2005 10:52:18 -0800, "six-toes" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> > quoted:
> >
> >>From February, it is extending its daytime tariff with calls made
> >>between 6am and 8am charged at more expensive daytime rates, rather
> >>than evening rates. BT insists that the changes will have a "minor
> >>impact on a vast majority of customers".
> >
> > Good for BT! They are making it more obvious what a rip-off they were,
> > and driving people to look for a better deal.
> >
> > Who on earth pays BT rates when there are the likes of 18866
> > available?
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Iain
> > the out-of-date hairydog guide to mobile phones
> > http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html
> > Browse now while stocks last!
>
> Just looked at the 18866 website.
>
> Are they telling me a UK national call will only cost me 1p?
>
> For how long can I make a call? Is there a point within the call, where I
> will start to incur a further charge?
>
> How come they can make money from these low call charges?
>
> I am suspicious to say the least.... but rather interested in signing up
for
> UK daytime calls....
>
> Anyone not happy with their service?
>
> Is there any risk in signing up?
>
> John
>
>
>

"John" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just looked at the 18866 website.
>
> Are they telling me a UK national call will only cost me 1p?

Yes, for geographic calls from a landline using the 18866 prefix. If you use
their other access numbers they charge more.

> For how long can I make a call? Is there a point within the call, where I
> will start to incur a further charge?

Don't think so. They've been discussed to death in uk.telecom, have a look at
the google archives.

> How come they can make money from these low call charges?

It's a mystery. The conspiracy theorists say BT are behind them.

Personally I think it's all just clever marketing. They have unbeatable headline
rates but some of their rates are considerably more expensive than BT. A bit
like supermarkets have loss leaders on "core" items, ie the items people are
most likely to do price comparions on.

As I've posted before - if you were to make 10 landline calls and one call to a
Vodaphone on a weekday evening, you'd be better off using BT than 18866!

Obviously if you look at the rates carefully and pick and choose which calls you
route via them, you'll always save. But if you just make the assumption they are
cheaper than BT, you might end up paying more!

> I am suspicious to say the least.... but rather interested in signing up for
> UK daytime calls....
>
> Anyone not happy with their service?

I think most customers are happy with them.

> Is there any risk in signing up?

They insist on payment by continuous card authority. This can't be cancelled by
the customer (like a DD can), and can be a pain to sort out if things go wrong.
I've been advised by a friend who works in banking never to sign a CCA. They say
on their web site they are looking into allowing DD payments but they've been
saying that for ages.

--
Andy

"Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote in message
news:41dd1438$0$45620$(E-Mail Removed)...
> As I've posted before - if you were to make 10 landline calls and one call to
a
> Vodaphone on a weekday evening, you'd be better off using BT than 18866!

Sorry should have wrote "one 10 minute call" to a Vodaphone.

--
Andy

On 05 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, Iain wrote:

>They are making it more obvious what a rip-off they were,
>and driving people to look for a better deal.

Seconded. I am happy with 18866, 1899 and TalkTalk for many free off-peak
calls, and curse the day BT forced me to use "Option 1" on the grounds the
majority of customers would save (ie the ones still not using cheaper ones
and with blinkers on to the possibility, despite reports in Which? etc for
a few years, and newspaper articles). When they pushed up my monthly line
rental (2x DEL and 1x HH) by a fiver and I lost the call allowance, my way
of reacting was to cancel the HH (so at least they lost 250 quid a year).




--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

"Peter M" <us-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Seconded. I am happy with 18866, 1899 and TalkTalk for many free off-peak
> calls, and curse the day BT forced me to use "Option 1" on the grounds the
> majority of customers would save (ie the ones still not using cheaper ones
> and with blinkers on to the possibility, despite reports in Which? etc for
> a few years, and newspaper articles). When they pushed up my monthly line
> rental (2x DEL and 1x HH) by a fiver and I lost the call allowance, my way
> of reacting was to cancel the HH (so at least they lost 250 quid a year).

It's hard to say whether or not BT did the right thing or not.

It is certainly true that all other operators were boasting how much you'd
save against BT - typically 80% on your phone calls because they always
compared to the basic line package which in all fairness, nobody uses unless
like you they dial 1899/18866 or sit on TalkTalk etc.

But even so, 1899/18866, TalkTalk and all the rest boast what a saving you
make, implying that BT is stupidly expensive, when infact this is very
misleading as most people would sit on BT Together Option 1. If anything,
it is the other companies that are sneaky in comparing.

The question is really, can BT/NTL or anyone else justify charging
£10.50/month for line rental. Is this cost justified? At some point in the
future, the other companies will be able to takeover this part of the
charging as well to make costs a lot more transparent.

AMO

On 6 Jan 2005 in uk.telecom.broadband, "AMO" wrote:

>It is certainly true that all other operators were boasting how much you'd
>save against BT - typically 80% on your phone calls because they always
>compared to the basic line package which in all fairness, nobody uses unless
>like you they dial 1899/18866 or sit on TalkTalk etc.

>But even so, 1899/18866, TalkTalk and all the rest boast what a saving you
>make, implying that BT is stupidly expensive, when infact this is very
>misleading as most people would sit on BT Together Option 1. If anything,
>it is the other companies that are sneaky in comparing.

In the case of TalkTalk not that long ago they were comparing their talk
plans with the various BT Options and other firms, so you could see what
was being charged when they charged a fee for their free off-peak calls.

Now they compare theirs (free evening and weekend) with others which have
charges (in the main, I know there's some one.tel deal for weekend calls)
while the basic BT Option has each off-peak call charged at least the 5p
minimum.

The Tele2 TV adverts have been changed to compare their 2.5p (or is it 2p)
rate with BT's 3p rate, when previously it was the 7.91p rate from BT.

I just checked... looking at the comparison on the Tele2 web site (I'm
not and have never been a customer, but have a second line and might be
fairly soon!) I see they offer their 'option 2' service free for a year
(see http://www.tele2.co.uk/TariffStandard.aspx ) if you sign up before
the end of the month. Phone calling patterns are quite varied and they
are clearly hoping to maintain business by waiving their 6.00 fee (from
the way I read it, those who sign up will in future be charged 3.95 for
the service, presumably to maintain loyalty among those who do sign up,
rather than jumping to the next firm with free call plans). Also, they
have higher charges for international calls (everyone seems cheaper for
such calls than BT, unless you pay BT extra for a 'discount' scheme) so
the bulk of their income will depend on mobile and international! PGM



--
PlusNet <http://tinyurl.com/24ymz> - I recommend them and save some cash.

My other ISP : UK Free Software Network <http://www.ukfsn.org>
UKFSN passes all profits to Free Software projects in the UK.

"Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote in
message news:41dd1626$0$47266$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Andy Pandy" <(E-Mail Removed) > wrote in
> message
> news:41dd1438$0$45620$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> As I've posted before - if you were to make 10 landline calls and one
>> call to
> a
>> Vodaphone on a weekday evening, you'd be better off using BT than 18866!
>
> Sorry should have wrote "one 10 minute call" to a Vodaphone.
>
> --
> Andy

So if I sign up with 18866, I just pay BT the normal line rental and nothing
for calls (unless I choose to route a call via BT?)

Assuming this, as I understand that I can (lets say) 5 national UK daytime
calls of (lets say 30 minutes each), each of which would cost me just 1p ??
A total cost of this activity would be just 5p??? Is this for real, or have
a gone daft? Thats 150 mniutes of daytime national calling for just 5
pence? I must have made a mistake?? Can someone comment?

John?

Do 18866 charge for anything else other than the 1p connection charge? I
would only be using such a service for either local or national UK
geographcal calls. I never ring mobile and abroad.