To rant about sneaky business practice

[Walkacrossthesand]

I have a BT broadband/phone/TV package. It's fine, but it includes BT Sport that I don't want.

Luckily, I spotted (in a regular 'your BT sport' email that I don't usually open) that they are going to start charging £5/month for BT Sport unless I sign up to an 18month broadband package!! I have to contact them by end July to cancel it and - get this - there's absolutely no way of following a 'no thanks' link to do it - oh no, I have to call them to stop them charging me for something I never wanted in the first place.
Annoyed doesn't even begin to describe it. I wonder how many customers will be stung for several fivers before they realise, by this bit of sharp practice. Shoddy, BT. Just shoddy.

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

Cancel absolutely everything and get Sky. BT are crap.

[Walkacrossthesand]

We haven't got cable in our road & I don't fancy a stonking great dish on my house. Don't much like Rupert Murdoch's business methods either

[Fluffyears]

Sky dishes are not huge to be honest and you stop noticing them kinda like you don't notice the guttering.

[leccybill]

I think Martin Lewis has a campaign running whereby companies have to let you opt out by the same method they have opted you in.
It is shoddy, I agree.
DH has worked for BT for 20 years. Great to their staff, pretty awful to their customers.

[pigsDOfly]

BT are rubbish and they make if very difficult to contact them if you're unhappy with anything.

I had a huge argument with them over sharp practices, when I finally managed to tract down a person to speak to, and in the end left them and went with Sky.

I got TV, broadband and telephone for £1 less a month than I was paying BT for just telephone and very slow broadband that repeatedly dropped out.

You may not like Rupert Murdoch's business methods, can't say I'm keen on him either, but Sky's customer service is second to none, there is no waiting in a queue and pressing buttons when you call them, you're answered immediately by a human being in a filtering service and you get put straight onto the right department. And all their services work properly in my experience.

I think you'd be hard put to find a better service provider.

[tarakingavengers]

they are absolutely not kind to their staff! when I worked in the call centre we were timed every toilet break and given disciplinaries for not selling enough direct debits to customers including ones who just called to shout and swear and those who could barely understand simple english.

[Icimoi]

Sky costs an absolute fortune for a service which is 95% crap.

[VodkaJelly]

We have been with BT for years, paying a lot of money for broadband and a land line that we dont really use. Anyway we moved house and the line was so old that it couldnt support broadband, so we had to pay £130 to upgrade the line, WE had to pay for BT to upgrade THEIR line. So if we move out the next person who moves in gets a lovely super broadband line and it doesnt cost them a penny.

But the bit that pissed me off was that by agreeing for BT to upgrade the line (couldnt get internet on it, it was so old) it locked us into another 12 month contract. Fuckers.

[pigsDOfly]

Had something similar with my last house Vodka.

The wire on the BT line leading to the outside of the house had worn away badly and the bare wires were showing.

I rang them and spoke to what sounded like a call centre in India - I could barely hear him and we couldn't really understand each other. However, I managed to establish that he couldn't tell me if the repair was BT's responsibility or mine. If it was my responsibility I would have to pay £130 to have it repaired and apparently the telephone engineer would make that decision when he came to the house and looked at it.

If he decided the repair wasn't BT's responsibility, I'd still have to pay even if I didn't want him to repair it. And no I couldn't speak to the engineers as there's no facility for that.

In the end I just wrapped it in duct tape and hoped for the best.

[leccybill]

Never had a problem with BT broadband, and as staff, we get it for free aswell as heavily discounted line rental and mobile phone contracts.

We do have Sky, but it costs an eyewatering £60 a month just for the TV, so I will prob get rid soon. I think Sky's customer service is very good.

[PrimalLass]

Cancel absolutely everything and get Sky.

Don't. Our Sky broadband was ridiculously slow.

[bigbluebus]

I had this with my DM who didn't even know she'd got BT Sport and hadn't really understood the letter telling her she was going to be charged for it. In fairness to BT, when I rang them the refunded the 2 payments they had taken and re-instated just the free element. It has now come up again but she has only had to sign up for 12 months Broadband to get the free Sport element - but they did tell me to make a diary not for 12 months time to look at renewing again so that the charge doesn't kick in again.

[Walkacrossthesand]

Can I ask why your DM decided to sign up for another year to get free Sport when she doesn't watch it? I've just rung & cancelled the Sport part of the package, without penalty

[Walkacrossthesand]

I'm only 6 months into my contract, too, so I assumed it was a universal change not an 'end of contract' one.

[TTWK]

You may not like Rupert Murdoch's business methods, can't say I'm keen on him either, but Sky's customer service is second to none, there is no waiting in a queue and pressing buttons when you call them, you're answered immediately by a human being in a filtering service and you get put straight onto the right department. And all their services work properly in my experience. I think you'd be hard put to find a better service provider.

100% right. For all Rupert's faults, he knows how to run a business.

[cozietoesie]

I discovered - on scrutinising a BT bill - that I'm still paying rental for a phone that was probably junked and replaced by my father in the last century - in fact, said phone might (if it still existed) be worth a fair bit as a vintage piece now. I haven't yet been able to face the prospect of phoning the BT call centre to complain about this but I wonder how mnay houses with landlines are in the same position? It may not be much money individually but when you multiply it by a few hundred thousand houses.......

[londonrach]

I will never ever ever ever use bt as a company again. Cancel op before its too late. Do you use the tv package and can you manage just with broadband and phone package and normal freeview tv.

[Knittingnoodles]

Us too! Being charged for phones that are older than I am.

Also, out of the blue, charged my business account £30 a month to be in some trade directory, all disguided as "standard charges" on my bill. Plus a few others.

Very sharp practice. Eventually I got a refund for nearly £2k!

I don't do business with them anymore.

[Walkacrossthesand]

I love the TV package though - 'gold', pausing live TV, recording...all available with other providers I know, but my main beef with BT is having to keep your eyes peeled for the sharp practice. I feel the same about the mobile providers TBH - they're all cut from the same cloth.

[gobbin]

You're right walkacrossthesand I followed the link from the email but got confused when, in order to cancel the BT Sport, it wanted to cancel my broadband.

I ended up having to ring them and go through all the 'No, I don't want BT TV thanks...no I don't want a new mobile package...no I don't want any more added to my phone options...no I don't want to change my broadband package...fuck's sake just cancel the BT fucking Sport!' (I didn't say the last bit)

[BreconBeBuggered]

Bumping this from last week because we tried yesterday to 'downgrade' to BT SportLite, but after going round in circles many times our online BT account decided we don't actually have a BT phone line

If anyone has any tips to get them to take off the sport charge without signing up for any further contract with the sneaky fuckers, I'd love to hear them.