BT Home Essentials Social Broadband/Landline Tariff Cost and Unwanted Digital Voice - any good advice please?

[BigBlueMouse]

After a change in circumstances, I've been trying to sign up for the BT Home Essentials reduced social tariff but am not finding it straightforward in terms of how helpful and informative BT is being. It's as if they don't want people to sign up for it or they see it as an opportunity to upsell? There isn't an easy online sign up form anymore as far as I can find and so you have to ring BT.

I'm not in contract with BT anymore and have been paying them a standard rate of about £60 pounds a month. I've just started to receive Universal Credit (serious family health issues) and in order to manage I need to get all our family outgoings down as far as humanly possible. I need to keep our broadband speeds of 66-77 up at about where they are at the moment. I also need to keep our landline for emergencies because we live rurally and have a very vulnerable family member.

When I rang BT I was told that in order to sign up to Home Essentials I would need to agree to move over to Digital Voice (so no landline). Apparently I can then buy an emergency back up battery for power cuts from them at about £85! I was told that if I want to avoid the switch to Digital Voice and keep the landline, then I have to stay as we are (and keep paying them £60 pounds a month). Does anyone know if this is true?

From what I had read online, I was expecting to pay £25 a month for Home Essentials, made up of £23 for broadband and £2 for pay as you go landline. We don't need a more expensive calling plan to cover all calls as the landline is so rarely used. When I rang BT, I was told that the lowest they could quote me for Home Essentials with the same speeds is £32 per month. This includes a 20GB SIM card, even though I told them I don't need one. I don't want to change my mobile provider or number. When pushed a cheaper 2GB SIM was reluctantly offered, still at £29 per month. Can anyone advise if that is all correct, and if not what the cost should be?

Lastly, does anyone know what happens when you switch to Home Essentials? Do they just send you an updated hub (ours is a good few years old) through the post or is a home visit necessary for it and/or for Digital Voice?

The dreaded Direct Debit date is fast approaching and I need to reduce it as much as possible and as soon as possible. Many thanks in advance everyone.

Digital voice will be compulsory very soon due to the digital change over.

mine was very simple- hub arrived in a few days then plugged in and worked. I did it all online

I pay £20 per month. No RPI increases. They have been trying to offer an alternative upgrade when i’ve called for other issues but I reminded them i’m on the social tariff for budgeting reasons

Thanks Danikm151. Do you find the lower speeds on the £20 one are ok for your needs?

I hoped you could opt out of Digital Voice.

The option to move to Home Essentials online seems to have been taken away now. You have to ring BT, unfortunately.

The BT person I spoke to said there was definitely no lower cost Home Essentials option than £29 to £32 for similar speeds to ours and without a SIM card, but that does not seem to be true! I have found this on the BT website after lots of hunting. It shows a £23 option. Armed with their own information I will ring again and hopefully also speak to a different person:

The £20 one is fine for me. I work from home regularly and the online programs we use have no problem.
multiple devices at the same time too.

I thought I would just come back to update in case it will help others in the future.

Armed with the information I posted from the Home Essentials price list. I tried to sign up again, this time via online chat. The BT person agreed with me that I could indeed get the broadband service I wanted for £23pm and add on £2pm for the home phone on a payg basis, making a total of £25pm. I decided payg would be cheaper than adding the all calls at £10pm as the home phone is very rarely used. He did try to charge me an extra £11.99 p&p for the 'free' new hub, but agreed to refund that as a 'goodwill gesture' when I pushed back on that. I said it didn't cost £11.99 to post out a light plastic hub, I hadn't had a new hub for a long while, I'd been paying BT around £60pm for ages and been a loyal customer for many years. The downside was, like the previous (price fibbing) man on the phone, he also insisted there was no way to keep the landline and we would be switched to digital with the new Home Essentials contract. He also insisted that I would have to pay £85 plus £3.99p&p for a back up battery if I wanted one for the home digital phone for power cuts. I just signed up for the broadband and phone at £25 and said I'd think about the battery.

Later, when checking the confirmation email, I found I'd also unknowingly been signed up for the enhanced answer machine service (can't remember what it's called) at an extra £4-5pm! I was able to cancel that part of the order. It's unnecessary as the digital phone service comes with a perfectly good basic answer machine service included for free.

Lastly, I then read a news report about widespread concerns about the digital phone rollout and especially its reliability for elderly, disabled, vulnerable and rural customers. BT seemed to be insisting that those customers, and without a 100% reliable mobile signal, would not be actively moved over to digital and would be given the back up battery pack for free when they did move over. I tried BT again armed with that information, and the very nice and on the ball woman said we did meet the criteria and apologised for our poor experience so far. We've since received the battery (which is large and has to be permanently on charge, plugged into both a socket and the hub), together with a cordless digital phone. We didn't want to move to digital at all, it still feels less reliable and we're not keen on having to have a giant battery plugged in at all times, but it feels like the best I could do with the apparently unstoppable BT push to digital.

My advice is, when contacting BT about moving to Home Essential and/or being moved to the digital phone service, make sure you know what your options are and what the correct prices are before you ring or online chat. If the person insists on trying to upsell you a more expensive option and won't take no for an answer, then hang up and try again another time with someone else. Beware p&p charges and also check your order confirmation to make sure you haven't been signed up for anything extra you don't need. If you are a vulnerable customer or have a vulnerable family member at home, especially if you don't have a mobile phone or a 100% reliable mobile signal, then BT should provide you with the back up battery pack including cordless digital phone for free, not try to charge you £88.99.

I got there in the end, but it was such a palaver.