BT customers hit by 2000 per cent price increase
April 24, 2008
BT are facing allegations of “sneakily” switching millions of customers to a new tariff which could see them paying up to 2,000 per cent more for their calls.
Across the country phone bills are due to rise by at least £300m because of the increase in line rental and weekday calls, which came into force on April 1st.
In February 10.8 million customers on the BT Together 1 package, received a letter saying “At BT we’re always looking for ways to give you value for money”, the letter continued to inform them that in future they would receive free weekend calls on the Unlimited Weekend Plan. However, in a leaflet that accompanied the letter, the small print had details of above inflation prices.
Monthly line rental is now £11.75 which has increased by 6 per cent. Daytime calls are up from 3.25p a minute to 4p a minute this is a rise of 23 percent. A 6p initial charge then 1.5p a minute has replaced a flat rate charge of 4.5p a minute for evening calls, this means a 60 minute call that used to cost 4.5p now costs 96p. (See www.bt.com for more information on BT home call prices).
To get the free evening calls customers have to sign up to a 12 month contract with Bt. Ceri Stanway from the consumer group Which? Said “There will be some customers that will benefit from this. However we think they have sneakily hidden some charges that have affected people, some of whom may not want to sign up to a 12 month rolling contract”.
These latest accusations follow a number of surveys in the past year that have criticized BT’s service and have suggested that call centre staff are inadequate in resolving problems.
A BT spokesman Michael Jarvis said “Probably we will make money out of this but these things are always a balance between a giveaway with one hand and revenue on the other”.
“There just a line that says ‘we’re making other important changes too’ referring you to the small print leaflet” one customer complained, adding “And even there its not exactly spelt out - even knowing what I was looking for this time round”.
www.bt.com
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