BT provoke anger through off-peak call plan changes
Posted by Cloud Net on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 @ 08:44 AM
Millions of customers have been affected by BT's off peak time changes provoking anger from people who signed up to BT's "Free Evening and Weekends" price plan and customers who signed up to just the " Free Weekends" plan. This affects more than 4.7million customers who signed up to this plan.
On the new plan customers making calls of 15 minute in duration daily between 6pm-7pm could see their monthly bill increase by over £20 per month. Starting from April the calls will be charged at 5.9p per min instead of usually being free of charge.
The new changes are viewed by customers as another "money making scheme" by BT signalling that they are struggling against VoIP competitors who are expanding rapidly. Customers will be more likely to make calls between 6pm-7pm than 6am-7am meaning more money gained through call charges at no extra cost to them.
The BBC recently questioned BT for the one show. They asked BT about how many people make calls at 6pm compared to 6am? They refused to comment saying it was commercially sensitive information.
Despite making these changes to customers calling plans, without the customers permission, BT are well within their rights to change call plans and pricing. Part of their terms and conditions are that BT is required to notify customers one month in advance of changes that are a disadvantage to them.
Further anger was voiced by customers about the way BT announced these changes to customers. BT sent a letter to each customer highlighting good news and then including the changes in the smaller print towards the end under the heading "some changes to your BT service".
However if customers are not happy with the changes and they can show they are significantly disadvantaged by the change then BT will allow them to terminate their contract even if they months left to run.
To terminate your contract with BT call them on their customer services number on 0800 800 150