Things we have done today.........................

Well as you all know I am a gorgeous little collie so the things that I have done today are; go on my walks, snooze and splish, splash splosh in the river.

Things Ann has done today are rant and rant and rant and rant! She has been holding off from ranting for ages but today she has to rant. Well it's either that or have a glass of wine and as this is supposed to be 'dry January' she's trying to resist that one.…........... Even though she's had alcohol the last couple of days.

Anyway today's rant is going to be about phones, broadband and lack of loyalty??!! Feel free to switch to another Blip now........................



Ever since Ann bought her first flat (which was in 1984) she has been with BT. Do the maths people – that is almost 33 years. Do they value her loyalty? They do not!


Around this time last year Ann discovered that her sister was on a much lower BT tariff than Ann so after a lot of phone calls to BT, a lot of being kept on hold, a lot of being transferred to other departments and a lot of Ann threatening to move to TalkTalk which we would never ever do because we tried that once and received the most dreadful customer service ever BT eventually put us on a tariff for our land line & broadband which was about £20 per month less than what we were paying. I was well happy. £20 a month can buy a gorgeous little collie lots of treats!

It was a 12 month contract which terminates on 31st January so being the very organised person that Ann is she made a note in her diary that she had to contact them sometime this month otherwise our bill for broadband would go up £14.17 per month and we would also have to start paying for caller display at £1.75 per month?? That works out at an extra £190.68 per year. Just think how many bottles of wine Ann could have treats I could have for that?

However a few days ago Ann received an email saying that if we renewed our contract for another 12 months we could have another year of free caller display. Whoopee doo thought Ann and this morning she went online to renew her contract. However no-where could she check online how much she was paying for her phone and broadband on the renewal site so she phoned instead.



…............And before she knew it....................... she'd renewed her contract and got another 12 months of 'free caller display' (without even speaking to a real live person) but she still didn't know if by doing this, her phone & broadband were going to remain the same?



Ann is not stupid?!! Though some may disagree. Lol! Last year during her many calls to BT she was given a direct line to the 'Customer Options Team'. The Customer Options Team are the ones who have the power to give one reduced rates. (The number is 01324 452504 if anyone is interested). Obviously this has been saved for future reference?!!



Phoned Customer Options and was told that our 'Broadband' deal was ending at the end of the month. Tell us something that we don't know? And the monthly direct debit would go up by almost £15. Ie we'd be paying more than £45 per month.



Dialogue that followed is below:



Ann – That's ridiculous.



BT – Don't worry I'm sure I can get that a bit cheaper for you. Ah yes, I can do a Broadband package for you at £22.00 and you'll still get free caller ID.



Ann – And do I have to pay line rental on top of that?



BT – Yes, line rental is £18.99 per month. And you get free caller ID for 12 months. That's quite a good deal.



Ann - So I'm still going to be paying over £40 per month. I never use my land line. The Post Office offer line rental and unlimited broadband for £19.99 per month.



BT – You won't get such fast speeds with the PO. Oh there is something else that I can offer you – BT infinity 2 which is super fast. (And BT quotes stuff about megabytes and speeds and stuff that means absolutely nothing to Ann at all). We can do that for you at £15 per month.



So all of a sudden my line rental, free caller display and 'super fast unlimited broadband' not holding my breath on that one are now down to £33.99 per month



Seriously not happy. One should not have to spend all day on the phone to companies that one has been loyal to for more than 30 years.



And the other thing.......................... Ann was on the verge of changing her mobile to BT because BT said they offered a 'sim only' deal if one was with BT - £8 for 500 mins call time, unlimited texts and 2gb of data. (They failed to mention that the same deal she is already on with Vodafone would only cost her £5) Apparently all one has to do is get a PAC code and off we go. Whoo hoo!!!



So she phoned Vodafone and got a PAC code and then after a bit of investigative work and googling discovered that the PAC code only transfers the number and not any of the contacts and that her phone probably isn't unlocked so she'd have to pay more than what she'd save in a year to have it unlocked. And can't find anything anywhere about charges incurred while using a BT mobile abroad. And Ann's got two holidays booked for 2017.



#Sooooangry



#thankgoodnessforthe14daycoolingoffperiod



…...............Sorry Blippers – will try and post a more cheery BLIP tomorrow. xx

Edit 8.30pm - Just spoken to a very lovely BT guy called David.  Cancelled BT mobile contract.  Asked what I should do with new sim etc that has already been sent out?!!  Answer - 'just throw it away when it arrives'???

OK so that's what I'll do...................... after I've checked that nothing untoward has been taken from my direct debits. Lol!