topic It may not be the best, but... in Archive

It may not be the best, but...

silicondale — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:15:53 GMT

Yesterday I was cold-called by Premier Call, offering to undercut BT on charges across the board. I usually put the receiver down on such cold calls - especially with the steadily increasing number of fly-by-night "phone companies" offering cheaper services. However, this one was particularly persuasive, and very sneaky. They gave the impression from the beginning that they were authorised by (or even a division of) Openreach, which as far as I was aware is part of BT. Only during the conversation, after I asked repeated questions, did "Sophie" confirm that they are in fact a separate company. I am now in the position that I must call them back to cancel a possible switch to their completely unknown 'service'. It was my mistake, in leading them on - but this sort of thing would be much less likely to happen if BT were to align its prices a bit more closely with the rest of the industry. The charges for my business broadband are twice as high as offered by most of the competitors, and indeed higher than BT broadband prices for domestic customers, for an almost identical level of service. Yet I daren't switch even to one of the cheaper BT deals because of the risk of interruption to my service - as my business is totally dependent on the Internet connection. Can't BT get its act together and charge everyone a reasonable price - and the same price to everyone for the same level of service?

It's like gas and electricity, the Royal Mail, and the railways - the privatisation of such utilities was a complete nonsense. In the case of phone services it just opens the door to scammers and parasites. There's plenty wrong with BT - but at least it's a company that takes its responsibilities seriously, not just a money-making wheeze like Premier Call and the dozens of other parasitic companies trying to take its business on price alone without having to offer any real service.

Re: It may not be the best, but...

gugaguga — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:13:45 GMT

Sorry to hear this bud. I hope you get your issues straightened out soon.

Re: It may not be the best, but...

OldWolf — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:24:44 GMT

Hi,

Yeah you have to be very careful, because 'slamming' is still a regular occurence.

(For reference to those who don't know, 'Slamming' is a company moving your phone service without your permission, usually in similar scenarios to the one the OP posts)

As far as BT's prices are concerned, I kind of agree, but bear in mind that BT is still heavily regulated in regards to what they can do with prices in relation to the competition. OFCOM is where everyone like to go to complain about BT, but they're also the ones that decide how much BT can change or reduce their pricing in various markets.

Your comment about privatisation I totally agree with. Was nonsense when it happened, and we're paying the price now.

Finally I sincerely hope you have some form of back up connection, as relying on a single line is plainly foolish if your entire business lives or dies online. No ADSL-based service from any provider is totally fault free, and that's not BT's fault.

Cheers.

Dave A