# Are BT being sneaky?



## barryd (May 9, 2008)

I got an email from them saying my line rental saver was up for renewal. I think I paid up front and saved some cash last year.

So I thought while I was on I would check what deals they had for Broadband. I think Im currently paying £13 for unlimited which is ok.

They are doing an offer here for £5 a month. http://www.productsandservices.bt.c...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJPQxsDXgcsCFUWIGQodO4ANhA

See if you can open it. I wasnt signed into my BT account on Firefox when I first saw it but once I had signed into my account and also entered my post code and telephone number each time I clicked on the broadband offers page the offer would quickly flash up and then I would be re-directed to a "managing your products page"

So I simply opened Internet Explorer with no cookies accepted and not logged in and its there again. I Can see all the offers. Of course when I called them these offers are for new customers only! However after some haggling and charm of course  I get the £13 a month down to £6.50 for unlimited so I am happy with that.

Maybe my Firefox or more likely BT's site is dodgy but is it possible they are redirecting logged on existing customers so they cannot see whats on offer for newbies?

If nothing else its a good conspiracy story for a Thursday afternoon and serves as a reminder that its always worth a haggle. Nearly £100 saved over the year with the calls and broadband so worth half an hour of my time.


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

tried it both ways Barry - not logged in and logged in and didn't see any differences - offer page was still there both times. (using Chrome btw)

I have a Unlimited BT Infinity 2 package and looking at the deal for newcomers there's not much saving over my current package so not worth haggling


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Odd. Its still not showing for me. Sadly we cant get infinity and probably never will.


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

barryd said:


> Odd. Its still not showing for me. Sadly we cant get infinity and probably never will.


feel for you - Infinity is so much better than anything else from BT


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

fatbuddha said:


> feel for you - Infinity is so much better than anything else from BT


I think I get between 3-4mbps here download speed. The thing is though out in the sticks around here your unwise to go for anything but BT. A few have to save a few quid (it cant be much cheaper though really) and nearly always have issues.

You also find that when you approach the likes of Plus net for example their offers which look dirt cheap do not apply to your postcode and the cost is double. They dont want the hassle for when it goes wrong.

BT used to be the bane of my life in the early days of installing broadband but to be fair their service here to me is pretty stable.

The only real advantage I can see for me of a higher speed connection is downloading movies and series faster which can take a good while now.


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## philoaks (Sep 2, 2008)

Site is the same for me Barry. Looked at it first and saw the £5 offer for unlimited standard broadband (not infinity). Now I've signed into my BT account it redirects to existing customer prices which is £18 for the same offering!:surprise:


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## TeamRienza (Sep 21, 2010)

Even if they were being a little devious with site redirections, hardly a month goes past without me receiving either a directed mailing or a general junk mail telling me about their 'best ever offer'.

My line and phone have always been BT but my internet is Plusnet. I work on the principle that it is not 'broke'.

Like you Barry, we had about 4 mbs in the country, but we have downsized to an urban setting and I get between 12 - 16 mb for the same price (standard broadband). To be honest I don't notice a huge difference in speed on an I pad. However I don't stream or download much.


Davy


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

philoaks said:


> Site is the same for me Barry. Looked at it first and saw the £5 offer for unlimited standard broadband (not infinity). Now I've signed into my BT account it redirects to existing customer prices which is £18 for the same offering!:surprise:


Thanks. Are you using Firefox? Buds is using Chrome so maybe the redirect cookies dont work on Chrome but do in Firefox. Not just me then. Its a conspiracy I tell yer!

I dont really get any offers from BT. So had I not done some digging I may have missed it.

The infinity service would be nice but not crucial really. You only need 1Mbps really to stream stuff and downloading can be done in the background or overnight. There are still many up here that can get no broadband service at all.


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## fatbuddha (Aug 7, 2006)

barryd said:


> Thanks. Are you using Firefox? Buds is using Chrome so maybe the redirect cookies dont work on Chrome but do in Firefox. Not just me then. Its a conspiracy I tell yer!
> 
> I dont really get any offers from BT. So had I not done some digging I may have missed it.
> 
> The infinity service would be nice but not crucial really. *You only need 1Mbps really to stream stuff and downloading can be done in the background or overnight. * There are still many up here that can get no broadband service at all.


maybe - but streaming at 1Mbps is sh1te - too many buffering issues. the nice thing about Infinity is being able to stream in HD. and downloads can be blazingly fast which stops a lot of frustration.


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## philoaks (Sep 2, 2008)

barryd said:


> Thanks. Are you using Firefox? Buds is using Chrome so maybe the redirect cookies dont work on Chrome but do in Firefox. Not just me then. Its a conspiracy I tell yer!
> 
> I dont really get any offers from BT. So had I not done some digging I may have missed it.
> 
> The infinity service would be nice but not crucial really. You only need 1Mbps really to stream stuff and downloading can be done in the background or overnight. There are still many up here that can get no broadband service at all.


I'm using Chrome too so not sure why it's different.

We could have Infinity if we wanted but, TBH, we get about 5mb download speed so streaming is no problem and that's about the "hungriest" thing I do.


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## GEMMY (Jun 19, 2006)

barryd said:


> I got an email from them saying my line rental saver was up for renewal. I think I paid up front and saved some cash last year.
> 
> So I thought while I was on I would check what deals they had for Broadband. I think Im currently paying £13 for unlimited which is ok.
> 
> ...


Martin Lewis' site "money saving expert" this week, showed 'Plusnet' at just over £100 for a years worth of broadband and line rental

tony
Line rent & broadband £111 for a YEAR_ - equiv £9.24/mth_
*Cheapest b'band we've seen this year, from BT-owned Plusnet. Cuts £200/yr-ish off typical costs after cashback*​​
 These days if you want home broadband, it's almost unavoidable to have it bundled with your home phone. At standard prices with the likes of BT, Sky, Virgin & TalkTalk you could pay £300-£450/year. The key to cost-cutting is grabbing short-lived promo deals (or haggling based on them) - this is the cheapest we've seen so far in 2016...

*Line & b'band £111 for a YEAR. *Via this link, get a 1yr contract with BT-owned Plusnet* for line rent & unltd downloads, up-to-17Mb speed. Its customer service rating is strong (61% 'great' in our poll) & 90% of the UK is eligible, but existing Plusnet customers (or those who left in the last month) are excluded. To get it...

_1. Sign up. _ Go via this Plusnet* link before 11.59pm on Tue 23 Feb.
_2. Pay line rent upfront if you can afford to. _It's £185.88 for the year (equiv £15.49/mth), or £16.99 monthly._
3. Broadband's 'free' during the contract. _ After, it's £9.99-£17.49/mth (depending on location). 
_4. £75 cashback._ Use the link above and within 60 days of account activation you'll automatically be sent a £75 cheque. (PS: If you've ad- or cookie-blocking software, turn it off or it mightn't track - see cookie blockers.)
_5. Pay by direct debit._ Or there's a £1.50 per payment extra charge.

How it rates: Pay a year's line rent upfront, factor in cashback & it's £110.88 for a year (equiv £9.24/mth). Pay line rent monthly & after cashback it's £128.88 (£10.74/mth equiv). BT's standard line rent is £17.99/mth alone.
_- What about calls?_ None included - calls to UK phones are mostly slightly cheaper than BT (see call costs).
- _No line/switching from cable (or in a few cases, Sky cust)?_ Installation's £49.99. You'll know before committing.
-_ Need a router?_ There's an optional 'free' one available, though Plusnet charges £6.99 p&p.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

fatbuddha said:


> maybe - but streaming at 1Mbps is sh1te - too many buffering issues. the nice thing about Infinity is being able to stream in HD. and downloads can be blazingly fast which stops a lot of frustration.


The thing is though it also depends where you stream from as its throttled anyway. I may have a 3-4mbps connection which is more than enough to stream in HD but if I am on a streaming site I may still get the odd bit of buffering depending on the amount of server traffic and how its throttled at the other end. Having a 20 or 40Mbps service will make no difference. I download stuff for going away and that is a right pain though. Takes forever especially if its high quality but again depending on where you download it from it may still be throttled so it wouldnt always be much faster than it is now if the sending server is limited.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

barryd said:


> Maybe my Firefox or more likely BT's site is dodgy but is it possible they are redirecting logged on existing customers so they cannot see whats on offer for newbies?


Absolutely they are doing that - as do Sky and no doubt various other sites. In their defence they would argue that they are trying to make content relevant to their customers so there's no point in showing their customers something they can't have!


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

GEMMY said:


> Martin Lewis' site "money saving expert" this week, showed 'Plusnet' at just over £100 for a years worth of broadband and line rental
> 
> tony
> Line rent & broadband £111 for a YEAR_ - equiv £9.24/mth_
> ...


Not a lot of wiggle room here really as Plusnet will not offer us that deal where we are. Your much better off with BT here loathe that I am to admit that.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

Interesting thread. Such a minefield this shopping around for best deals isn't it?


I had a pleasant surprise yesterday. I decided to dump TalkTalk as my email address keeps getting hacked into. I decided that, because we live in rural area, it would be best to go with BT. Once TalkTalk were informed they sent me a bill for £156 for leaving contract early. Now I know why I keep getting "renewal" phone calls from them so that I am always in the middle of a contract. I duly phoned BT to cancel the order and they said they would pay the £156 bill!


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## BillCreer (Jan 23, 2010)

patp said:


> Interesting thread. Such a minefield this shopping around for best deals isn't it?
> 
> I had a pleasant surprise yesterday. I decided to dump TalkTalk as my email address keeps getting hacked into. I decided that, because we live in rural area, it would be best to go with BT. Once TalkTalk were informed they sent me a bill for £156 for leaving contract early. Now I know why I keep getting "renewal" phone calls from them so that I am always in the middle of a contract. I duly phoned BT to cancel the order and they said they would pay the £156 bill!


Is the mail service you use, one set up by TalkTalk? If it is not then it is hard to see how your ISP could play a part in your mailbox being hacked.


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## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

BillCreer said:


> Is the mail service you use, one set up by TalkTalk? If it is not then it is hard to see how your ISP could play a part in your mailbox being hacked.


My TalkTalk email is full of spam and my contacts are getting spam emails from me (but not from me). It happens regularly.

If it is not TalkTalk then what is going on? Could it be my Facebook? I think the contacts concerned may all have been Facebook friends.


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## peribro (Sep 6, 2009)

patp said:


> My TalkTalk email is full of spam and my contacts are getting spam emails from me (but not from me). It happens regularly.
> 
> If it is not TalkTalk then what is going on? Could it be my Facebook? I think the contacts concerned may all have been Facebook friends.


It's not impossible that your email or Facebook accounts have been hacked but unlikely. First thing is to change your passwords and make sure that the passwords you use are not ones that you use on other sites.

One way that spoofers have obtained contacts lists is through malware on your PC - make sure that you have up to date virus and malware checkers and have had your drive scanned.

As for Facebook make sure that you are on top of the security settings.

Lastly it's possible that you and your contacts have been joint recipients of an email that was also sent inadvertently to a spoofer and all your email addresses are now in his possession and probably being shared.

If all else fails then change your email address.


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## BillCreer (Jan 23, 2010)

patp said:


> My TalkTalk email is full of spam and my contacts are getting spam emails from me (but not from me). It happens regularly.
> 
> If it is not TalkTalk then what is going on? Could it be my Facebook? I think the contacts concerned may all have been Facebook friends.


If, as it sounds, it is a TalkTalk specific mailbox then any easy fix is just to open a mailbox from another provider. Hotmail, yahoo mail or google mail are all good.
As long as you don't drag your old mail with you from the old mailbox to the new one you should be fine.


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

I used to be with BT who were charging £32.74/month for a 10Gb limited service with weekend calls.

Now moved to EE where unlimited fibre BB + weekend calls + EETV is £30.45


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## BillCreer (Jan 23, 2010)

It's like car insurance and many other services where you have to play it one year at a time keeping an eye open for the special offers.


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