BT PRICE HIKES

(sometime in 2015)

Switching our Internet Service Provider

Over the years I've been paying steadily more and more money for our phone and Internet. During the last year (2015) BT, who supply us with our broadband, has been getting too greedy; maybe because they're over-stretched having started their own TV broadcasts and mobile phone network?
Whatever it is has made me really annoyed. How much is our broadband? Well, it's £32 per month and whoever I speak to, including everyone at BT via their help lines, agrees. Sometimes a BT person can get too cocky and promise to reduce this figure dramatically, but once they start busily typing away on their computers it invariably ends with… "I don't seem to be able to get into your account", or something similar.
Then, usually I'm transferred to queue up again to speak to another person "who can", but who can't help either. I reckon, barring hopeless Indian call centre people, I must know most of the BT staff by now. Mostly very friendly and courteous..Hi Eileen, Hi Maureen…up in Merseyside. Maureen used to go to my old school, Holt High School (20 odd years after I left when they let girls in that is.. small world)

Why am I a puzzle to BT staff? Well, I'm what's referred to by BT as a "Solus" customer. In my case it means I've had my Internet with BT for ever. So long in fact that they didn't even recognise my account number. Ages ago my better half decided to switch our phone line to the Post Office when they went into the red. She imagined that this would somehow help to keep our local post office open. I must say though that the Post Office charged us less for our line rental than BT and gave us lots of goodies like making foreign phone calls free of charge and free mobile calls at weekends.

Sometimes a BT person would advise me to bring back our phone line to BT and that this would dramatically reduce our broadband price. The snag was always that the new price could be calculated only AFTER we'd transferred the line to them and not before. As I no longer trust BT when it comes to cash you can imagine why their offer was rejected. "Tell me how much now and if it's low enough I'll switch", I said... but all to no avail.

One obvious solution would be to switch broadband to the Post Office. Not possible it seems, unless we wished to downgrade our speed by a factor of 7. I suspect the Post Office, who are really the GPO, can get to grips with copper wire used from Victorian times but don't understand these new fangled fibre optics.

A better solution is to switch both phone line and broadband to a third party; neither the Post Office nor BT.

The story that follows is long-winded and still in progress but here goes...

About 6 months ago when our broadband went up from £17 to £30 I rang BT and tried to get the new figure reduced. If you've tried something like this it can be very wearying and time consuming. Mostly I got nowhere, but one time I spoke to a lady in Enniskillen. She was very helpful and said I could re-negotiate my broadband without transferring my line because she was able to bypass the official channels and just change my payments with a few mouse clicks. A call would be made to me the next day confirming it had all been resolved like magic.

As you might guess I didn't receive the call and, it transpired all record of the promise was redacted or expunged from the BT computers. I waited a fortnight just in case the Irish branch were very busy (note "we are VERY busy" is the automated excuse BT use when you call them). I then tried to get back to the lady in Enniskillen. I think that either she or the person due to call me back were the team that kicks into action when you mention, "looking at Sky special offers".

After lots of phone calls I was unsuccessful so I decided to make a formal complaint. This was not easy. "Complain to me", was the frequent response… "No, I'd rather escalate my complaint", I responded. This is because a complaint is often quashed because the BT person was said to have been following their script. "My complaint is that I failed to receive a promised call which would confirm my reduced broadband price", I explained. With lots of aggravation the BT person passed my complaint further up the chain.

I was called back and was informed (as I'd forecast) that my complaint was unfounded because the BT person had done nothing wrong… "Please escalate my complaint", I said, "I insist", and after a few days I received a phone call from a nice lady who apologised and listened to my story about the promised reduction in my broadband price and the call confirming this which had never materialised.

At this point it was discovered that no record existed of the original phone calls. "How much exactly was the promised price?" I said I couldn't remember exactly but I think it was around £23 and I was paying currently about £30. I also said that while I'm at it I wasn't happy with my BT TV payment. Before I go on I'll just give you a potted history of our BT Sport experience.

I was one of the first customers for BT TV. Why was this you might ask? Well my better half enjoys watching baseball. Donkeys years ago we watched baseball on Channel 5. This was tricky because at that time our Channel 5 local station was transmitting at very low power and about 30 degrees off our local TV transmitter on the IoW. We had a large aerial specially erected for Channel 5, a powerful amplifier and a notch filter and often the picture (analogue of course) would fade into noise. Oh, and did I mention that baseball was transmitted between midnight and 6am? Recording this transmission resulted in one of the above… a perfect recording of the game, the game continued after the published time and we missed the ending, the signal faded out and we recorded noise or a French station appeared and messed up the recording. Another problem, which came later. BT needed to "renew the viewing card validity" periodically and, as luck would have it, chose to do this by making an automatic recording starting at 4am so this usually messed up the ending of our baseball recordings. Live baseball was transmitted from the US in our small hours…

When we started BT TV it cost about £7 and for an extra £10 we bought a card for the now defunct Sentanta Sports channel. After a year or so Setanta was replaced by ESPN. Both had baseball (which was the reason for taking up BT TV and the fact that Channel 5 had dropped baseball). Over the years the price for BT TV changed. It went up regularly until one day it reached about £12.50 and for some reason no longer included their sports offerings. These had become free of charge to BT broadband customers. So, essentially we were paying for all sorts of things we didn't watch and not paying for things we were watching until a letter arrived. I'll explain...

Back in November 2014 BT wrote to me and said that soon you'll lose BT Sport. It was moving from digital terrestrial to the Internet and as my broadband speed was rubbish I'd lose BT Sport.
Not so fast though… if I rang 0800 678 1968 I could get an engineer to sort out our line and we could get BT Sport after all. I'm not sure how exactly this could be done because it says, "On their visit they'll assess your line from the exchange to inside your house and get an improved connection", but anyway I rang the number and, you've guessed it, no-one knew anything about the letter.

I persevered and an engineer was booked. He duly turned up rather mystified. I showed him the letter and he remained mystified. He tested the line and said it was really good but not fast enough for BT Sport.

I rang BT again and this time I was offered a dongle. This is the answer I was told. It's a Google device that lets one watch, on your TV, BT Sport received on one's computer. But I can't get BT Sport because the broadband speed is too low I explained. The lady pretended not to hear and went on to say the special miracle device is worth £30 and you can have it for nothing. OK I said wearily.. send it and I'll try it.

It duly arrived and of course the problem wasn't solved.
After more phone calls I was offered super fast broadband. You'll get 37Megs and, for a bit more you'll get 75Megs. I explained to the Irish lady that anything sounding too good to be true probably wasn't true.
Later our local exchange began to get converted for fibre optic broadband and I was told a cabinet was near enough for me to get 13Megs using a copper link to the local fibre optic termination.
I jumped at the chance and duly received a new hub and the service began. I could now get around 13Megs and I could receive BT Sport.
Unfortunately a price hike then raised my bill for broadband from £17 to £30. I was now paying £12.50 for TV plus an extra £13 (a total of £25.50 per month) just to receive BT Sport which was FREE to BT Broadband customers. That's £306 per year for a free service.. so I rang BT. So, continuing with the saga… the complaints lady had called.

I explained about my unhappiness regarding BT TV and she listened to my story. I said we only moved to faster broadband so we could receive BT Sport. That was supposed to be free so why was I being charged an excessive amount for broadband? Problem solved… she said that our broadband price was now £23 instead of £30 plus she'd reduced our BT TV to £2. "Unfortunately", she said, "the computer system isn't amenable to mouse clickable reductions so I'll credit your account with cash to make up the difference"… and she did.

But all that happened months ago… now we still have a bill of £32 per month for broadband and £2 for BT TV PLUS £5 for what was our FREE BT Sports. Oddly that equals £7 which is what we used to pay for BT TV Sport from Sentanta and ESPN.
In addition we're paying about £18 for our phone line. That equals £57 in total or £684 per annum.

At this point I decided to abandon BT and move my line and broadband to Sky.
Since June 2015 this process is handled completely by the new provider so I'm now waiting for it all to happen…
My line rental drops to a basic £10.66 plus all free UK calls including mobiles for £8 and my faster broadband (fibre + copper) drops to £10. Setting aside the TV bits and pieces, that's a saving of £21 per month AND we'll get free phone calls including mobiles anytime instead of just evenings and weekends for the former and weekends for the latter.
In case you missed that… it's a saving of £252 per annum.

Next… what happened after I requested the switch…?
Young Dominic arrived in his van to install Sky TV….

Having established with numerous BT advisors that under no circumstances could they reduce my payment of £32 per month for broadband without initially transferring my phone line to them I had decided to move to Sky. I queried BT over the pricing. It's exactly the same hardware so how is it that BT consider they must charge £32 whilst Sky can charge only £10? Surely Sky must pay a wholesale price for the line and the broadband facilities to Openreach from whom BT are also supplied?

Lets add together the phone line and broadband prices. BT would be roughly £50 per month and Sky roughly £18.66 per month (including £8 for the cost of all UK calls) . That means that the wholesale price has to be less than that... let's say £16. Sky's margin therefore equals 13% and that of BT must be 212%. To the layman that must mean rip-off in fact extreme rip off. BT may say... but we are offering the deal to new customers for £23 plus £19; but that's still a margin of 85% and why should a long-established loyal customer be forced to support BT to the tune of 212%? That's nonsense, and if BT managers are aware of the discrepancy they must be balmy.

BT may say that the broadband and phone line charges are interlinked but I pay about the same amount to the Post Office that BT have quoted. The Post Office in turn pay Openreach a little less. So Openreach is an independent company then?

No, it's part of BT. Therefore BT lose only a couple of pounds because my phone provider is the Post Office. This is patently absurd. Whoever I pay for broadband and phone whether it's Sky or BT, most of the cash ends up in the pocket's of BT; so, previously I was paying £32 plus £18 for broadband and phone and soon I'll be paying £10 and £10.66. In the first instance BT took £50 and soon BT will take around £17 with Sky taking £3.66; so BT will be out of pocket by £33, yet refused to cut my price of £32 for broadband. Absolutely crazy.

Or is it?

The Government needed to invent a market for broadband and phones. BT had a monopoly which means they could charge whatever they like for providing the services. So, BT should supply at wholesale prices these services to other service providers who can then charge whatever they like. Well, to stay in business they need to be competitive which means they must quote lower prices than BT. In other words these providers must either be more efficient than BT or make less profit. But there's still a monopoly because BT can set their prices as high as they wish. So, we'll invent Openreach. They can sell services to BT and other service providers at much the same prices. That way it's an even playing field? Not really because Openreach is part of BT. All that's happened is Openreach holds the monopoly not BT. But as BT = Openreach there's really no change at all. None of this explains why BT refused to reduce my £32 for broadband.

I blame Libby Barr because she signed every letter I've received from BT; although I have doubts that she has ever read any of these letters because they contain silly errors and surely a Managing Director wouldn't make such silly mistakes? In fact, speaking to a BT person the other day, he said these letters are generated automatically by computers. This being so isn't it strange they should carry a signature? Is this fraud?

The last letter said I would have to pay £108 because I was ending my contract early. Is this the exact amount of the rip-off due from now to the end of the contract?

As I understand it, Ofcom have said that a price rise provides grounds for leaving a contract without penalty, and you have 30 days to make the decision. I contacted BT and they told me I can leave without penalty, so having got that information I began the switchover, so why does this Libby Barr person believe otherwise?

All's well that ends well. The new router works much the same as the old one except it's network address is 192.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.1.254. This meant some changes where any network addressing wasn't set to "Auto" and of course our network printer stopped working until I'd manually reset its address in its menu. The Post Office and BT have both told us there's a refund pending.. so no penalties. Since July or August of 2015 all the previous problems of switching broadband provider have magically disappeared so don't forget... if your ISP hikes up the price within an existing contract you can switch to another and gain the benefits of special offers without a penalty for cancelling the contract. The only slight drawback is your email. Each ISP has their own email system. This is based on a server which responds to whatever email address you've chosen and naturally the details are never "standard". Dropping your old ISP means losing your old email address if it was with the ISP and going through the process of modifying Outlook or Outlook Express or whatever you use, not to mention letting everyone know your address has changed.. Not necessarily though because at least one ISP allows you to keep your old email address when you switch broadband provider. BT give you 30 days grace and then for a little over £1.60 per month (in 2015) you can retain your old BT email address. In fact I believe you can have up to ten different addresses.

LATER

I'm now writing this note in March 2016. My next door neighbour popped over last week to ask if our phone was working as he had no dial tone. I checked and it was fine so he called his phone provider and a day or two later an Openreach van and cherry picker was outside our gate (that's where the telephone pole is). A second Openreach van was parked round the corner.. not too far away. I stood by our gate and the chap up the pole shouted that the line was OK, then corrected himself... sorry... wrong line. A day or two later and it's my phone that's missing dial tone. Is this a coincidence or did the Openreach chap forget to tighten the screws on the "wrong line" I wonder? I contacted Sky, to whom we pay the line rental. The Sky chap said one of the phone wires was disconnected and Openreach will fix it within 5 days....

I get most of my work via the phone so it looks like I'll be getting a few days off... time to catch up on some gardening.

Fortunately broadband works, albeit only a quarter as fast as it should be. Signs of losing one of our pair of wires between the pole and the house? Something a little odd... when you ring my number you can hear ringing but the phone remains as dead as a dodo, and of course there's no dial tone... but when you hang up the mobile a red LED next to a button carrying a picture of an envelope on the landline phone lights up and if you press this my mobile phone number appears on the dial. Apparently there must be some signalling going on that doesn't rely on both wires being connected?

Well, the Monday following the weekend we lost our phone at around mid-day broadband lost sync for ten minutes and when it came back we had dial tone again.

AND A FEW DAYS LATER

I received a letter from BT, from "Yours Sincerely Libby Barr" stating that as from 6th May 2016 our Premium Mail price was raised from £1.60 to £5 per month. This is an increase of 312.5% and is certainly more than inflation. Of course it's plainly a ruse to make me switch ISP to BT. Fat chance as this must be the third time they've used Mafia methods on me. I've sent them a formal letter of complaint and also contacted OFCOM. Watch this space...

A few days later the phone rang a nice Indian gentleman from BT said he'd received my email and said the charge could be discounted (whatever that meant) and, could he "close the complaint". I said he could close the complaint once the price was put back to £1.60 so he said he'd transfer me to "accounts". After lots of music and ringing and messages about "we are very busy" a nice Irish chap answered. I explained the position and after lots of questions he finally said I could have my email free of charge and a letter will follow. Too good to believe? We'll wait and see....

Next, I got an email telling me that from now on I wouldn't be charged for BT Premium Mail, "and this is constant". Great, it was worth complaining.

Oops, now, 5 days later I got another email telling me I'd be paying £5 instead of £1.60.

I rang and after an eternity in a queue I spoke to an Irish chap who said he'd find out what was going on and was it OK if he put me on hold.... the line went quiet and then.... I was back in the queue for another 28 minutes. Eventually an Indian lady answered and, after explaining all over again, I was told the order giving me my free email hadn't been processed properly and would I wait while she spoke with her supervisor for two minutes. She returned after 5 minutes and said the order for my free email hasn't been actioned despite the fact I have it in writing that my email will be free, plus the following statement. Quote "Please accept the above statement as true and consider this e-mail as confirmation and evidence of the same".

I re-opened my original complaint....

That was quick... the nice chap who'd been handling the complaint said the foc order he'd raised had gone wrong but he'd now raised a new order. This was copied to me and indeed shows free email for 12 months before reverting, not to £5 but to the original £1.60 after 12 months. The order was signed by Libby Barr, so if I need to open a Small Claims Court dispute I know the name to use. Below is part of the new order. I included the very unfriendly T & C which is getting very common these days and hopefully will eventually be ruled unfair, then illegal, before too long.

BT Premium Mail
Thanks for choosing BT Premium Mail, which gives you:

Unlimited storage for large files and emails
Protection against viruses, spam and other online threats
Technical support to help you when you need
Up to 11 email addresses for you and your family
Access via webmail, internet-enabled mobile phones and email programs
You'll get BT Premium Mail free for 12 months (starting from the activation date), then it's £1.60 a month by Direct Debit.

"Our prices and terms may change at any time while you're in contract with us
We'll let you know about any important changes before they happen."

Clearly the statement that a price increase can be made willy nilly must be unfair. In these days of price comparison websites it is patently absurd that, having selected a new provider one day, that provider can bump up his price the very next day by any amount is wrong. I always understood that a contract lays down, in concrete, the terms and conditions to be valid for the length of the contract and, as price is the most important part, it is wrong to make this a variable quantity.

Although everyone sees this as unfair, Ofcom, who are supposed to be looking after public interests have merely wriggled a bit and said all they can do is to make this unfair stipulation a valid reason for a customer to leave the contract within 30 days of notification without penalty. This basically gives the green light to anyone wishing to attract new customers by offering stupidly low prices in the hope that the customer won't notice if the price goes up, or just can't be bothered to swap a second time (customer inertia). You can click here to see here what Ofcom's solution is. As my new contract with BT gives me email "Free" for 12 months I can't see how this can be subject to a price hike. Time will tell.

Experiences with Sky

I moved to Sky. The price of broadband dropped dramatically and I accepted the option of free phone calls including mobiles. I also took up, at great expense their offer of TV. Helping this switch was the fact that I was shortly to get a free over-75 TV license.

I must admit that although I now have Sky E-mail, I rarely use this.. but it is listed within my Outlook accounts so if anything untoward happens I get an error message. Recently, I received what I thought was a phishing e-mail from Sky telling me to change my password.

Dear Customer

At Sky we take the security of your data and information extremely seriously. To help keep your account safe we have reset the password for your Sky account.

You will now need to choose a new password to access your account. To reset your password, please visit https://skyid.sky.com/resetpassword/skycom and enter your email or username.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Sky

Of course I ignored this message because I receive lots of vaguely similar messages, often about things I don't have.. but after a few days I received an error message from Outlook, and googling the problem revealed it was indeed Sky changing passwords. The reason is likely to be nothing whatever to do with user security, but the gradual leaking of information resulting in free Sky TV for non-subscribers. I changed my password and all was well, but today 5th Sept 2019, another error message popped up. I tried email over a period of an hour or so but still got an error message. I tried to check my Sky account but couldn't log in. The only option presented was to change my password (ie. it was MY mistake). I did this but still could not log in. Now I was getting confused. Which password would allow me access? My old one or a new one?

I rang the 0333 Sky help number and a quiet recorded voice said that there was an email problem and Sky would not provide any assistance to individual customers, so I googled Sky e-mail problems and found dozens and dozens of complaints dated today, 5th September 2019. Most blamed Yahoo, who it seems are now "handling" or "mis-handling" Sky email (take your pick). I now recall that ages ago, BT decided to ditch Yahoo after having lots of problems with them. Now it seems, all the problems suffered by BT-Yahoo have now migrated to Sky-Yahoo. Presumably some errant programmer has changed some important code without first checking it was OK?

You just can't get the staff these days...

What really annoys me is the general view by all providers of services is that it's a customer's error that always explains the reason for a problem. Rarely does a provider of a service accept any blame on their website or help options. So.. in the case of Sky.. they advise you to change your password and everything will be hunky dory. When will my Sky e-mail be sorted out?? If my password was indeed changed, will my Outlook password be wrong? I can't even log into my account now and I've tried all my passwords.

I just tried and after a couple of goes, after waiting an age to get directed (after being validated) got the messages below...

We are experiencing some technical difficulties
Temporary error: 15
Learn more

Try again

Then after trying "Learn more" saw

Whitelabel Error Page

This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

Thu Sep 05 11:21:08 UTC 2019
There was an unexpected error (type=Bad Request, status=400).
No message available

I kept trying and by about 3pm, after around 6 hours Sky email was working again, albeit after I'd changed my password because it had been suggested that would provide a fix.. which it didn't...

Much Later

After about 6 years I'd noticed our Sky bill creeping higher and higher, and when a Sky advisor got my e-mail working after some sort of technical glitch he happened to mention that our monthly subs seemed excessive. For a Sky chap to say this meant they must be really high and he suggested we apply for a new contract. Our Sky box and router were of course 6 years old and likely to pack up sooner or later, so with that in mind and after delaying for a month or two decided to ring Sky and attempt a reduction in our bill. The delay had been due to fear of being on the phone for hours sorting things out.

The first chap who sounded like he was on the other side of the world and under water suggested a new Sky Q router. I asked if this was free and he rambled on and on and on but when I re-iterated I was looking for a new contract he said his department couldn't deal with monthly subs and only new boxes. I'd already said I wanted a 4K box to match our new TV and after much to-ing and fro-ing with "talking to my manager" etc etc he said I could have a new Sky Q box foc and once arranged I could be transferred to the subs people. I said I'd rather talk to them first and reluctantly he redirected my call. It was now 40 minutes since I'd rung and the subs people said they couldn't see how I could get a free Sky Q box, but as I'd been promised one they suggested I ring a further department, supplying the number to ring. This I tried and surprisingly it was a strong Scots accent from the Sky chap instead of a far eastern voice.

I explained my predicament and after another 60 odd minutes it was all sorted out. My Sky Q box would be £29 (not foc) and an engineer would come and fit this in a week or so. My subs were reduced from £168 to £96 and I added BT Sport and Netflix as extras. A couple of days later a new router arrived. I hadn't expected this but I think it has something to do with the requirements of the Sky Q box...

I decided to install this but made a big mistake in doing so. Let me explain and save a lot of hassle for anyone that follows the same path....

The problem is the Wireless aspect of the router. Searching for a wireless connection you'll probably see several choices, with the stronger one being your own router. This will be identified by what's called an SSID and access will be via a password usually of 8 or more characters. The new router had a different SSID and a new password from our old box. That means anyone visiting your house with a phone or laptop will need to add the new SSID and password to their listing in order to access wireless and hence the Internet. Now emerges my problem; we have no less than 4 Alexas and lots of smart plugs and other so-called "smart" devices. After intalling the new router I spent ages sorting out the Alexa boxes but when it came to the smart things they turned out not to be smart at all. Far from it they were as thick as planks. What I should have done, and I did this later, was to install the new router and immediately change the SSID and password to match those of the old router. After doing this... it was easy enough.. I redid the Alexa boxes.. and all the smart things were suddenly back in business.. except our smart kettle. As far as the Alexas are concerned the kettle is working fine.. I can check its temperature and turn it on and off with voice commands but the actual kettle just sits there unresponsive. It had taken me some 20 email exchanges with the manufacturer to get it working in the first place and it had been fine.. but now it can only be turned on manually.

It sounds like everything, apart from the kettle, was easy to sort out but in fact using my Amazon Fire to handle everything proved this was just not up to the job. The "smart" software was absolutely awful. My main grumble is a complete lack of feedback from the device and so-called "Apps". I was never certain that commands were actually being expedited or my finger hadn't been recognised or a delay was in progress due to a download or access problem. It reminds me of that ridiculous Post Office system where users, not waiting for feedback, kept repeating commands, not realising that every time they did this a brand new transaction was starting. And of course the famous time at Plessey when secretaries were all presented with computer terminals to send and receive company messages. Because of slow line modems and slow computers and poor software, the same message could be transmitted on each press of the "Go" button. Because of a delay of say 60 seconds (and no feedback.. such as "please wait") the Go button was pressed maybe 50 times (in desperation) resulting in the delivery next day by post of hundreds of A3 sheets carrying multiple copies of just a few messages.

Anyway... I'm now waiting for the new Sky Q box which I'm told will be maintained foc by Sky unlike the old box which became my responsibility after 12 months. I was reminded of this very frequently by letters demanding a large sum of money for its "insurance".. oh.. and of course endless scam phone calls warning of dire consequences if I didn't sign over pots of cash and in the process giving them unrestricted access to my bank account!!

Whilst on this subject. a new phone scam from yet another fake BT Engineering Department somewhere in the Far East and often employing fake UK phone numbers on one's phone display, suggests you run "netstat" and having noticed the word "Foreign" heading one column download a program letting the scammers take over your computer and steal your savings from your bank....

Since the start of the "digital revolution" many problems can be traced to bad software or bad firmware (just semantics). Clearly, now that microprocessors are running virtually anything these days we are entirely dependent on the quality of software produced by programmers. Bearing in mind the huge number of software updates needed to keep Microsoft's products running smoothly.. what about everything else depending on programmer's code?

Recently we had a huge failure of the National Grid. Their excuse was that two large energy generators had failed at the same time. OK.. fair enough.. but what exactly was the reason? Was it a hardware problem? Was it a firmware problem? We shall probably never find out. Could it even be due to a Windows 10 update? If it was a hardware failure.. what was it exactly? It could even be a firmware fault within the hardware...

I can reveal to you something slightly more technical concerning that mains outage. It concerns software/firmware, as I predicted.. but not in the National Grid. Most of us are accustomed to mains outages these days. Many generally last for only a short period and some are accompanied by surges in the supply voltage that can wreck your equipment.

***

Often you'll turn on a TV and find one of the set-top boxes has screwed up. Everyone now knows (if you've spoken to an Indian Call Centre rep), that all you need to do is to unplug the box and replug it and all will be well... after sometimes a long boot-up phase. This also applies to my Sky router, which frequently seems to become deaf to demands to open an Internet browser. My beef is that surely the firmware should be able to diagnose a problem and automatically correct it, or failing that, put up a message to the user to unplug-replug? But no... we need to mess around checking all sorts of things before the unplug-replug is tried.

***

What happened in the Southern rail network recently (Summer 2019)? A major power outage caused loads of trains to just stop. No mains power.. no motors could run, unless there was a backup diesel motor. In fact there is extreme pressure to ditch diesel-powered trains and go for electric trains.. and indeed electric cars. So.. the Southern trains just stopped and when the power returned you'd expect the motors to run and the trains to move into the nearest station. What actually happened was about half the trains rebooted their software and they were able to make the next stations. What about the other half? Alas.. a recent software change thwarted the reboot and these trains had to disembark their passengers who were obliged to walk to the next station, or sit and wait in the carriage. Why did they have to wait? Because the programmer, whose latest software release had been incorporated into the trains computer, had seemingly forgotten about what would happen if power was lost. The program locked up and remained so until a software engineer turned up with his laptop to get things going again (and again and again and again........).

I bet.. pound to a penny.. both the National Grid outage and the severe delays to trains were due to similar problems. A errant programmer... you just can't get the staff these days. I'm not saying that hardware is 100% reliable.. far from it. If it was I wouldn't have my self-employed business of repairing circuit boards.

Take for example a motor cycle battery charger just received for repair... I opened it up and after studying the circuit boards for anomalies noticed two KSP2907A transistors soldered back-to-front (see below). As I said.. you just can't get the staff these days. I sent some pictures to the UK distributor showing the two odd transistors and am awaiting their response...

March 2024

For the past month or so loads of white vans turned up in our lane and adjoining roads. Most were either Openreach or Network contractors.. so it seems that finally fibre optic cables are being run from the termination box half a mile away. I looked on the Net and signed up to an Openreach website for news of a switch-on date for our local telephone pole and sure enough, on the 28th March 2024 a message arrived.

So, what's the next step?

I followed the on-line instructions from my broadband provider, Sky. The new bill with their 500MHz full fibre option was over £200 per month. They wanted to add £61 to my existing monthly bill of £146.50 (=£207.50). Wow... that seemed too much, so I wondered how much BT would charge (BT being also an Openreach customer). I rang and of course (a) there's not a definite route through their phone presses and (b) all options involve a long wait. I finally got through to a chap in Dundee who talked me through their options. It turned out (he said) that I could get exactly the same package of TV and phone line charges as Sky with a 300MHz full fibre option for £128.99. Fantastic saving over Sky's figure of £207.50. Before I agreed to switch over though I wanted to see if Sky could match this figure. My logic being that if Sky sold TV to BT and BT bought their broadband and phone from Openreach (as well as Sky) then surely Sky could match BTs quote. To save time, and to have a firm base for my quote, I agreed to an engineer visit and a monthly bank standing order from 9th April.

Below is the email I received from BT. Or is this from BT??

It's a very long meandering statement and includes some basic arithmetic. Feel free to check this... ha.

I'll summarise that here...

Up-front charges=£0

Monthly charge; Broadband =£37.99; TV = £78; Apple TV= £8.99; Phone=£18, Total = £128.99

And...Nowhere does it mention BT, instead my phone call magically went to EE

CONTRACT SUMMARY

Hi Allan,

This contract summary provides the main elements of this service offer. It helps to make a comparison between service offers.

If you have a healthcare alarm, you confirm you've checked with your Telecare provider that it is compatible with Digital Voice.

Once your Digital Voice has been installed, please complete a test call to ensure Telecare works.

Complete information about the services is provided in other documents.

Document one: Your contract summary
Services
Package summary

Broadband
" Full Fibre 300 Essentials

EE TV
" Netflix (Standard)
" NOW Entertainment Bundled
" NOW Sports Bundled
" NOW Cinema Bundled
" TNT Sports Channels
" HD and 4K plus NOW Boost
" Apple TV+

EE TV Extras
" Full Works 4K

Digital Home Phone
" Call Pack Unlimited

Digital Home Phone Extras
" Directory Entry

Speed of the internet access service and remedies in case of problems
Broadband speeds
We predict you'll get the following speeds:

Your estimated download speed: 308 Mbps - 308 Mbps

Your estimated upload speed: 51 Mbps - 51 Mbps

Your guaranteed download speed: 150Mbps

Find out what to do if you're not getting your expected download speeds.

Price
One-off charges

Full Fibre 300 Essentials
A reliable fast broadband connection for 4K streaming, on all the family's devices. Includes a 6 months subscription for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. £0.00
Managed Install
This installation requires an Openreach engineer to access the customers property £0.00
Smart Hub Plus
A cutting-edge router that's packed full of advanced features for seamless home broadband. £0.00
Delivery Charge
Delivery Charge £0.00
Home Phone Adaptor (Single Pack)
The freedom to keep using your existing home phones when your service moves to Digital Home Phone. £0.00
Multiroom Dual Pack £0.00
Full Works 4K
Includes 12 live Sky Sports channels, 11 Sky Cinema channels and Entertainment channels with a NOW Membership. Plus your NOW channels in Full HD with NOW Boost. All 4 TNT Sports channels, a Netflix Standard plan, discovery+ Premium, and Eurosport 1 & 2. £0.00
EE TV Box Pro
Record, pause and rewind your favourite TV, enjoy up to 90 live channels in HD or 4K, and get it all with one box and an internet connection. £0.00
Total one-off charges £0.00

Monthly charges for this order

Full Fibre 300 Essentials
A reliable fast broadband connection for 4K streaming, on all the family's devices. Includes a 6 months subscription for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. £37.99
Smart Hub Plus
A cutting-edge router that's packed full of advanced features for seamless home broadband. £0.00
Multiroom Dual Pack £0.00
Full Works 4K
Includes 12 live Sky Sports channels, 11 Sky Cinema channels and Entertainment channels with a NOW Membership. Plus your NOW channels in Full HD with NOW Boost. All 4 TNT Sports channels, a Netflix Standard plan, discovery+ Premium, and Eurosport 1 & 2. £78.00
Netflix (Standard) £0.00
NOW Entertainment Bundled
Watch unmissable entertainment, award-winning dramas and HBO box sets from channels including Sky Atlantic, Sky Max, Gold and Comedy Central as well as 7 kids channels. £0.00
NOW Sports Bundled
Watch all 12 live Sky Sports channels bringing you world-class sport including the Premier League, every F1 race, cricket, golf majors and more. £0.00
NOW Cinema Bundled
Watch the biggest blockbusters including brand new films and award-winning movies from 11 Sky Cinema channels. Including over 1000 movies on demand. £0.00
TNT Sports Channels
All 4 TNT Sports channels, with exclusive UEFA Champions League football, the Premier League, Gallagher Premiership, European Heineken Cup, boxing, UFC and more from TNT Sports. Includes Eurosport 1&2 and discovery+ Premium. £0.00
HD and 4K plus NOW Boost
Watch your NOW channels in Full HD and Surround Sound, ad-free. TNT Sports channels in Full HD and access to TNT Sports Ultimate (if you've added TNT Sports) for stunning picture quality up to 4K (4K TV and 4K TV box required). £0.00
Apple TV+
All Apple Originals. Only on Apple TV+. £8.99
Digital Home Phone
The future of Digital Home Phone is here, with HD crystal clear calls. Choose from the range of simple Call Packs & the latest digital equipment. £0.00
Directory Entry
Directory Entry Product £0.00
Call Pack Unlimited
Unlimited calls to any UK landline number or UK mobile, day or night. £18.00
Total monthly charges £128.99

A note about our prices
The monthly plan price for the service, out of bundle charges and extras, will be increased on or after 31 March each year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9% (rounded down to the nearest whole pence). Learn about our annual price changes.

We may also increase any charges at any time. If we do, you may be able to end the service early without paying early termination charges. For more details, please see our terms and conditions.

Duration, renewal and termination
Broadband
Your broadband contract is for 24 months.

After this, you will move to a 30-day rolling contract until you give us notice to leave or sign up to a new contract.

EE TV
Your EE TV contract is for 24 months.

EE TV Extras
The following extras have a one-month rolling contract.
" Netflix (Standard)
" NOW Entertainment Bundled
" NOW Sports Bundled
" NOW Cinema Bundled
" TNT Sports Channels
" HD and 4K plus NOW Boost
" Apple TV+

Digital Home Phone
Your service will be on a 30-day rolling contract.

Home Phone Extras
The following extras have a one-month rolling contract. They'll renew automatically unless cancelled with one months' notice.
" Directory Entry

The minimum term begins when your service starts.

You can end the service as set out in our terms and conditions. Unless stated otherwise, you'll normally need to give us 30 days' notice.

If you stop your services within your minimum term, you might have to pay early termination charges. However, if you cancel because we've made changes to your services, these charges may not apply.

If you have more than one product with us, the contracts may be linked. In some situations, if you can cancel one without early termination charges, you may be able to cancel other linked contracts as well.

If you end a service, you must return any loaned equipment within 60 days. If you don't, you'll be charged.

How we calculate the early termination fee
You have to pay an early termination fee if you cancel your service before the end of your minimum contract period. You'll find your contract period on your bill.

For example, if your minimum contract period is 24 months, you can only leave without paying a fee after you've had the service for 24 months.

The early termination fee is the remaining amount you would have paid up to the end of your minimum period, minus the costs we save (for example, payments to suppliers) as a result of you leaving early and a further 1%.

Please go to our Calculate Remaining Contract Charges page for a further explanation on how we calculate the cancellation fee.

For more information, please see our terms and conditions.

Features for customers with disabilities
Learn more about the products and advice available to help you.

Other relevant information
For information about your right to cancel, see your pre-contract document.

Document two: Pre-contract information
Your package in detail
Broadband
Your package:
" Full Fibre 300 Essentials

A reliable fast broadband connection for 4K streaming, on all the family's devices. Includes a 6 months subscription for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

EE TV
Your package:
" Full Works 4K

Includes 12 live Sky Sports channels, 11 Sky Cinema channels and Entertainment channels with a NOW Membership. Plus your NOW channels in Full HD with NOW Boost. All 4 TNT Sports channels, a Netflix Standard plan, discovery+ Premium, and Eurosport 1 & 2.

Your EE TV contract is for: 24 months.

The following extras have a one-month rolling contract. This means they'll renew automatically unless cancelled.

Your EE TV Extras:
" Netflix (Standard)
" NOW Entertainment Bundled
" NOW Sports Bundled
" NOW Cinema Bundled
" TNT Sports Channels
" HD and 4K plus NOW Boost
" Apple TV+

Home Phone
Your package:
Call Pack Unlimited

Unlimited calls to any UK landline number or UK mobile, day or night.

The following extras have a one-month rolling contract. They'll renew automatically unless cancelled with one months' notice.

Home Phone Extras:
" Directory Entry

Equipment
Your broadband equipment:
" Smart Hub Plus
Your EE TV equipment:
" EE TV Box Pro

Service characteristics
Broadband speeds
We predict you'll get the following speeds:

Your estimated download speed: 308 Mbps - 308 Mbps

Your estimated upload speed: 51 Mbps - 51 Mbps

Your guaranteed download speed: 150Mbps

Speed Guarantee
All broadband packages come with a download Speed Guarantee that's personalised to your home.

Your speed may be lower than your estimate. It can be affected by using a wireless connection, and the number of devices connected to it, especially at peak times. You can check your speed using the EE app, online or by calling us on 0330 123 1105. If after 30 days we can't get you back to the speed we promised, you can leave your contract without penalty.

The Speed Guarantee is only applicable for your fixed line Broadband and doesn't cover your 4G or Hybrid Connection. It also excludes outages, connection faults and home wiring outside of EE's control.

Find out more about your Speed Guarantee and how to check your speeds.

Minimum Fibre broadband speeds and compatible equipment are required for the following services:
" SD or HD EE TV: At least 21Mbps
" SD/HD EE TV with one extra box: At least 30Mbps
" SD/HD EE TV with two extra boxes: At least 40Mbps
" EE TV with 4K UHD: At least 41 Mbps
" EE TV 4K UHD with one extra box: At least 50Mbps
" EE TV 4K UHD with two extra boxes: At least 60Mbps

Our broadband packages don't have any speed restrictions. So, if you're on one of our packages, we won't slow you down even at peak times.

It's important to know that the speed ranges we show are estimates. Your actual speed depends on your location, line, home wiring, WiFi connection and time of day.

Possible impacts on your broadband speeds
Delays or interruptions in the transmission of data or packet loss, may result in your broadband running slowly or web pages not loading.

If there's packet loss or a delay in broadband data transfer, then you may find certain applications have a brief interruption of video and audio. This can also affect the time it takes to complete a task, like downloading a track.

Price
One-off charges

Monthly charges for this order

The monthly plan price for the service, and all out of bundle charges and extras, will be increased on or after 31 March each year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation published in January that year plus 3.9% (rounded down to the nearest whole pence). Learn about our annual price changes.

Example Calculation
If CPI were 4% (this was the CPI rate published in January 2024), from March the total price increase would be 7.9%. If your monthly plan price was £40/month, it would increase to £43.16 after that change. Out of bundle charges and extras would also increase by CPI+3.9%, so in this example 7.9%. The CPI rate fluctuates over time so the applicable CPI rate and actual increase each year could be higher or lower than in this example.

We'll also increase the cost of international calls (calls from your home phone to other countries) when our third-party partners put the cost up for us.

We may also increase any charges at any time. If we do, you may be able to end the service early without paying early termination charges.

For more information, please see our terms and conditions.

Ways to pay
If you set up a Direct Debit, your payment will be taken in advance on a monthly basis. We'll take payment from your registered bank account using the details you provide. Activation fees are paid up front by debit or credit card.

If you don't pay a bill within ten days of any bill reminder, a late payment charge of £7.50 may apply. Failed payment charges may also apply.

Find out more about billing and other ways to pay.

Broadband provisioning
If you're new to EE, we'll aim to get your broadband up and running within two weeks, although this can sometimes take longer.

You can check your activation date and follow the status of your broadband activations by tracking your order online, or via the EE app.

Switching to EE
Check out how to switch your TV, broadband or phone service to EE.

Under our Automatic Compensation Scheme, you'll be entitled to compensation if switching to EE and we don't activate your service on the day we promised.

Renewal
Each service will last for the minimum term, as set out above, and will continue unless cancelled in line with our terms and conditions.

If you've other contracts with us their minimum terms may not start or end at the same time as the minimum term for this contract.

Termination
You can end the service under one of the ways set out in our terms and conditions. Unless stated otherwise, you'll normally need to give us 30 days' notice to end a service, though it may sometimes be less. To cancel, you can call us on 0330 123 1105 or contact us through your EE ID account. Find out other ways to cancel.

You'll normally need to give us 30 days' notice to end your contract. If you switch your broadband to another provider through an approved switching process, you can give us just 14 days' notice to leave.

If you cancel within your minimum term, you might have to pay early termination charges. However, if you cancel because we've made changes to your services, these charges may not apply.

After stopping your service, you'll need to return any loaned equipment within 60 days. If you don't, you'll be charged. See our Consumer Price Guide.

For more details, please see our terms and conditions.

Security
If we suspect there's been, or is likely to be, a security incident, we may suspend your BT ID username to protect your account. We'll ask you to change your password before letting you log back in.

Complaints and disputes handling
Our aim is to respond to your complaint and agree a resolution within ten days. Some complaints can take longer, depending on their complexity.

If we've not resolved your complaint to your satisfaction within eight weeks of you first making it, or you receive a 'deadlock' letter from us advising there's nothing more we can do, you can take your complaint to the Ombudsman Service who are an alternative dispute resolution scheme.

Please see our Customer Complaints Code for more information on how to contact us, or the alternative disputes resolution scheme to sort out a problem and how we'll deal with any complaint or dispute.

Check out our terms and conditions.

Right to cancel
To cancel, you can phone us on 0330 123 1105, email us through your EE ID account. Or, find other ways to cancel

You can cancel up to 14 days from when your service starts or kit arrives, whichever is latest. You'll need to pay for anything you've used, and you'll have to return the kit we've sent you, within 14 days of telling us you want to cancel.

For more information, please see our terms and conditions.

Equipment
We may loan you equipment as part of your service. You may also be able to get other equipment from us at a cost. If there are any charges for equipment, we'll tell you before you order.

If the loaned equipment is damaged other than through fair wear and tear, you'll have to pay to fix or replace it.

If you end a service, you must return any loaned equipment within 60 days. If you don't, you'll be charged.

For more information on any of the above, see our terms and conditions.

Data protection
You'll need to provide us with some personal information before we can set you up with certain products or services. We'll collect this information when you buy a product or service from us, or register for an account online or on one of our apps. If you don't provide us with the correct information, we may be unable to complete your order.

The personal information we'll collect includes your contact details and other information to confirm your identity. Such as your name, gender, address, phone number, date of birth, email address, your communication with us, a security question and answer. If you purchase a product or service, we'll need your payment and financial information.

If you tell us you have a disability or need support, we'll note that you are a vulnerable customer, but only if you give your permission or if we must for legal or regulatory reasons.

Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy.

Customers with disabilities
Learn more about the products and advice available to help you.

Accessibility
Please refer to our terms and conditions for the services that you've taken out.

Identity and contact details of Regulated Provider
Regulated Provider EE
Registered address EE Ltd
1 Braham Street,
London,
E1 8EE.

0330 123 1105
For complaints Customer Service Manager
6 Camberwell Way
Sunderland
Tyne and Wear
SR3 3XN

ee.co.uk/go/getintouch

Thanks,
The EE Team

The legal bit
Please don't reply to this email as we won't see it.

You can read our privacy policy and terms and conditions online.

Learn more about our security tools, and how to protect yourself from scammers.

If you want your bills in a different format, like large print or Braille, you can adjust your accessibility options online. Or call us on 0330 123 1105.

Calls to 0330 123 1105 are free from BT and EE landline and mobile numbers. They're charged at your operator's standard rate from any other numbers.

© EE Limited 2024. We're registered in England at 1 Braham Street, London, United Kingdom, E1 8EE (company number 02382161).

Now, armed with a firm fixed price from BT, even though I couldn't understand their figures, but clear it was a legal undertaking, I rang Sky.

My first contact managed to come up with a monthly figure of £171 so I said it was far too high compared with my BT quote so he said he'd transfer me to the "Retention Department". Hoping my handheld cordless phone batteries would last I agreed.

After a couple of long waits I was talking to a nice chap in Edinburgh who set about trying to produce an acceptable quote for swapping to full-fibre. To cut an hours discussion to its end I was quoted £155.50 starting from the 11th April 2024 once an engineer had conected us up.

At this point I'll say that BT had offered 300Mbps with a guarantee of 150Mbps but Sky's package was 500Mbps with a guarantee of 400Mbps so Sky's quote would be dearer.

I said, make it £150 and I'll proceed. After another 15 minutes Paul said NO and I said, "goodbye".

I thought long and hard and decided to try again. After the same palava about £171 being the best price I was transferred to a nice chap in Glasgow. I quoted my ten digit quotation reference number and said.. "how about making this £150 and we have a deal". That's fine.. no problem at all.. £150 it is and it's the contract price till 2025. So.. the Sky engineer is coming on 11th April to install our new fibre connection.

There are a few points I should add though. The new router will have a socket for our landline phone which will then operate over the broadband network, and our copper connection which intermittently messes up when its raining, will be gone. Our new UPS will manage our phone and router to handle any problem if there's a power outage (quite common here). And.. I now know that I should edit the SSID of our new router to that of our old one so that internal Cat 5 system and wi-fi will work as before.

I won't add the three emails from Sky because they're incredibly long-winded. I can summarise though..

Full fibre 500bps was previously quoted as £61 hence the £207.50 initial on-line quote.

The new quote was £53 minus discounts totalling £19= £34. Phone now £13.50 and our original TV package = £102.50. Total £150/month.

This means we'll be upgrading to 500Mbps from 16Mbps (x31) for £3.50/month.

The main improvement is a 60Mbps upload speed compared with our current speed of about 900Kbps (x66).

Cross fingers everything goes to plan....

Well.. success, at least after a first time BT Openreach fail. The installation chap had to ring a lady in the Philipines (I think) before she was able to switch on our service. Anyway, while he perched halfway up our stairs (poor mobile phone reception) various things were arranged and suddenly a trio of green lights appeared and we were on full-fibre. Our phone line is now run via the new router and sounds really good.

Oddly AI was still doing stupid things.

BT (or EE) kept sending me warning messages telling me to take up their offer otherwise the whole shebang would be called off. I rang them and this didn't stop the messages but finally they've stopped.

BT PRICE HIKES

(sometime in 2015)

Switching our Internet Service Provider

LATER

AND A FEW DAYS LATER

"Our prices and terms may change at any time while you're in contract with us We'll let you know about any important changes before they happen."

Experiences with Sky

Whitelabel Error Page

This application has no explicit mapping for /error, so you are seeing this as a fallback.

Much Later

March 2024

I'll summarise that here...

Return to Reception

"Our prices and terms may change at any time while you're in contract with us
We'll let you know about any important changes before they happen."