Is loyalty worthwhile these days?

[bobmac]

Rather than hi-jack the Sky v BT thread, I thought I'd ask a seperate question.
I've been with AOL for years and BT for years and pay roughly £30 a month for both with calls on top.
Is that a fair price?I dont use the phone much so I dont have huge bills.

 

[Farneyman]

Skys a good deal for me, line rental £10/11 broadband free phone £5 free landlines and quite a few international coun trys, basic tv pagage at £20.50 about £35 all in .

 

[RGDave]

Rather than hi-jack the Sky v BT thread, I thought I'd ask a seperate question.
I've been with AOL for years and BT for years and pay roughly £30 a month for both with calls on top.
Is that a fair price?I dont use the phone much so I dont have huge bills.

I'm not a fan of either provider if I'm honest. I have spent my life trying to escape BT (and they know it ) and get my broadband and line rental all-in-one with free calls (eve and w/e).

You could have the same service for £20.99

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=68600711&mediaId=87500739

I have this deal

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=68600711&mediaId=87500743

£25.50. Not the biggest of savings but I did get cash-back after one year (£50).

£4.50 per month = £54 plus £50 cashback....that's over £100 cheaper for the year.

- - - - -

BT are my arch enemies......even less (more?) so when they threatened to not repair my phone line because I wasn't a customer??? I might not be a customer but the Post Office are, so either way, the rude and unhelpful neanderthal that turned up was gonna have to get his ladder and cable out sooner or later.

 

[forefortheday]

Common misconception Dave.

Your line from the Post Office was sold to them by Openreach (a company set up by Ofcom to allow other providers access to the market).Openreach is owned by BT but there are clearly defined rules, one of which is that your provider has a contract with Openreach to manage your line.

Basically BT sell the line to the Post office at a lower rate than BT pay for a line (to encourage competition) and they then sell it onto you.

If you went on a Virgin train and it broke down you wouldn't expect South Western to compensate you would you? Yet they both run on the same network.

 

[RGDave]

Common misconception Dave.

Your line from the Post Office was sold to them by Openreach (a company set up by Ofcom to allow other providers access to the market).Openreach is owned by BT but there are clearly defined rules, one of which is that your provider has a contract with Openreach to manage your line.

Basically BT sell the line to the Post office at a lower rate than BT pay for a line (to encourage competition) and they then sell it onto you.

If you went on a Virgin train and it broke down you wouldn't expect South Western to compensate you would you? Yet they both run on the same network.

I get your point. However, the bottom line is they (Openreach) are responsible to maintain my line. I phoned my provider who phoned Openreach who said there was nothing wrong. However, when the engineer turns up to fix next door, he can't fix next door because their line comes from my line.
I went out and thanked him (graciously) for fixing my line (my wife had already seen him) and all I got was "you're lucky I'm doing your line, I'm not here to fix yours, I'm here to fix theirs". The fact that Openreach chose to pretend there was nothing wrong highlights the fact that they (as a company) clearly didn't want to help and the engineer clearly thought I was lucky to get seen to.

Maybe I was? (probably) but a broken line is a broken line.
Maybe I shouldn't even connect the two companies together. However, I thought Openreach was a BT group company.

 

[CliveW]

Rather than hi-jack the Sky v BT thread, I thought I'd ask a seperate question.
I've been with AOL for years and BT for years and pay roughly £30 a month for both with calls on top.
Is that a fair price?I dont use the phone much so I dont have huge bills.

I'm not sure about the companies you refer to, but I have been with O2 for years with my mobile which I hardly ever use and paid around £24 a month for. I never exceeded the 200 minuites call time or texts that were included so I called them to ask if I could change to a pay as you go contract. As it is a business tariff I was refered to another supervisor who has now given me the same deal for £8 a month!
the moral is, if you sit back and say nothing, you won't get any loyalty discount from them. You have to contact them to see what they will give you and if you aren't happy tell them that you're going to move, and then see what they will offer!

 

[Smiffy]

Rather than hi-jack the Sky v BT thread, I thought I'd ask a seperate question.
I've been with AOL for years and BT for years and pay roughly £30 a month for both with calls on top.
Is that a fair price?I dont use the phone much so I dont have huge bills.

That's a lot of money Bob. I used to be with AOL and despite a lot of people not liking them, I had an OK service over the 5 years I was with them. I then went to Sky for my Broadband but it was tied in with my television package and I got fed up lining Murdochs pockets.
About 9 months ago I ditched Sky and went with Plusnet for my broadband and moved my line rental over to them from BT too, only saved me a £1.00 a month but I was happier that one company were dealing with everything.
I've lost a couple of useful BT features (caller display and the 1571 service) but otherwise I'm very happy.
I think my broadband is costing me something like £5.99 a month for up to 8mb download speed and my line rental about a tenner so all in all I'm paying about £16.00 a month for the lot. Certain evening and weekend calls are free, we might pay about an extra fiver a month on top of this for the few calls we make during the day or to mobiles that aren't covered under the free calls scheme.
So all in all there is quite a bit of money to be saved a month comparing it to what you are paying mate.
If you do decide to switch, be prepared to dig in and fight....especially with AOL. They do not like losing long term customers and will fight tooth and nail to keep you, offering you all kinds of incentives. If you want to save some money straight away and have no intention of giving up, ring them anyway and threaten it (in a polite way)...I guarantee they will halve your membership costs straight away mate...
Rob

 

[viscount17]

I have never had a contract with AOL (nor so far as I knew any dealings) but found that they had been debiting my bank account for months, had to go through the bank to sort it. (moral - always check your statement)

Short answer bob, that seems a hell of a lot just for a phone line and broadband. There are loads of packages out there, though bottom line is a lot require the BT line and many are area dependent.
Some of the comparison sites cover these packages and you will get it cheaper.

How many people actually use land lines for phones nowadays?
I've got a £10 a month package with T-mobile, never use all the allocation, so all my calls go through that.

 

[Macster]

Count yourself lucky you have any choice at all !!

In the Hull area.......we have either Kingston Communications........or

Kingston Communications......

Oh how I'd love another option......

 

[SharkAttack]

I have been with Madasafish for many years now. They are now owned fully by BT. I was paying £10 line rental and £18 for broadband. I phoned them up they brought the broadband down to £10 if I signed up for another 12 months. The following year I phoned them up and the brought it down to £4.50, so it has paid me to stay loyal but as has been said before phone them and see what they can do for you.

As I said on the other post go to www.moneysavingexpert.com you will find the best deals there for most things.

 

[bobmac]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give aol a call

 

[vig]

loyalty ain't worth Jack!
No one rewards loyal customers. All offers are there to lure folk in, once there, you are just a number. Only time they cede a little is when you try and move.