Broadband companies inflict a 'loyalty penalty' on non-switchers

[BobF64]

Its these kind of things that could eventually mean they will be banned from offering discounted deals to new sign ups and have to offer them "extra services" instead, like a free movie or magazine subscription.

After all, if they can afford to offer you 12-18 months at half price, they should be able to afford to charge everyone that price all the time.

[Lee H]

The problem is I am not willing to go for a slower speed connection than what I am currently on at the moment.

Once you get used to having greater speeds than what BT and Sky can offer on their 'fibre' this leaves me with the only option of staying with Virgin for the forseeable future while hyperoptic pull their fingers out and roll out gigabit speeds across a wider area.

[Ttaskmaster]

And, overall, if not happy with either the service or the cost, go elsewhere.

Not happy with either, but no other company can/will supply us unless we pay many thousands. We're BT's ideal target market.

while hyperoptic pull their fingers out and roll out gigabit speeds across a wider area.

Giga......???!!!
Surely this is the stuff of science fiction, Lee.... we're on 0.7Mbps here!!

[Lee H]

Surely this is the stuff of science fiction, Lee.... we're on 0.7Mbps here!!

Nope - its science fact ; but in isolated areas at the moment. Nice offer on as well at the present time on all their speeds ;

https://www.hyperoptic.com/

Before they set up Hyperoptic, the team who run it used to own bethere. Going from past experiences with bethere I can only sing their praises as we had no issues at all with our ADSL when I was with them. Hopefully, the splitting of openwound and BT may help with a quicker rollout across more areas

[Ttaskmaster]

https://www.hyperoptic.com/

Yeah, they're nowhere near being able to offer me any services...

[Saracen]

Not happy with either, but no other company can/will supply us unless we pay many thousands. We're BT's ideal target market.

...

That sucks. Rural area, I presume?

Perhaps I should have said most of us should just play the game.

And yup, you're ANY company's ideal, even perfect, target customer if they and they alone can supply a product or service you really want.

It seems you have a binary choice - BT or no service. You could, I suppose, threaten to cancel anyway but it's risky .... in case they take you at your word. The irony is I have a much, MUCH faster service than I have any need for, yet if I felt ripped off by BT pricing, I would threaten to cancel anyway, and would be quite prepared to go through with it. But I know I could do without a net connection altogether and about the only aspect I'd really miss would be Hexus. Other than that, I'd probably already have gone offline. Yet here I am with a ... I don't even know how fast ... 200Mbit? connection. It's a bit like buying a Lamborghini when you live on a small island with about 300m of road - you rarely get out of first.

[Ttaskmaster]

That sucks. Rural area, I presume?

Pseudo-rural...
We're 3 or 4 miles from town centre, but just over a mile from the exchange, in spitting distance of AWE and surrounded by farm fields, but a stone's throw from the A33.
We also don't get gas or sewerage services.

It's a bit like buying a Lamborghini when you live on a small island with about 300m of road - you rarely get out of first.

And yet a number of those who move to certain well-known tax havens buy cars just like that anyway... Gary Numan, for example.

[badass]

1. We should stop using the word loyal for customers that don't shop around come renewal time. Stuck (as in stuck using BT because there is no competition at their exchange), Lazy, uninformed, stupid or really old are acceptable alternatives. There is almost no contract based service used in theis country that doesn't bump up the charges come renewal time. TV, mobile phones, insurance etc. All bump the cost for those automatic renewers. They have been doing this for decades and this has been reported on for decades.

2. For those unfortunate customers where there is no competition, OFCOM should do their job. Simply ban BT from charging renewers any more than they offer new customers.

3. Price changes during contracts should simply be banned. Full stop. If a company can't handle offering a service for the same price for the contract length, shorten the contract. Any whinging about how complex that makes their billing and difficult for their IT should be met with derision.

4. Plusnet are the odd ones out. Once the initial contract is up, they automatically offered me a deal that over 18 or 24 months cost exactly the same as the initial offer - it's just spread evenly. I believe they do this for all existing customers.