How BT?s Peak Time Change Will Affect You
BT sent out letters to its customers this week informing them that their peak time period now ended at 7pm rather than 6pm, meaning the millions of people enjoying free off peak calls will need to wait another hour in the evening to be able to enjoy the service.
The service now runs from 7pm to 7am so it still remains a 12 hour free call period for customers on the relevant contract, and BT are within their legal rights to change their products and pricings, but it hasn?t stopped many people being upset by the new changes, which could see people who regularly use the phone between 6pm and 7pm see their phone bills go up by as much as ?80 a quarter.
Nearly 5 million customers are part of BTs evening and weekend price plan, which lets users make free calls to any UK landline on evenings and weekends. Evenings has always been classed by BT as starting at 6pm, but from April onwards the BT definition of an evening will start at 7pm and continue for an extra hour in the morning.
The thing that has customers most angry is the way the announcement was made by BT. Many customers received the information regarding the changes buried within pages of new deals and other random marketing materials from BT. BT Customer ?Tony Sell told the BBC:
?I t really annoys me the way BT always put out notices like these as though they are good for the customer and always hide the price increases in the smaller print towards the end.?
From what BT have said customers will be allowed to leave the contract simply by informing them they are unhappy about the changes. BT will then remove them from the contract for no charge and without them needing to provide evidence. Of course, if you do happen to ring up to cancel you?re likely to get a lot of sales pitch and ?offers? before finally cancelling the account.
Those looking for a new supplier should check out price comparison websites if they are after a better deal, but remember that the majority of internet providers in the UK require a functioning UK landline.