Freddie wrote on Oct 9^th, 2005 at 8:57pm:

Very sneaky. Where did you find that out?

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NGM, the BT Price List shows that the OP is correct. See Table 1a on this page.

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I feel sure that is an error in the document you quote as the document link I gave is also the current September 2005 document at www.bt.com/pricing

BT could not get a price change like this through without putting it in their Update leaflet some time in advance of it happening and I have just received one of their Update leaflets in hard copy form and online and it contains no mention of such a price change.

But if you like why not email the head of BT's Pricing Information service - john.strutt@bt.com - to confirm the situation.

Intriguing isn't it? 'your' leaflet also has no mention of the different levels of 0870 charges

If you pay BT line rental on BT Options 1, 2 or 3 you are a customer who they must notify price changes to even if you mainly route your calls via CPS or indirect access codes with another provider or mainly use Voip.

I have sent the following email to Mr John Strutt at BT who is responsible for such matters:-

-----Original Message-----
From: NGM
Sent: 10 October 2005 22:10
To: john.strutt@bt.com
Cc: ben.verwaayen@bt.com; hanif.lalani@bt.com; ian.livingston@bt.com; david.stewart@ofcom.org.uk; steve.unger@ofcom.org.uk; gareth.daves@ofcom.org.uk; claudio.pollack@ofcom.org.uk; polly.weitzman@ofcom.org.uk; sean.williams@ofcom.org.uk; tim.suter@ofcom.org.uk; kip.meek@ofcom.org.uk
Subject: Why does BT Together Website & BT Official Price List Now Show 3p per minute charge on Options 1, 2 and 3 after the first hour?

Dear Mr Strutt,

As BT's General Manager of Retail Pricing Policy & Design I write to draw your attention to what looks like an alarming error in the BT Together section of BT's pricing website and the BT official price list that now shows offpeak and weekend calls on BT Options 1, 2 and 3 costing 3p per minute after the first hour, even though this contradicts the current official BT residential customer pricing booklet dated September 2005 for your residential phone line customers that states they cost 1p per minute after the first hour.

I am sure the 3p per minute after the first hour price must be wrong as I know you would surely have to give considerable advance notice of such a price change in your Update booklet for residential customers and elsewhere.

The discrepancies occur as follows:-

This page says that calls now cost 3p per minute on BT Options 1, 2 and 3 after the first hour

but

this page on P5 says calls cost 1p per minute after the first hour which also coincides with pricing that BT has notified previously in its Update leaflets and elsewhere

However this page suggests again that calls cost 3p per minute after the first hour offpeak on BT Options 1, 2 and 3

This is also currently being discussed in the following web forum:- http://www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=...

Can you please account for these very alarming inconsistencies in the pricing information displayed on your website which hardly do much for BT's already tarnished reputation for not displaying all its call prices (especially for say 09 premium rate numbers and international mobile call prices) in a consistent and comprehensible form.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

The little - have hidden it in the small print at the bottom of this page.

http://www.bt.com/update/

Notice how they put it in headlines when the cut such a price and then try to tuck it away where no one will notice it when they increase it only a few months later.  BT really do seem to think anyone who goes on using their service is a lazy idiot who they can mug.  Clearly they think anyone who hasn't switched to TalkTalk or Onetel or Tele2 by now isn't going to so they might as well fleece them good and proper.

It won't affect me as my calls with www.1899.com cost 3p for up to 2 hours at any time.

P.S. Notice the below further additional ripoff tucked away in Update designed to further ramp up BT's already bloated profits without most customers working out what is going on.  This all comes under the heading of what Ofcom calls "Light Touch" but I call a "Soft Touch"

"From the 1st October 2005, the calculation for determining the call charges for selected call types will be changed from rounding up to one tenth of a penny, to rounding up to half a penny"

They don't even say what these "selected call types are"

The thing is I still don't remember my printed Update booklet containing this stuff but stupidly I have already thrown it away.

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Just looked at Update for October. Its on page 10, Further Price Changes. This covers the rounding issue and increase in rate for calls over 1 hour.

It does seem to be inconsistent with the terms and conditions printed on the other side of this notice (pages 11 &12) which still talks about 1p (I have only scanned the T&C however)

Two questions to ponder:

a) Why is there this 60 min limit anyway? Is there a good reason or is it a scam to get revenue off people who think they have already paid for free calls and are then getting charged. You would have to be quite sad to time a telephone call, hang up after 59 min and then call again to avoid this happening!

b) FYI I have Option 3 and got caught by a call to Jersey which previously was just like calling any UK number. I got charged for it. It was very confusing initially as it shows as a National charge on the bill. A charge which should be impossible under Option 3. I queried it and the person I called at BT was just as mystified. I then got a call back saying it was a call to Jersey which are not covered. I looked in the T&C and they were right. Sneeky I thought!