What I have learnt from working in Financial Services

After poor and unreliable broadband, Mr Tosh and I have been looking into replacing our current service provider – BT.

I am embarrassed to say that we currently pay £25pm for a poor service with our broadband (capped at 2Mb).  So, we decide to move to Sky – as existing Sky tv customers we pay £7.50 pm against a comparable BT package of £28pm. 

To save our approx £250pa, we needed a code from BT – Mr Tosh grumbled that BT would try to sell him a new package, so I made the call.  I was amazed to hear that we were great customers as early adopters and good payers – therefore a bit disappointing that they knew we had old equipment which was unreliable, they capped our broadband and we were paying a premium for being loyal (aka lazy) customers. Mr T was correct and they did offer us a package - they matched the Sky deal and offered us some new equipment – all we needed to do was agree to the package for 12 months.

The BT chap said all I needed to do was to commit to a 12 month contract – ‘all broadband providers want you to sign up for a 12 month contract’.  This is true. 

So what have I learnt from working in financial services that I used today when talking to BT?

As I spend a lot of time looking at customers who have been ripped off because they don’t take the time to understand what they are buying, I like to discuss all of the small print of contracts that tie me in for a period of time. As I discussed the 12-month contract with BT – it transpired that the deal being offered me only lasted 12 months and after that period my monthly payment would more than double again back to £28pm.  This sharp practice only came to light after me asking a detailed question – I believe that BT would never have told me this and would have relied upon Tosh ‘loyalty’ to fleece us for more money in 12 months time.

I am disappointed that firms like BT treat customers in this way.  BT could learn so much from Sky on retaining customers.   

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