Update on Caller Display - Contract problems

Question

Hello everyone
A little while ago I posted my problem regarding Caller Display and the fact that I had to agree and 18 month contract when we went over to Infinity last December and how I wanted to know why when this 'free' service was part of my package. I tried contacting the website a forum member advised and got told to ring another number which I did.
Then I was told they understood the problem but couldn't help and gave me another number to go direct to the people who could! The girl was very pleasant and understood why I was protesting but after speaking to her supervisor said she was very sorry but could do nothing about it. When I asked why not when my package was for 18 months I was astounded when she said because the phone contract was not the same as the broadband contract!!! I then asked if that meant that if this was the case then could I cancel the contract in December instead of 25th May 2015 and was told that was not possible.
I was never told that my 'package' had 2 different contracts and I still do not understand why I am being told that from December I have to pay for Caller Display or cancel it. Has anyone else ever heard of it? I wanted a 12 month contract as usual but due to changing to Infinity was told it had to be 18 months and now I feel I have been conned by BT. It isn't so much the money as the devious way it has been done.
kind regards...........Meggy

Answer 1

I think it is probably correct to think of having more than one contract with BT because they can have different contract minimum periods and be cancelled independently (well to a certain extent). They also have separate terms and conditions.
Anyway, I suspect what happened is you re-contracted your Broadband in Dec 2013 on a new Infinity contract with an 18 month minimum period. Strictly speaking you probably didn't need to also re-contract the phone and start a new 12 month phone minimum period, but you did so because they were offering free Caller Display for 12 months if you did that. It made sense because due to the broadband contract you had no intention of cancelling the phone line during that period anyway.
I would think that you will have a third option of re-contracting the phone again in Dec, again starting a new 12 months minimum period to continue to qualify for free Caller Display?
See  http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/8502/~/all-about-caller-display
But of course that minimum period would still be 6 months out of sync with your current broadband minimum period. Possibly better to cancel it for 6 months and then get things back in sync from Jun 2015?
I went to great efforts to sync my recent new Phone (line rental saver), Infinity Broadband, BT TV, and free BT Sport recently. They are all for a minimum of 12 months, line up with the BT Sport 'season' (Aug-Jul) and even line up with my exact day-of-the-month billing date. It was not a simple feat to achieve though and took a bit of planning.