I discovered from a posting on the MSE site that a OneTel/Centrica telecoms subsidiary is apparently offering Free Evening/Weekend calls see
www.justdialsaver.com

Its a completely online paperless operation ,and also offers cheap capped evening and weekend calls to mobiles.

I had a quick glance at their t&c and this grabbed my attention:-


Quote:

3.5 We reserve the right to charge up to £1 per e-mail enquiry made to our customer services department.

I think its unfair.  Having no telephone contact centre saves them money which they pass on to us (similiar to no-frills Call18866/1899, etc) but to charge for email enquiries especially if they bill you wrong and you need to point it out to them and then they charge for pointing it out to them!

Actually I think I agree with their idea. If you read the explanation on their Contact Us page, it says
Quote:

Customers will never be charged for e-mails generated - and replied to - as a result of Just Dial's internal issues or faults.

and I reckon screwed up Bills comes under that !

Like they say at the end,
Quote:

. . . the customer should only pays for what he or she needs. We refuse to spread the cost of answering unnecessary e-mails to all our of customers.

(their typo's, not mine)

ie. RTBB (or RTBS) of FAQ's before you contact them.  ::)

I can't find a price list at all, and their site is really getting on my nerves - it's so badly organised and impossible to find the info needed!! >:(

It's not the best organised/UF website but it wasn't that bad.

Their pricing can be found here.

I like the idea that evening & weekend mobile calls are fixed for the first 20minutes at a low rate.

For calls to 0845/0870, selection option 3 here.  Although they're obviously not the cheapest for these calls due to how the revenue sharing works.

I note they don't (as yet) do online billing so it may not be wise to use them during the daytime as you would have no idea who you rung or the cost (won't really apply during evening & weekend due to geographical calls being free for 2 hours) but that isn't much of a problem as Call18866/1899 can be used during these times.

Having read the Contact Us page (as noted by DaveM), it does make sense now.  They will only charge for answers to questions that are not already on their website.  This, I agree with, especially if they can offer tariffs like that!  I obviously just glanced at the t&c and noted the £1 charge without checking further into it.

We are currently on OneTel's free evening & weekend package for one year (runs out April 2006) but unless there is something better then we'll be moving to JustDialSaver but use Call18866 during the daytime (as we do now).

Is it only through CPS that you can access the service?  

It would be nice if they had an access code like 1877 for Onetel.  Also why don't onetel just offer these cheap options as they are already established? ???

Its only CPS see there FAQ page.

They dont even offer a number you can contact them on i notice.

wrote on Jun 18^th, 2005 at 11:00pm:

...They dont even offer a number you can contact them on i notice.

It's because they are a 'no frills' type company similiar to Call18866/1899.  The cost of having call centre staff & equipment is really expensive.

Ta i appreciate the reason why they dont. ;)

I was merely making an observation in case anyone was thinking of calling them to discuss the service.

If they did provide a number even for emergencies, etc then you would still get everyone ringing and very few emailing.

I personally prefer it email only if they continue to do free evening & weekends and the cost of calling mobiles is capped for the first 20minutes during the evening & weekend.

Once they get their online billing sorted then using them in conjunction with Call18866 (for daytime calls) would be the cheapest option for us.  We're currently on OneTel's free evening & weekend offer (ends April 2006) and the only bill we receive is from Call18866 for about a pound or so each month.  Before this, we were on the Unlimited package from Telewest which cost us £15 (£25 including line rental).

Yes using it in conjuction with 18866 seems to be the best route. If for any reason you want to get out of it ,it doesnt have a minimum term like some carriers.

wrote on Jun 19^th, 2005 at 9:00am:

...If for any reason you want to get out of it ,it doesnt have a minimum term like some carriers.

What others?  As far as I was aware I thought all call carriers had no minimum term (well, I'm sure the main ones don't).  It just if you have line rental with them or a broadband package, that they have minimum terms.

I still don't see why Onetel don't just offer this ???

wrote on Jun 19^th, 2005 at 12:56pm:

I still don't see why Onetel don't just offer this ???

OneTel (like TalkTalk) have a large call centre and staff they have to pay which means these costs are past back to us customers.  If they offered free evening&weekend for life then surely they would go bust as well.  They do offers in a hope to increase their customer base and these offers are generally to new customers and for a limited time as do TalkTalk.

What I have observed though is it appears to be the beginning of each month that OneTel / TalkTalk do their offers (if any).  Therefore, maybe at the beginning of July they'll reduce their TotalUKCalls to £7.49 like Tele2's offer.

I have emailed customer services over this and just got a standard automated reply that said they're TotalUKCalls was £10.99, etc and didn't really answer my email.  I therefore emailed their press office (based in london) and mentioned it to them and asked if they could kindly forward it on to the powers that be.  I received no reply from that email as yet (sent it to someone named Charlotte)!

Their Terms and Conditions seem to have changed.  See here.

Notice how the bit about the £1 charge only comes under the section 'Charges' which describes what happens if the direct debit instruction isn't met.  


Quote:

(b) charge you a further administration fee together with a fee for the submission of the further written notification. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee up to £1 per e-mail enquiry made to our customer services department and should we do so, this amount will be added to your monthly invoice.

The £1 charge doesn't appear to be for general enquiries sent to their customer service email address.  It looks like it's only related to the non-payment of bills.  I may be wrong here, but from the way they have set it out, under the same paragraph and sentence, it appears that way to me. :-/

That is true but its only after they have already sent you a reminder (ie its the second reminder).


Quote:

If we are unable to collect any payment by direct debit (for whatever reason) we will: (a) be entitled to suspend your access to the Service; (b) send written notification giving you 10 calendar days to pay all outstanding amounts in full; and (c) charge you an administration fee of £5 together with interest at 3% above the base rate from time to time of Barclays Bank PLC. If, following our notification, we are still unable to recover all payments due, or if your account remains wholly or partly outstanding for any other reason we will: (a) send a further written notification requiring you to discharge your account in full within 7 calendar days from the date of this notification, failing which we reserve the right to suspend or terminate the Service or otherwise refer your outstanding account to a third party collection service (in which case you will be responsible for all costs that are incurred by us in taking such action); and (b) charge you a further administration fee together with a fee for the submission of the further written notification. We reserve the right to charge an administration fee up to £1 per e-mail enquiry made to our customer services department and should we do so, this amount will be added to your monthly invoice.

Basically, if the direct debit fails they will first charge you an administration fee of £5 together with interest at 3% above the base rate.  If they then still have to send out another reminder you will be charged the £1 fee for the email.

A lot of companies charge for failed payments of direct debit but as far as I'm aware none of them charge £5 and interest at 3%.  This must be the highest non-payment fine I've come across.

One thing that I think must be wrong is, "If we are unable to collect any payment by direct debit (for whatever reason) we will:"  Now if the problem is their end for whatever reason then surely this t&c is unfair and we shouldn't have to pay for their mistake.  I'm sure even our useless OfCOM would even agree with this.

So emailing them about account queries would be ok and no charge, however silly the question?  

I can't find anything in their T&Cs to cover this... :-/

They only have one rate for Liechtenstein on 4.9p per minute.  No surcharge rate for mobiles.

Pretty handy for anyone needing to call a friend on a Riiing mobile phone.  See www.riiing.com

wrote on Sep 8^th, 2005 at 8:34pm:

So emailing them about account queries would be ok and no charge, however silly the question?   I can't find anything in their T&Cs to cover this... :-/

Sorry about delay in replying I didn't notice you had posted.

It really depends on the account query and specifically whether or not it is discussed on their website.  If you emailed asking what the minimum call charge is then this they could charge for as it is on their website but if you are querying something on your bill (like a call that was charged more than it should have) then no.

In my experience most queries are generally about something that appears on the bill (incorrect charge, etc) and therefore no.

If you are only using them for evening&weekend geographical calls and using Call18866/1899 during the daytime then I can't see any reason for you wanting to email JustDial unless they charged you for a geographical call when they shouldn't (assuming you haven't gone over the 2hour per call length limit).

We are with OneTel on their free evening&weekend package until next year and use Call18866/1899 during the daytime and the only time I've had to email/talk to OneTel is only to query where my £20 is for recommending a friend because I don't need to query my bill as all chargable calls are made through Call18866/1899 with the exception of a few 0845 numbers but this is very rare because thanks to this site I have most geo alternatives.

Pricing for calls to 0845/0870 seems to have disappeared from the Just-Dial website -- the link on the earlier posts no longer works.  Can anyone help (either to find the link, or just say what the charges are)?

wrote on Sep 27^th, 2005 at 2:54pm:

Pricing for calls to 0845/0870 seems to have disappeared from the Just-Dial website -- the link on the earlier posts no longer works.  Can anyone help (either to find the link, or just say what the charges are)?

Centrica who own JustDial, Onetel and Ratebuster are in the process of flogging off their telecoms operations.

In the interim it would appear that they are not interested in taking on any new customers for the JustDial brand judging from what has happened to their website.

wrote on Sep 27^th, 2005 at 4:22pm:

...In the interim it would appear that they are not interested in taking on any new customers for the JustDial brand judging from what has happened to their website.

I think they are still taking new customers as I've just got to their sign-up page without a problem.

As for 084x/087x costs, I've emailed them twice now and even threatened them with OfCOM and received no reply.  The problem now is that because they are in the middle of being sold off, the JustDial staff are probably not that bothered about answering any questions, etc and being threatened with OfCOM because they may lose their jobs anyway.

For any potential new customers it may be worth just holding out if possible to see what happens, or go for it anyhow but they may change the tariff once they get bought out especially if TalkTalk buy it as they'll probably do away with 2hour limit call limit and just make it 70minutes to match theirs.  Same could be possible of OneTel's unlimited call length may be changed to a 70min call length same as TalkTalk's (assuming TalkTalk does buy them out).

I would love Tele2 to buy them out instead of TalkTalk.

I have tried to register on their site twice over the last two weeks. All seemed to work correctly on both occasions and I then received an e-mail stating that my application was being processed and that I would hear the outcome within 48 hours.

On both occasions I then heard precisely nothing. I sent several e-mails to the given customer services e-mail address with the reference number they had stated and then heard ............precisely nothing further even by 2 weeks later!

So I can only conclude that they have ceased taking on new customers?

wrote on Sep 8^th, 2005 at 3:50pm:

Their Terms and Conditions seem to have changed.  [url=http://www.just-dial.com/pages/tandcs_saver.asp]See here[/url The £1 charge doesn't appear to be for general enquiries sent to their customer service email address.  It looks like it's only related to the non-payment of bills.  I may be wrong here, but from the way they have set it out, under the same paragraph and sentence, it appears that way to me. :-/

Since it would be against all known precedent to charge for receiving any email enquiry then they surely need to be more specific?

These customer service departments often reserve the right to ignore one's email but to charge for answering is another matter altogether but obviously it would be the email equivalent of having an 0870 number.

Despite PeDaSp's previous excitement over Voip can't you just see these sort of people wanting to have your credit card details and your agreeing to them charging you 10p per minute before they agree to accept your Voip call?