SAYNOTO0870.COM - beware blue ridge telecom prices

tonycr

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beware blue ridge telecom prices
Jun 24^th, 2004 at 7:42am

this american company is tele canvassing currently in the uk. their call charges look very cheap but if you look closely they show the call as a "ppcu" (pence per call unit). this is not the length of time we are used to here in the uk!! we generally use "per minute". Blueridges call unit is much less than a minute and threfore quite a good deal more for a minutes conversation than LCR routers in the UK. Shocked

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Dave Global Moderator Offline Posts: 9,902 Yorkshire Gender:	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #1 - Jun 24^th, 2004 at 11:20am Don't tell me... Ofcom are perfectly happy with this!
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DaveM

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Re: beware Blueridge Telecom prices
Reply #2 - Jun 24^th, 2004 at 1:35pm

I found their US site which is a b***er to load as it's Flash, but they have server problems. It crashed my systems (4 different) every time I attempted to load it, and I'm not on a slow connection. Angry

The UK 0800 number (0800 0321890) redirects to their overseas switchboard during their day (1600 - 0000) & voicemail other times. Not that they call you back. The Sales team couldn't be bothered to reply to my voicemail, and even when the switchboard passed on a message (24th), they still haven't called me (29th).
Both the Sales team & the web team were busy today, so I just gave up (even if it is freephone) ! Sad

Here's the direct link to the UK info if anyone is interested in trying.

But as Tony suggests and I totally agree, steer clear of them
.

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« Last Edit: Jun 29^th, 2004 at 9:49pm by DaveM »

It stops hurting when I stop banging it against the wall !!

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Murray Keown Guest	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #3 - Jul 9^th, 2004 at 3:43am Yes they are just starting their push into AUS and are quoting their pricing in the same manner. Thanks for the tip Well spotted
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jeremy ross

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #4 - Jul 21^st, 2004 at 12:44am

I have cut the following from their T&Cs:

TOTAL CHARGES PER CALL ARE CALCULATED BY USING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THE FOLLOWING TABLE TO DETERMINE THE TOTAL CALL UNITS (TCU’S) IN EACH CALL AND BY MULTIPLYING THETCU’S BY THE RATES APPLICABLE TO THE SERVICE PROVIDED. THE FOLLOWING TABLE MAY BE USED TO DETERMINE THE TCU’S IN ANY CALL OF A SPECIFIED DURATION AS SHOWN FOLLOWING:

CALLS IN MINUTES

DURATION FORMULA CALCULATIONS
(IN MINUTES)

1 - 19.9 TCU'S = [CALL DURATION (IN MINUTES) X 2 + 2.5]

20 + TCU'S = [CALL DURATION (IN MINUTES) + 22.5]

Therefore a 2 minute mobile call costs

9p x [2 minutes x 2 + 2.5]

= 9p x [6.5 CU’s]

= 58.5p

which makes a 1 minute call 29.25p per minute
most business to business providers charge in the reason of 15-16 pence
more their sales team have been know to quote as saying that it is "per minute"

That is what we call daylight robbery.

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Euan

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #5 - Aug 16^th, 2004 at 10:46am

Just wanted to say thanks for this thread - as I got phoned by a sales chap from Blueridge just recently.

On the phone, he did indeed quote their rates as being pence per minute - and today's call died very quickly when I mentioned I'd read their T's and C's on their website, and gave the calculation that a 1 minute call takes (1 x 2) + 2.5 = 4.5 call units = 9p, which as a rate frankly sucks the big one.

No bloody wonder they can afford to give 'every fourth bill free'!

Surely something should be done about this deceptive selling?

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steve hayes Guest	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #6 - Aug 17^th, 2004 at 5:46pm me too the sales guy said 9p per minute and of course its over 20p the good news being that i wrote it down on the agreement form I think if a few people who post to this forum actually go thru the complaints process then ofcom might actually do something
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JONB

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #7 - Aug 25^th, 2004 at 1:01pm

I'm glad I read these comments. I have had a call from Blueridge salesman as well. He was quoting his rates as being in pence per minute, even when I asked him to confirm the prices he quoted ppm!

Trying to find the formula calculations on their website is an artform!

My recommendation is not to use them, even with the free bill every qtr.

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Mark_L Newbie Offline Posts: 1	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #8 - Sep 3^rd, 2004 at 2:54pm Great advice here. I'm now looking forward to my next call - this info should finally shut them up! I did get a free £50.00 calling card faxed to me, but now I know why it ran out so quick.
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Jo_C Newbie Offline "Good Grief!" Posts: 2	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #9 - Sep 7^th, 2004 at 11:41am Thanks for this forum, i thought they sounded too good to be true! luckily i found this before my partner sent of the BT letter which lets these blighters take over your phones! thanks again peeps
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Peter_O

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #10 - Sep 10^th, 2004 at 12:38pm

Well spotted, you guys, You are all correct. These guys are con merchants.

One or two other things that I have noticed in various communications I have had with these people are :

-Ask them for an faxed copy of their International Tarriff sheet - They'll send you a sheet headed "PPCU International Rate Summary" which I assumed to be "Pence Per Call Unit". It is in fact POUNDS Per Call Unit, as indicated on their rates PDF on their website.

- Their "Every fourth bill free" promotion used to be an "every third bill free" promotion, but was discontinued, as indicated deep within one of their PDFs, guess why? :-

- You sign up to a 3 month deal, which is virtually impossible to get out of (I have been advised by our legal department) and you're stuck with paying through the nose for this period. Are you going to hang around for the Fourth month for a credit? NO WAY. As soon as you realise your costs have rocketed, you're going to cancel, finally managing to escape after the 3 months and hence you miss out on "your fourth bill free". Very clever eh?

- You can only cancel your deal within the final month and if you forget, god help you, you're in for another 3 months!

- I phoned OFCom to seek their guidance/Advice on dealing with these guys, They have not heard of the company. should one of us register a complaint?

My advice - Avoid them like the Plague, do not be drawn in by their duality and pass the word around. I'm sure we'll be hearing more of these people

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DaveM

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #11 - Sep 10^th, 2004 at 1:55pm

Actually Peter, that entry at the top of their Rates.pdf showing prices for UK local calls @ 2ppcu is pence /CU; the listing below is in £pcu (pounds/CU) for the International calls.

Not that I'm sticking up for them. I rang them & actually managed to get thru to Sales at last. I had an arguement about his UK sales team misrepresenting and misselling as pence/min and not pence/CU.
He wanted to know what my interest in this was and when I explained, he claimed that I must be getting paid. I said I wasn't and he said I should get another hobby !!
He wasn't in the least bit interested in the fact that the salesmen were misselling the product, more in getting at my intentions. Maybe we should push this onto the other Forums and expose them as sharks, and hopefully show how much clout the paying public can have.

Kick out the jams brothers & sisters -

Spread the word

!!

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It stops hurting when I stop banging it against the wall !!

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Peter_O Newbie Offline Boyakasha !! is it cos I is Black? Posts: 4 Leicestershire Gender:	Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices Reply #12 - Sep 10^th, 2004 at 3:56pm Sorry Dave. The fax I received was a manually created effort and not a direct copy of the T's and C's so you are probably correct, but there-again, we all are !! Cheers. Pete
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Jo_C

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #13 - Sep 10^th, 2004 at 3:57pm

Thats weird that Ofcom say they have never heard of Blue Ridge as they're on Ofcom's web page for Communication providers which have passed their "Codes of Practice" very odd!! ???

I agree we should spread the word about this company, i've posted a link to this forum on another and e-mailed alot of associate companies so hopefully more and more people will realise and not fall into their snare.

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« Last Edit: Sep 10^th, 2004 at 4:03pm by Jo_C »

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naivetyplay

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Re: beware blue ridge telecom prices
Reply #14 - Sep 23^rd, 2004 at 12:34pm

Quote:

Thats weird that Ofcom say they have never heard of Blue Ridge as they're on Ofcom's web page for Communication providers which have passed their "Codes of Practice" very odd!! ???

I agree we should spread the word about this company, i've posted a link to this forum on another and e-mailed alot of associate companies so hopefully more and more people will realise and not fall into their snare.

Interesting - can you post the other forums where this is?

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