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18866 increase connection charge!!! (Read 81,048 times)
Smasher
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #15 - Sep 8th, 2005 at 9:32pm
 
Their call cost message only says "zero p per minute"... no mention of any connection charge so we still wouldn't know Angry
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bbb_uk
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #16 - Sep 9th, 2005 at 10:04am
 
That's a very good point.  The thing is I'm not going to complain and rock the boat with them with regard to this just yet as I still prefer the per call charge than the per minute charge most other providers charge.

They increased it in March and again now in September so I'll wait and see if they increase it again but I can't see that happening as then they would be dearer than Call1899 unless of course they plan on increasing their charges?
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fredflintstone
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #17 - Sep 9th, 2005 at 8:04pm
 
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That's a very good point.  The thing is I'm not going to complain and rock the boat with them with regard to this just yet as I still prefer the per call charge than the per minute charge most other providers charge.


That's assuming they bother to even read or reply to your email in the first place.  Personally if they can't even reply to my email then i'm not going near them with a bargepole.  what if there's a problem with billing and they claim a large amount of your credit card? nobody to phone and an email address which nobody reads.  no thank you Roll Eyes
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Smasher
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #18 - Sep 9th, 2005 at 10:20pm
 
If you set up a direct debit with call18866 then you can tell your bank that you have been charged incorrectly and they have to put the money back immediately.  It's the Direct Debit guarantee.   8)

I would point out that nobody here or on the MSE Forums appears to have had any problems. Grin
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bbb_uk
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #19 - Sep 10th, 2005 at 9:26am
 
fredflintstone,

I agree with Smasher that no one (including myself) have reported problems with Call18866/1899 incorrectly charging loads amounts, etc neither on here or the MSE forum.

The Direct Debit Guarantee as pointed out by Smasher ensures we get a refund if any mistakes are made.  It can be read here, or from the quote below:-

Quote:
The direct debit guarantee applies to all banks and building societies taking part in the direct debit scheme. It says that:
  • If there is a change in the amount to be paid or the payment date, the person receiving the payment (the originator) must notify the customer in advance. 
  • If the originator or the bank/building society makes an error, the customer is guaranteed a full and immediate refund of the amount paid.
  • Customers can cancel a direct debit at any time by writing to their bank or building society.

It is far safer to use Direct Debit than to use debit/credit cards.

The reason why they don't operate a call centre is the expensive costs of the equipment and call centre staff wages', etc.  If they did then we wouldn't be paying 3p per call and probably more like 2-3p per minute same as the other companies that operate call centres.  Therefore the saving they've made by not operating a call centre they pass back on to their customers by extremely low call charges.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #20 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 6:15pm
 
Quote:
I haven't received an email to tell me about this change. Has anyone else?


No email here and I am a regular customer.  They have emailed me to tell me about price cuts so this is pretty shoddy behaviour .  If I hadn't read this thread I would have carried on in blissful ignorance for weeks which is pretty shoddy.  I will make a complaint to them.  Must be a clear breach of trading standards rules not to notify customers of a price change, especially when they have an automated announcement system but leave the connection charge out.

Why does most of modern business seem to rely on fleecing the current customer who has already been captured.

The moment to take more active steps on Voip nears.

Does anyone here use VoipBuster and does it actually work if you have the right kit?
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #21 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 6:19pm
 
Quote:
questa has a valid point about whether they could suddenly hike the prices and post the 'announcement' on their website.  Because realistically, how many of us check their website every day?  If they hiked the price then nobody would have a case against them because of the T&C's.   Angry


This is totally unethical shoddy behaviour when they have all our email addreses and its easy for them to send us an email.

I used to regard 18866 as my friends and I have tirelessly promoted them.  Now I feel like they are stabbing us in the back.

I plan to seek my revenge by trying out Voip.

Of course a change like this makes it obvious that calls with http://www.voipbuster.co.uk won't be free forever and a day.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #22 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 6:40pm
 
Here is my message of complaint to 18866.

I filed this as a complaint about my bill on the basis that it was most likely to actually get looked at and receive a reply from them.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Message of Complaint to 18866 about increased connection charge:-

Dear 18866,

You have changed your connection fee for uk geographic calls from 2p to 3p but have failed to email customers to tell them about this.  This means that I did not know about the increase for several days after it had happened but it could have been weeks and weeks until I had looked at my next invoice.

Given that your call price announcement feature does not include the connection in the announcement fee this is sigraceful sharp practice by 18866 of the worst possible kind.

I was a loyal customer of yours who promoted your service extensively but now you have breached my trust and shown that you are untrustworthy sharp operators.

I will be acquiring a voip handset and begin making my calls via voip in retribution for this bad behaviour by your company.

Yours in extreme disappointment.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #23 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 7:01pm
 
For good measure I have also just completely cancelled my whole account with 18866.

It was with a very heavy heart but one has to take a stand on such matters.

Anyhow it no longer makes sense to run a 18866 and 1899 account and I didn't have a point to make with 1899 who have not so far tried to rip me off or lie to me.

I would encourage all of you who use 18866 to cancel their service and if you still need an equivalent service to set up an account with 1899.com instead.  After all it is one digit less to dial each time.

If enough people cancel with 18866 they will start to realise that they have crossed a bridge too far.

Of course it may well be that their own underlying call supplier costs have for some reason increased but they should have had the decency to at least write to us and explain this instead of sneakily trying to increase prices behind our backs.

Come on guys please cancel with 18866 to teach them a lesson.   Then they won't dare to try and pull such a stunt again.
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Tanllan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #24 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 7:26pm
 
Quote:
Then they won't dare to try and pull such a stunt again.

But still a nasty taste, possibly spreading to the sister companies?  Angry
In any event I am working my way round advising all my clients using them.  Sad
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bill
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #25 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 8:29pm
 
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I would encourage all of you who use 18866 to cancel their service and if you still need an equivalent service to set up an account with 1899.com instead.  After all it is one digit less to dial each time.

And no chance of falling foul of the alleged (and expensive) 118866 fat finger dialling problem.
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #26 - Sep 14th, 2005 at 9:09pm
 
Quote:
And no chance of falling foul of the alleged (and expensive) 118866 fat finger dialling problem.


I never seem to have done that in the last year or so.  And that's in the course of making thousands of calls with 18866.

Of course there has been the odd time when I have forgotten to diall 18866 altogether or when I have been making an 0845 call and have forgotten to dial the 1280 prefix for BT to avoid TalkTalk.  I only have TalkTalk for their 30 minutes a month of free mobile phone calls.
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MrPSTN
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #27 - Sep 15th, 2005 at 8:08pm
 
As my least cost routing device can insert an indirect code by a combination of: time of day, day of week and number dialled (including translating a full PSTN number - handy for adding 1470 to friends and families numbers 'pre' the indirect code)  I think I'll change my weekday routings, for 01 & 02 codes, to have Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's daytime plus Tuesday and Thursday evenings 'pre' 18866. Then Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings plus Tuesday's and Thursday's daytime 'pre' 1899.


As both companies switch calls for the price, why not share your calls around!  Wink

You still save money and 18866 'pay the price' for increasing their connection charge. Cry



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MrPSTN
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #28 - Sep 15th, 2005 at 9:09pm
 
Quote:
[font=Verdana][color=Blue]
As both companies switch calls for the price, why not share your calls around!  Wink


Why not teach 18866 a lesson by routing all your calls with 1899 and closing your 18866 account and sending an email to say that their own disgraceful dishonesty is the reason for the loss of your custom.

Of course 1899 charge the same price but at least they haven't tried to deceive me about their call prices so far, whereas 18866 have.  Therefore 1899 deserve my business and 18866 do not.  Also 1899 mobile calls are cheaper so in short why use 18866 any more.

One may or may not be giving one's business to another part of the same operation in a Procter & Gamble and Unilever washing powder kind of a way.  That aspect seems far from clear.  Although I suspect that each variant (18866, 1899 and 18185) is a franchise?  Otherwise surely it would be far better to consolidate them all and then do press or tv advertising for one indirect prefix number?

Also 18866 haven't even replied to my email today so I definitely did the right thing in closing my account with them.
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« Last Edit: Sep 15th, 2005 at 9:12pm by N/A »  
 
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Tanllan
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Re: 18866 increase connection charge!!!
Reply #29 - Sep 15th, 2005 at 10:47pm
 
Quote:
Also 18866 haven't even replied to my email today so I definitely did the right thing in closing my account with them.

Tks NGM. One down, eight to go. Typing as fast as I can  Smiley
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