derrick wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 12:52pm:

Remember BT like to refer to increases as "changes". 

Also remember that all these charges are rounded up to the nearest whole minute, so 4p/min is the lowest rate if the call is exactly upto the nearest minute.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 1:23pm:


I think not.  My comment was as follows when taken in context.

"Of course if you are on a TalkTalk enabled exchange and need broadband you can't beat TalkTalk's deal for price but heaven help you if you need to make any serious use of TalkTalk's service such as downloading programs using the BBC IPlayer".

Quote:


No this deal only applies to calls to other TalkTalk retail customer numbers and does not apply to other corporate numbers run by Opal Telecom, TalkTalk or the CarPhoneWarehouse group.  Bizarrely they do make customer calls to their 0870 customer service number free of charge though, rather than using an 0800 or 0808 number as one would have expected.  I suspect they do this so you can't call them for free on a non TalkTalk landline.

Quote:

I find  them vastly more distasteful than BT and given TalkTalk's disgraceful poor quality broadband service I tend to see Mr Charles Dunstone as little more than a well spoken ex public school confidence trickster.  I also have direct experience from being with TalkTalk of disgraceful errors on both landline and a pay as you go mobile in terms of alarming errors in terms of billing for phantom calls that were either never dialled at all or dialled and not connected.  BT will by contrast behave if Ofcom sets rules and their current behaviour is only due to Ofcom's disgraceful removal of those rules.  Whereas CarPhoneWarehouse Group will normally ignore Ofcom's rules even when it does make them unless they receive large fines to encourage them to do so.

Quote:


The fact that BT is being allowed to fiddle things to make it look to BT customers as though it is not worth leaving them is an outrage.  In my view there should be different rules on phone exchanges so that where there is one or more LLU rivals BT can charge what it likes but where there is no LLU operator BT's line rental and call charges are controlled.  In addition Wholesale Line Rental needs to be radically reviewed so that the amount charged to rival operators is BT Wholesales's real cost in providing the phone line plus a small profit.  At the moment other phone operators are charged more or less the normal BT Retail price for Wholesale Line Rental.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 1:23pm:



I don't see how!
Savvy people, like most on here, will use the likes of 1899 etc to call 01/02/03 numbers during the day, therefore from 1st April a 1 minute call from BT during the day will cost;- 6p set up fee, +4p for 1 minute =10p for a one minute call, (2 minute call = 14p,3min call = 18p, etc).

A one minute call or above, i.e. any duration, using 1899 etc will cost 5p for the whole of the call regardless of duration! I know what I will be using!

The only way BTs option 3 will come into effect is if you need to make more than 120 Mon-Fri daytime calls to justify the £5.95 per month charge for that option, as against using 1899 etc, i.e. 120 calls @ 5p per call = £6.

But don't forget you will pay that monthly charge even if not making calls, i.e. you work most days, or you go on holiday.

derrick wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 2:31pm:


Derrick you don't seem to factor in that in any multi person household then 120 calls to 01/02 numbers (a mere 4 calls per day) are easily made.  I very often get up to that number with just me what with Ansaphones and call centres that I hang up on due to SayNoTo0870 having an out of date number.

Is BT Option 3 really down to £5.95 per month?  www.yourcalls.net only charge £3.50 per month and their line rental is £1 per month less (so £3.45 less) but factor in Caller Display at £1.75 per month and one is only saving £1.70 per month against BT.  Enough to still incentivise you or I to change but not Mr and Mrs Jo Bloggs.

Unless you only make 30 or 40 daytime calls a monthe 1899 or 18185 is not now such a great deal.  Things were different when 18866 only charged 1p per call.

sherbert wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 3:14pm:


Plus you have to sign an 18 month contract with BT?

It is utterly scandalous there isn't now a much lower line rental for those who only need broadband and don't want to make any phone calls with BT.

sherbert wrote on Feb 25^th, 2008 at 3:48pm:


Its an 18 months contract for their phone, broadband and V-Box tv recorder package though:-

See www.bundles.bt.com/Default.aspx?s_cid=con_FURL_valuebundles

My current broadband supplier (www.adsl24.co.uk) only has a 1 month contract.

moneysavin wrote on Feb 26^th, 2008 at 1:32am:


Yes but the little - require a 12 months minimum contract and nothing will make me return to BT on that basis.

Also the regulator should be preventing BT from offering such attractive terms in my view when it is still the monopoly provider of phone infrastructure in a huge part of the UK.  How do the other smaller companies like YourCalls.net stay in business when BT is allowed to abuse its dominant market position in this way?