Post Office Phone

tompparker wrote:

Hi,

Please could you advise me?

I'd like to switch from BT to PO Home Phone. As I have BT broadband, would this be possible?

Thanks.

yes you can retain your broadband with BT, they shall set you up on an Equipment only installation, then they will just bill for the broadband. This can be paid by invoice or direct debit. dd will save you £12 year!

BT Advisor

Hi there -

Just wanted to let you know that it may be best to think twice about Post Office Home phone. They are very cheap - however, the customer service is appalling and they make a lot of mistakes. I signed up with them last year, and ended up being billed hundreds of pounds for calls I hadn't made. After complaining about this, I then was charged for calls from a different phone number for a business just up the road from my house. After cancelling my contract and being told all direct debits would be stoppped - I saw that they had increased them! The money I saved on calls was equalled, if not advanced by the money spent on sorting out the mess they left me in - be careful!!

Steve_xx wrote:

If you do so you will lose your right to route calls via other operators. Do you realise this?

I've previously been in touch with the Post Office's e-mail support helpdesk about this matter and received the following reply:

You will not be able to use CPS after transfer however you will still be able to route certain calls through a different network with a pre-fix number.

0844 calls are charged at slightly differing tariffs depending upon the next part of the number, so if you have some specific numbers we will be happy to give you that information.

(I enquired about 0844 calls re. Dial Around's access numbers, etc.).

I understand that the terms and conditions of the Homephone service do permit the Post Office to bar use of other operators for routing calls, but it looks like, for the moment at least, that they're wanting the customers, regardless of whether or not they bring their calls with them!

Hope this helps,
RDD.

Steve_xx wrote:

Yes, but be aware that they can, at any time, prevent you from routing your calls via another operator. In the UK, BT, and only BT, must by the terms of its operating licence allow you to route your calls on its exchange lines via other operators shoulld you want to do it.

I thought I'd addressed this in my last paragraph, no?!

Are there any existing Post Office Homephone customers who can shed some real life experiences on this one?

RDD.

utilitybroker wrote:

They cant stop you calling 0844 numbers.

They can only stop you calling indirect access codes like 1899 if they so desire.Some folks suggest they dont do this at the moment. But its my guess they will do so in future,just like Talk Talk have done.

No, they can't stop you dialling 0844, but they could levy special tariffs if they suspect onward dialling. A bit like Orange used to do when they suspected onward dialling for freephone.

It's unlikely that they would do it, but they could.