Cheapest Home Phones Article Discussion

hellsbells120780

Lilycat wrote: »

Hi

If I go back to BT will 18185 still work please ???

Thanks

Lilycat

Hi Lilycat, I have BT line rental, and Sky talk for calls, but I use both 18185 and 18866 if that's any help. Hells

Canucklehead

Good morning: My problems with Tiscali have continued despite changing to another broadband provider in July 2008. I have yet to receive a final statement of account despite several emails: in fact the only contact I have had from Tiscali was after I cancelled the direct debit...they sent me a lovely letter threatening suspension of my 'service' and the transfer of my account to the 'Special Accounts Department for collection of any outstanding monies'. I was advised by a Tiscali rep. when I cancelled my service that 2 more payments would be taken by DD when in fact they have taken 3:mad: Frankly, this horrendous customer service isn't unexpected as I'm just another in a long line of customers battling with Tiscali.

Canucklehead

sandramary

:money:

woodview wrote: »

I have a talktalk broadband and phone package, but I have to pay £10 for the broadband because of our local exchange. Talktalk have today sent a letter with a 30% increase in the broadband charge to £12.99 per month.

I phone and asked for the Mac code so I could switch and they have offered to leave the price at £10 per month for the next 6 months and then asked me to call them again, well worth the phone call.

As above I got the same letter and it is only after re-reading it I realised that they had sneaked in a price increase. I am so angry but I did as above and phoned and the guy offered to take three pound of my landline charge to compensate. This is ok but in the current climate it is outrageous that Talk Talk should do this. I think Martin should take Talktalk to task with this.

Heinz

sandramary wrote: »

As above I got the same letter and it is only after re-reading it I realised that they had sneaked in a price increase. I am so angry but I did as above and phoned and the guy offered to take three pound of my landline charge to compensate. This is ok but in the current climate it is outrageous that Talk Talk should do this. I think Martin should take Talktalk to task with this.

I thought broadband was free on Talk Talk.

anitha

Dear All,

Please can i have some assistance with the following:

I work for a charity. We paid some £700 last year on phone bills.That is alot for us as we are small but alot of our work is phone based. We are held in a building that house alot of charities and we have to pay rent to the council.
They control all our facitlities centrally. I have asked about our phones and have said why cant we just get a BT option free all day calls and have had nothing positive back. we have telewest phones, bt broadband and moving phone service provider.

I think it ludicrous that charities are being forced into spending so much on utlities - in this credit crunch climate - we are also so strapped for resources it is taking me valuable time to sort this out.

Ideally I need soemthing simple for our aprt time staff to be able to pick up and go - I have looked at the 2 internet based calls martin ahs suggested but they only give u a fixed free max minute usage ??
The memeber s we call in the community wont have skype. Anybody has any other suggestions please ???

thanx in advance

Victor_Delta

I would have thought 18185 would be your best bet but have you thought of approaching a local comms supplier and asking them to sponsor your charity by giving you effectively free calls. They would probably want some publicity etc in return but this would be a small price to pay for a big saving.

V

theloft

anitha wrote: »

Dear All,

Please can i have some assistance with the following:

I work for a charity. We paid some £700 last year on phone bills.
I think it ludicrous that charities are being forced into spending so much on utlities - in this credit crunch climate - we are also so strapped for resources it is taking me valuable time to sort this out.. Anybody has any other suggestions please ??? thanx in advance

Your best bet is to ask Heinz in a Private Message. He is the home phones guru! (he may well read this and offer you some advice anyway).

Heinz

anitha wrote: »

We are held in a building that house alot of charities and we have to pay rent to the council.
They control all our facitlities centrally. I have asked about our phones and have said why cant we just get a BT option free all day calls and have had nothing positive back. we have telewest phones, bt broadband and moving phone service provider.

The "we have telewest phones, bt broadband and moving phone service provider" bit has me a little confused anitha.

Telewest used to be one of the cable companies and are now part of Virgin Media. That suggests you use a cable service for your telephony. However, you then mention BT Broadband - which can only be ADSL broadband carried on a standard (non-cable) landline. And what does "moving phone service provider" mean? Are you in the process of moving from BT or terminating your Telewest (VM) service?

Anyway, on the assumption that you have a standard BT business telephone line (or lines), I'd say Victor_Delta's suggestion that you use 18185 for your outgoing calls is the 'quick fix' solution. It would cut the cost of each of your outgoing calls (to UK 01, 02 or 03 numbers) to 5p.

sandramary

Heinz wrote: »

I thought broadband was free on Talk Talk.

unfortunately still not free in the area I live in, which made the 2.99 a month increase even more annoying.

Hermitage

I have been reading through these threads, and I am surprised that no one has mentioned the Utility Warehouse!

I have been with them for 3 years now and I am completely satisfied with the savings I have made compared to BT, and the quality of customer care compared to Talk Talk, or Tiscali.

Since the beginning of this month, their line rental has been reduced to £8.99 per month. They also guarantee that their calls will be cheaper that BT.

If you include broadband (as I have done) they then only charge £19.99 if they can fit their equipment (LLU) or £26.99 if they can't (non LLU). They have just increased the broadband speed from 8 to 24 mbps on the LLU exchanges. Of course these figures are always up to maximum speeds. It is still pretty impressive for the price. Anyway, I am extremely happy with my broadband connection

The company also adds in free weekend calls if you have chosen the home phone/broadband connection, and this month they have included free calls to 10 most popular international destinations on a permanent basis. Should you also switch your energy over to them as well, your calls become free 24/7!

I don't know if you can still use the 18185 service with the Utility Warehouse, but I do know that I can use the 0870 international call numbers found on Martin's international call checker site.

I am really surprised that Martin hasn't included the Utility Warehouse in his assessment of the different Utility providers, especially when they have been featured consistently in the Which? magazine as one of the best providers in recent months.

Perhaps it may be because the only way to sign up to the Utility Warehouse is through one of their Authorised distributors.