Cheapest Home Phones Article Discussion

A.Jones

Cut and paste from the primus: From £7.99/mth section

QUICK FACTS. Price: £7.99/month Free Calls: Evening & weekend Length of free calls: 90 mins Connection: None Contract:12 months Allows use of override providers? Yes (In Dec 10 gave MSE written guarantee to allow override until the end of the year at least).

What does this mean? In particular Dec 10. They received a written guarantee in the future. Really? And that guarantee is only until the end of the year (I'm ignoring at least, this is like "up to" 50% off sales, best to assume the minimum). So are we to believe that in the future they are going to give a written guarantee that the offer will last a month or so at minimum.

I thought this site was to give people facts. The statement about use of overide providers is extremely poor in this context.

dickiegay

Just had an email saying Primus are cheapest for home phone. Indeed when moving house I went with Primus based on info on this website. However be warned; Primus have lousy customer service and messed me around big time. After informing them of my old provider and saying that I wanted to port my number they then simply didn't get in touch with me to inform me of things they needed like proof of address. I found this out after several calls being kept on hold for over half an hour. I then found out over a week later that it would be 14-21 working days before I would be connected. After waiting patiently for over 21 days I contacted them five times in the space of a week. Each time they promised that somebody would get back to me within 24 hours but it was another week before they finally got back to me to say that they could not port my number as they hadn't been aware of my old provider and that the line had been closed. I sent a detailed email of complaint following the complaints proceedure they informed me of and I have had no reply. I was without phone or internet for 5 weeks. I finally gave up on Primus and went with Plusnet who were very frindly and had me connected within 2 days. The "cheapest" actually ended up costing me more as I had to rely on BT Fon connections while working from home. I would avoid Primus like the plague.

Heinz

A.Jones wrote: »

Cut and paste from the primus: From £7.99/mth section

QUICK FACTS. Price: £7.99/month Free Calls: Evening & weekend Length of free calls: 90 mins Connection: None Contract:12 months Allows use of override providers? Yes (In Dec 10 gave MSE written guarantee to allow override until the end of the year at least).

What does this mean? In particular Dec 10. They received a written guarantee in the future. Really? And that guarantee is only until the end of the year

Today's email tip gives the following which may allay your fears (at least for 13 months):

Some providers block overrides, but BT can't due to competition rules and we've Primus's written promise it won't until at least 2012.

bigchasbroon

Hi there Just a wee tip if anyone is self employed primus do a business tariff. Ive been on it for over a year after one of thier telesales people phoned me up. There is NO line rental and the call charges are capped. I dont know how they do it but my monthly bills are ussually around £7 or £8. The biggest bill was £14 after my son spent a total of 7 hours phoning his girlfriends mobile!!!

pigeon_dave

Please can someone explain line rental, i have a package with sky (broadband, phone and TV) but have to pay BT line rental.
Question is i though you have no choice but to pay BT the line rental.
Is there another choice regarding line rental payments (can i pay someone else my line rental).
Sorry for sounding daft but i dont pay the bills at home so i have very little knowledge.
Thanks in advance. Dave

Heinz

Whoever pays the bills can switch the line rental to any of the other companies which now offer it but, to retain Sky Talk as the calls provider, the options are BT or Sky.

frank58

BT's 'anytime unlimited calling plan' gives free landline, 0870 and 0845 calls 24/7 for an extra £4.99/month. Not just evenings & weekends as some posts seem to imply. Needs a 12-month contract. Still use 18185 for mobiles and overseas etc.

EddyB

As a result of Martin's alert of two days ago, I have just rung Primus and spoken to a young Indian male who sounds like last week he may have been making chai down on the streets. I had to rephrase half of my sentences into very simple sentences to help him understand what I was asking.

I asked him where he was and he said he was in Mumbai.

Anyway.

He tells me that if I move to Primus:

Call-Minder will be an extra £2.50 per month. So that would be 7.99 per month plus 2.50 = £10.50 per month. £126 per year. So, only £20 cheaper than my current BT arrangement (line-rental and call-minder) of £148 per year.

However, the young man in Mumbai advised that if I change to Primus I must take my calls through them as well.

Naturally this would disturb our current excellent package with Virgin who currently supply us with good Broadband and a good call package.

Therefore, the change is a no-no for us.

But do advise me if I have got something wrong here, please.

Heinz

Only if you pay your line rental to BT can you have a calls package (Carrier PreSelect) with another provider.

However, Primus have, allegedly, given Martin written confirmation that they will allow the use of override providers (1899, 18185, 18866) at least until 2012.

tchap

Hi All I have a friend who suffers from Aspergers Syndrome has just had a laptop bought for him and is looking to get on line to do an OU course.
He is on benefit.
He hasn't got a land line but does have a mobile on vodaphone.

Can anyone suggest the cheapest route for him to go.
he does not live in a plusnet low cost area.

Thanks

tchap