Cheapest Home Phones Article Discussion

Scottie4642

I have just changed to TalkTalk after several years with Orange/Wanadoo. The Customer Service has been very good and the download speed is now 2 .0Mbps against 0.4 Mpbs! Having been aware of TalkTalk from its inception I was concerned over their Support, I am now very satisfied that hte early problems have been overcome.

neilcal

I would re-iterate what several people have already said. Tiscali are fine until there is a problem and then they are dreadful. Having had Tiscali broadband for a few years with no problem I upgraded to include home phone this year. What a disaster! They have cut off my phone and internet connection twice with explanation that it is a mistake. Currently have internet connection but home phone has been cut off for a week! They say they thought there was a problem with payment, but when they check there is none. Now getting loads of email apologies but no phone! The first thing they do if there is a hint of a problem is cut off your phone so that you have to contact customer service by mobile. Ouch! They said phone would be reinstated in 24 to 72 hours but it is now over a week. If anyone has any idea how to gee them up I would be interested but can't afford to keep phoning and hanging on mobile and they ignore requests to forward complaint to a manager. Wish I had never heard of Tiscali and first chance I get i will be changing.

Tripledrop

I could do with some advice:

I have an orchid dialler plugged into my phone socket, at the moment set up to Heinz's very useful (thx Heinz!) program. I use Primus for the free evening / weekend calls, and 18185 etc during the day.

However, I got a deal with Sky recently, and they have given me Sky Talk Unlimited (I think that's what it's called) free for 6 months, so I get free calls 24/7 to 01, 02 & 03.

My question is, what's the best call solution to use now (for mobiles, 0845, 0870 etc etc), and how do I set it up on my dialler?

I normally just call Orchid and they set up the Heinz calls for me!

Thanks!

EDIT: My sky packages kicked in the other day.

brownfrog

Hmm, this is interesting. Anyone else been rung up by TalkTalk? On the free call evening & weekend plan, I've been offered a half-price wireless router (which I don't want), £13.75 for 2 months, then back to £16.99 for the next 16 months, with a promise that it won't increase in this time (total £299.34 over this period). As the equivalent Tiscali package seems to be £9.99 for 3 months, then £14.99, but with a £30 connection fee (total £296.81), there's practically no difference (although I suppose I could get a few quid for their free wireless router), and I really don't fancy going through the same kind of messing about with Tiscali as I did with TalkTalk (and by the sounds of it, their customer service is pretty much on a par).

Seems OK, but just wondering if it's a good idea to get locked into an 18-month contract again. Any opinions?

I think I might be ringing TT back actually, as I've only been offered the reduced rate for 2 months, and I see on their website that new customers get it for 3!

Tripledrop

brownfrog wrote: »

Hmm, this is interesting. Anyone else been rung up by TalkTalk? On the free call evening & weekend plan, I've been offered a half-price wireless router (which I don't want), £13.75 for 2 months, then back to £16.99 for the next 16 months, with a promise that it won't increase in this time (total £299.34 over this period). As the equivalent Tiscali package seems to be £9.99 for 3 months, then £14.99, but with a £30 connection fee (total £296.81), there's practically no difference (although I suppose I could get a few quid for their free wireless router), and I really don't fancy going through the same kind of messing about with Tiscali as I did with TalkTalk (and by the sounds of it, their customer service is pretty much on a par).

Seems OK, but just wondering if it's a good idea to get locked into an 18-month contract again. Any opinions?

I think I might be ringing TT back actually, as I've only been offered the reduced rate for 2 months, and I see on their website that new customers get it for 3!

I personally wouldn't ever get tied in for that long... Especially with TalkTalk! I was with them a few years ago, and because I downloaded a lot, they limited my download. Eventually they wrote to me cancelling my contract! I was obviously happy they finally did that, as there was a £75 fee to pay if I cancelled! You never know what deal will be available in 6 moths, so why tie yourself in for 18? I have never had many complaints with UKOnline...

spirit6

urgent advice!!! having been a vm customer since telewest we have found the cost has gone up from the 3 for £30(brdbnd,tv,phone),to £40.we have no problem with the tv cost but would like to lower the cost of broadband and telephone plus line rental.having rang vm today the best they would do for me is unlimited calls for a total cost of £37 but would save £money on the calls we have to pay for confused any advice on just cutting our phone and broadband bill:mad:

Bill_H

:j I made the phone call to Virgin - and got a good deal. FREE calls anytime - no extra charge ! Saved me getting a BT line ( even if they are on offer ) and the bother of setting up new contracts. VERY PLEASED. Thanks Martin Lewis.

feesh

I have just signed up for Primus2. We have a BT landline and we get our broadband from O2 for just £7.50 a month, which I don't want to change due to their excellent service.

I was just wondering though - will being switched to Primus2 for calls affect our broadband speeds in any way (because I presume the calls will be routed differently, somehow), or will things just carry on as normal?

Please could someone advise.
Many thanks
Feesh

Heinz

Using a CPS calls provider for your voice calls will have no effect on your broadband.

pepsi_max2k

Hey all, just my 2 cents on this...

I use a VoIP ata to recieve and make calls over the regular landline, as well as calls over a VoIP provider (voipcheap) and recieve them via sipgate.

Voipcheap's rates are pretty good, giving free calls to many places for a few months after adding credit, then currently 1 eurocent to UK and many other countries landline, and ~10 eurocents to UK mobile, the major saving being no call setup fees though. obviously the exact GBP amount differs depending on the exchange rate when you add credit (luckily the last time i added was around a year ago when it was pretty good ).

Sipgate give out a free UK landline number so anyone can call you at local rate.


It was a little complicated for me thoug as we use caller ID, which BT charge ~£5 unless 6 chargeable calls are made per quater. Luckily I'm a bit handy with basic scripting, so automated things to send out all calls over BT until 6 calls were made, then the majority over VoIP, yet switch between the two depending on whos cheaper (BT free for everything at weekends, and always cheaper for 08 numbers).

anyway, if someone wants to know more about the hardware and scripts I used, check out http://www.ip-phone-forum.de/showthread.php?p=1121160 where I used a FritzBox 5050 (bought for £20 shipped from ebay.de) which is possibly the cheapest way of being able to accomplish the above with automation.