Cheapest Home Phones Article Discussion

Doc_N

stevephoto wrote: »

You might need the option Switch back to BT then choose Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan for £0 per month. I can't remember which way I did it now and as I already have it I can't tell now but you might get slightly different options which ever way you try.

I see - but presumably this is only for anyone not currently with BT?

stevephoto

It doesn't matter, it let me do it and I was already on the BT line saver.

fewkeste

I'm with Tiscali (now Talk Talk of course) and for line rental, Anytime calls and Broadband I pay £23.83 a month. I need the Anytime calls option as my wife and I make a number of (sometimes lengthy) calls during the day. I wouldn't want a package that included free evening and weekend calls and used an override provider for daytime calls as my wife is likely to forget to use the override code on occasion (it's happened in the past). Apparently I have a 24 Meg service even though I can't actually get anything like that (we're so far from the exchange). Does anyone who is familiar with the best deals know any combination that can beat what I pay now? I've read the MSE articles/guides but they seem to concentrate on bundled packages where only free evening and weekend calls are included and recommends call override services which, for reasons already explained, I don't wish to use. So, I'm looking for the cheapest bundle of line rental, Anytime calls and broadband? No need for inclusive international calls or calls to mobiles. No need for super fast speed or massive download allowances. Any suggestions (apart from Plusnet) or whatever they call themselves now?

Heinz

fewkeste wrote: »

I'm with Tiscali (now Talk Talk of course) and for line rental, Anytime calls and Broadband I pay £23.83 a month. I need the Anytime calls option as my wife and I make a number of (sometimes lengthy) calls during the day.

So, I'm looking for the cheapest bundle of line rental, Anytime calls and broadband? No need for inclusive international calls or calls to mobiles. No need for super fast speed or massive download allowances. Any suggestions (apart from Plusnet) or whatever they call themselves now?

As your current costs include line rental, that's not at all bad. In fact, with your anytime calls requirement and the apparent difficulty in training your wife to be more money-aware, I think you'll have difficulty beating it by much.

fewkeste

Heinz wrote: »

As your current costs include line rental, that's not at all bad. In fact, I think you'll have difficulty beating it by much with your anytime calls requirement and the apparent difficulty in training your wife to be more money-aware.

Heinz, thanks for this comment - it's useful to know I'm probably wasting my time looking for a better deal. MSE take note - if possible it would be useful to detail the best bundled inclusive deals including the Anytime calls option for future articles if at all possible. Not everyone wants to/prefers to use override providers. WRT my wife and training her to be more money aware, it's a memory thing not bloody mindedness!

I still shuddder when I recall the time she spent over 45 minutes chatting to a relative on their mobile (who was on holiday in Cyprus) from our landline - £23 plus for one phone call :mad: She forgot the relative was in Cyprus and was on her mobile!!

Doc_N

fewkeste wrote: »

....... WRT my wife and training her to be more money aware, it's a memory thing not bloody mindedness!

I still shuddder when I recall the time she spent over 45 minutes chatting to a relative on their mobile (who was on holiday in Cyprus) from our landline - £23 plus for one phone call :mad: She forgot the relative was in Cyprus and was on her mobile!!

Plus the likelihood that the relative had to pay a similar sum to her own network just to receive the call!

fewkeste

Doc_N wrote: »

Plus the likelihood that the relative had to pay a similar sum to her own network just to receive the call!

Exactly, unfortunately it was probably like water off a duck's back. The relative in question has no clue about the cost of these things and makes a proud boast of not caring about how much things cost. Sometimes it can be very frustrating trying to save a bit here and there only for thoughtlessness and a lack of what some people call 'gumption' to just wipe out any hard won efficiencies/savings. It can be galling to observe that not everyone seeks to be efficient with their household expenditure and doubly so when said relatives come to stay and indulge in wasteful practices wrt energy consumption and wasteful behaviour re. food and drink. Anyway off topic - sorry.

losalnos

Primus may be cheap, but brace yourself if you need their customer service!

Let me open by saying first of all that I accept my experience may not be everybodys but think it's worth a warning:-

Due to odd circumstances (it was set up by a tennant in a flat that we are landlords of,) we've had to get in touch with Primus 5 times in the last 2 weeks. Now let me stress, the number of calls has nothing to do with Primus' customer service: like I say it was our odd situation. The calls were made on varying days, at various different times of day.

Now here's the rub: the QUICKEST we had any of those calls answered was after being ON HOLD for 42 MINUTES! Generally speaking, the average call in total from dialling to hang up was about an hour. Our previous tennants that had set up the line said they'd been happy with the phone service but confirmed, yes, when the (rare) occasion they'd needed customer services it was a nightmare getting through.

Now, when we did get through, their services were quite helpful, and the customer service line is a freephone number, so it could be worse. I would just say that although they may be cheap, if a problem arrises you'll really need to take agood hour out your day to get it sorted. They don't seem to be the "I'll just phone at lunch time and sort it" type of company. And if the problem arises when you're busy, it can be a right pain iin the !!!!! Just a wee caveat to bear in mind.

mrasmith

Just to confirm, plusnet will no longer let you use a primus phone line with their broadband, they will insist you take their phone line.
They couldn't say why.
Just spent 2 hours trying to sort it and had to cancel the primus line switch as a result.

tahrey

ADMINS / MARTIN / WHOEVER, CAN WE GET THE ARTICLE CHANGED TO REFLECT THIS NEW SITUATION PLEASE? If in fact there's no way to sweet talk them into letting you do it...? I can't see how, as there's not really any good bargaining chip whose argument can't be fairly easily refuted, or bluff called...

It looks like this has been brewing up for the best part of a year now, and is properly in force at this point. I've been planning on making the switch for a couple weeks, based on what the article says, and am now going to have to rethink my strategy. Don't want anyone else to end up being misled either.

mrasmith wrote: »

Just to confirm, plusnet will no longer let you use a primus phone line with their broadband, they will insist you take their phone line.
They couldn't say why.
Just spent 2 hours trying to sort it and had to cancel the primus line switch as a result.

This has just been my experience as well. It's quite possible they've got wise to this little work-around and made it policy that they don't allow it, regardless of whether it's actually technically possible.


(Is it legal to refuse service in this way, even, given that there's no good technical basis for it? What if you wanted to switch your line rental from Plusnet to Primus, that's surely an unfair lock-in kind of thing?)

Then again they may just be hacked off with dealing with said company, could be that Primus' B2B service is as bad as their customer service seems to be. They'd have to talk to Primus after all in order to get the ADSL activated on the line and tied to the phone number etc wouldn't they?

Bit of a pain, really. I was moments away from signing up for a combi deal thru Homephonechoices / Broadbandchoices before I figured I'd double check on that and a couple other things with their online customer service guys. The one I spoke to, after a bit of digging to try and keep him on track with my actual questions, stated quite categorically that "NO, we cannot provide broadband on a Primus line; it has to be BT themselves, or provided by us."

Had it all figured out... Splitting it, and paying Plusnet's extra activation fee, would've been £2.40 more expensive for the year, but then started paying its way immediately - at £14.48 vs £18.48 per month once all the deals and extra charges were finished, I'd have been £1.60 up by the end of month 13, and then a further four quid every month after.

Oh well. If Primus is as annoying as the other reports in this thread, it might be worth going a few pounds down a month from September 2012. Doesn't make any actual difference until then, and who knows what my circumstances will be in a year? Besides, with Plusnet's evening/weekend call plan (what I was aiming for from either provider), 0845 and 0870 calls are free... could be worth it.

(I wonder though, had I tried signing up a few days earlier - that is, if a particular friend had been born a week earlier or later, 30 years ago, so I hadn't had my time monopolised by celebratons! - it would actually have gone through?)