Changes to BT 1280

plainenglish

If the idea is to save money then why are you making phone calls? 90% of telephone calls are irrelevant and not required. I refer to home use and not business. If you are making phone calls to complain or report a fault of some kind the last thing you want to do is telephone. Put it in writing and keep a copy. You have your computer, you have Word and you have your printer. Ok, I KNOW you have to make some calls. But, the phone companies are running rings around you all. Just think if the same 'selling' methods were used for you to purchase gas or electricity...oops, sorry I just realised, they are. To reduce your phone bill don't make phone calls or at least think before you do.

plainenglish

Looking back through the umpteen pages of numbers and codes I find that, as you say the idea is to same money, but people are cancelling or switching services only to be still charged for them. In pence amounts that add up of course. This is where they get you. How much time do you spend studying your telephone bills? How much does it cost to telephone the provider to try to get it sorted out? Telephone call time and YOUR time. In the end you are not making any saving at all and these telephone call provider people are making money hand over fist by confusing you all. It is a ludicrous situation, this method of charging for telephone calls and internet service. The simple reason why it is so complicated is so that you are unable to easily work it out.

BexTech

plainenglish I see this is totally lost on you, the savings can be pretty high for many.

kidcat

Just want to say thank you for the info on using 1471 and dialling 3, been getting charged since before Christmas for caller display and 1571 and its costing me loads, was totally unaware that the 1280 override wasnt working with AOl so had been relying on that to work and arguing with BT each bill.

Thanks again.

bryantp

Sorry to pour cold water on the 1471-3 way to get two chargeable calls per month to obtain free Caller-ID, etc. However, I have just received my bill from BT and I have been billed for both the 1471-3 calls and Caller-ID + Call Minder. BT tell me that their 'new' T&C state that Returned Calls are not eligible as chargeable calls. I was offered a £1 credit but asked for the full £3.02 and got it as I had not seen the revised T&C which BT is now sending to me.

Still looking for a working solution to the removal of 1280.

Heinz

bryantp wrote: »

Still looking for a working solution to the removal of 1280.

BT Chargecard - with calls charged to your home number.

This has been confirmed by BT Company Representative (see HERE).

Update 17/8/09. BT company representative has now done an about-turn on this and confirmed that chargecard calls do NOT count as chargeable calls. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...3&postcount=11

rosyapple_2

garygumps wrote: »

An update on my situation with AOL Talk. After weeks of mudslingling, blame and counter blame and general hand-washing by both AOL & BT I was finally told yesterday during a phone conversation with a real person at BT that........." yes Mr XXXXXX , BT no longer supplies the 1280 service"

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After hearing that I decided to just ditch the 1571 service and cut my losses.

So there you go.

I think I'll fire off a proper letter which will hopefully get a clear response. I find phone calls and emails when complaining have very little clout and you get the runaround.

The use of a prefix to re-route customers calls to BT was originally for testing purposes and is now unavailable. It was a business decision to stop using this prefix. If you are having a problem with AOL Talk we would be happy to help you rectify this.

I apologise for any inconvenience you feel this may have caused you.

Thanks for contacting AOL Broadband. We aim to help you have the best possible online experience. Should you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact us again

neilsedaka

I am new to this thread because I did not know there was a problem until today.

I have BT line rental and CPS via Onetel who are part of the TalkTalk group. My six 1280 prefixed calls per quarter have been working fine including the six calls made on 18th March giving me free caller display.

On checking the six 1280 prefixed calls that I made on 22nd April I see that they are on my Onetel list of unbilled calls and not on my BT list of recent calls. The result is that I am considering taking my default calls back to BT. I will continue to use 1899 for long weekday daytime calls, Lowercall 1664 for short weekday daytime calls (no connection charge), 0844 200 4040 for Australia, and 0844 200 9898 for New Zealand.

Having now read this and similar threads I came across the TalkTalk members forum where I see that several people have successfully requested that TalkTalk revert them to CPS for the purpose of being able to use 1280 to place the two calls per month for free BT caller display. TalkTalk reps are posting frequently on the forum facilitating requests to revert to CPS. It seems to me however that the user needs to specify that CPS and the ability to use 1280 for the purpose of obtaining BT freebies such as caller display is required before the TalkTalk rep initiates and follows the request to completion. Here is a sample thread.

http://www.talktalkmembers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12465&highlight=1280

hra_2

bryantp wrote: »

Sorry to pour cold water on the 1471-3 way to get two chargeable calls per month to obtain free Caller-ID, etc. However, I have just received my bill from BT and I have been billed for both the 1471-3 calls and Caller-ID + Call Minder. BT tell me that their 'new' T&C state that Returned Calls are not eligible as chargeable calls. I was offered a £1 credit but asked for the full £3.02 and got it as I had not seen the revised T&C which BT is now sending to me.

Still looking for a working solution to the removal of 1280.

1471-3 is eligible although you clearly have to be prepared to argue your case as things stand. See this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1652777&page=2

post #21 and #25-27.

slimgym

Does this just affect 1280 prefix?

I ask because my work pay for business calls by way of a redirect code (162 - Cable & Wireless) and work calls have now started to appear on my Pipex bill whereas before they didn't!

The numbers are all stored in the phonebook with the 162 prefix. I had previously routed some calls via 1280 to get the free caller display but when I got charged assumed it was because I'd forgotten to make those calls that way