1899 increasing charges to cable customers (merged)

utilitybroker

Shaanbles. Sounds like from the price you have only got the one network router.If thats the case you would have to program it to call the Onetel freephone number,and dial the 1899 0808 number manually.Or vice versa.If you wanted to benefit from 1899 and Onetel.

Shaanbles

Yes you're right UB.
At the time I couldn't see any reason to use anyone else than 1899. Haven't figured out how onetel works yet - a job for another time - probably over xmas when escaping the family ;-))

Lady_K

Do NTL put the vat on after call charges though? so it would really end up more than 5p. Even so I'm now finding I'm not calling like I used to unless absolutely nes coz it might sound mean but when youve paid just 3p it doesn't feel so good watching the time now when before I didn't have to worry about waiting on the line ect. So I think unless its a national call I'll just stick with going through NTL till I find someone cheaper as I've made a few calls meaning to stay on less than 4 mins and its always gone over as I've checked my 1899 bill. At least I know it will be 5p only if I do that.

The quality of calls has been pretty bad with 1899 for the last couple of weeks anytway and I too have experienced times of constant engaged tone.

Why do you think they have charged NTL ussrs and not BT is it something to do with NTL?

utilitybroker

Lady_K wrote:

Why do you think they have charged NTL ussrs and not BT is it something to do with NTL?

BBB_UK post No 5 in this very thread explains the reason for this.

Nigel1

Another twist to the tale. Having emailed 1899 about the constant engaged tone via NTL over the weekend, I find tonight that it mysteriously works again and I can dial the 0808 170 7474 number.

Then I have cause to ring NTL customer services which is an 0800 number and out of curiosity I used 1899 to do so. The dismembered 1899 voice says "Half a p per minute".
Aren't 0800 numbers supposed to be free?

Nigel

Edinburghlass_2

but you weren't dialing an 0800 number but an 0808 number

joeyjoejoe_2

i am on bulldog, i transferred my phone line over from bt so i could take advantage of their internet. i used to use 1899 to get 3p calls but now they have put the price up i was checking the call prices for bulldog, im on the active plan, and it works out as 5.5p for an hour in the evening. now heres my confusion, i call my gf who is at cambridge uni, they use a switchboard for there calls and it was an 07 number, but i ofund the geofraphical number to be 1223xxxxxx and this worked with 1899, i got got 3p calls. however it seems that now im better just using bulldog for an hour, but it says those call charges only apply to numbers starting 01 and 02, i cant find anything for numbers starting 12, iv never even heard of them, all i know is that number works and it is the geographical number, so do you think it should apply to the offer?

Heinz

joeyjoejoe wrote:

i am on bulldog, i transferred my phone line over from bt so i could take advantage of their internet. i used to use 1899 to get 3p calls but now they have put the price up i was checking the call prices for bulldog, im on the active plan, and it works out as 5.5p for an hour in the evening. now heres my confusion, i call my gf who is at cambridge uni, they use a switchboard for there calls and it was an 07 number, but i ofund the geofraphical number to be 1223xxxxxx and this worked with 1899, i got got 3p calls. however it seems that now im better just using bulldog for an hour, but it says those call charges only apply to numbers starting 01 and 02, i cant find anything for numbers starting 12, iv never even heard of them, all i know is that number works and it is the geographical number, so do you think it should apply to the offer?

Your girlfriend's geographical number starts 01223 (that's the normal STD code for Cambridge). You've done well to find out what it is and are saving a lot from what you would pay to call her on an 070 number.

Anyway, her number DOES start 01 - is starts 01223 - so there's no reason why you can't us the 5.5p/hour method of calling her (which is the same as BT would have charged for the same call BTW).

mobilegossip

Nigel1 wrote:

Aren't 0800 numbers supposed to be free?

Nigel

They are if you dial them direct,and not via a cheap call provider.

BexTech

mobilegossip wrote:

They are if you dial them direct,and not via a cheap call provider.

And only BT and Kingston are forced to offer them free, Mobile firms, NTL, Telewest and other telecom providers can charge for them if they so wish.