fed up and thinking of moving to talk talk?

purply

hi,
please advise!
i pay line rental to BT, the call supplier is 18866 and i'm with onetel who supply free calls at the weekend. However, since i've had this set up (with the orchid dialler), its not worked out at all. I get charged by onetel at the weekend for landline calls and im getting seperate bills from onetel, 18866 and BT and it all adds up. (I'm fed up with getting in touch with orchid-with due respect they have done what they can).

I don't think i'm saving money.

Anyway, read about just dial and i'm not happy about the lack of communication on their part...i have applied to them but want to cancel...so i am thinking of going to talk talk-the reason being that they supply both line rental and calls and thus its easier and more convenient. I'm thinking that my mobile phone calls can be routed using the dialler through 18866...

now, is there anyone who thinks i'm making a mistake or could do better...i'm just fed up not saving money!

thanks

Heinz

Only BT are required by their licence to allow subscribers to use other call providers (like 18866) to make their calls.

Moving your line rental to another provider (you don't really, you just let them charge you for it after they've rented it from BT at a reduced rate) may save you 50p per month or so but risks you not being able to make your calls on other providers. It will also lose you free Caller Display (if you use it).

18185 is cheaper during the week for those calls to mobiles - 5p/minute instead of 18866's 12p/minute.

purply

Thanks for that! I wasn't aware that i'd lose caller display and the fact that i may not be able to use other call providers.

So, Im stuck with BT, but maybe i can go on the 0ption 3 with talk talk (unlimited anytime landline calls for £7.99 per month) and 18185 for mobile calls.

Does that leave 18866 defunct?

Heinz

That £7.99 to get you 'free' calls to UK 01/02 numbers is equivalent to 266 calls (at 3p each) on 1899. 266 is many more than the number of calls I make and bear in mind that's 266 calls each month, every month - even when you're away on holiday.

I've just moved my CPS from OneTel (where I was getting free weekend 01/02 calls for no monthly fee), to Primus Saver 2 (where I am getting free weekend AND evening 01/02 calls for no monthly fee). That, with 1899 for weekday daytime calls (18185 for calls to mobiles) has knocked my bills down to beer money levels - and I'm well happy with that.

boatman

Do 'just dial' allow the use of 18866 etc?

purply

once again thank you heinz!

i went onto uswitch and they recommended that i use primus saver, so thats what i will do and use 18866 for day time calls.

Just out of interest heinz, i'm assuming you are using the orchid dialler to route your calls-i have found the dialler to be unreliable and i get charged for what are supposed to be 'free' calls-does this happen to you?

That was my initial reason for moving to one call provider and line rental provider(talk talk)...but you've convinced me not to!

boatman-as i am aware, you can use 18866 with just dial, you will need to prefix the numer you are dialling with 18866 (after you have registered with 18866), or alternatively you could use the orchid dialler.

Heinz

purply wrote:

Just out of interest heinz, i'm assuming you are using the orchid dialler to route your calls-i have found the dialler to be unreliable and i get charged for what are supposed to be 'free' calls-does this happen to you?

No. Never got round to buying one - just programmed the DECT phones with 2 versions of each number (a D suffix to each name to denote 'Day' and an EW suffix to denote 'Evenings/Weekends') and then trained the good lady as necessary. TBH, 3p a call if she gets it wrong is not the end of world - but she rarely does.

Looks like there'll be a bit of re-programming to do shortly (changing all the 18866 prefixes to 1899).

BexTech

purply wrote:

Thanks for that! I wasn't aware that i'd lose caller display and the fact that i may not be able to use other call providers.

So, Im stuck with BT, but maybe i can go on the 0ption 3 with talk talk (unlimited anytime landline calls for £7.99 per month) and 18185 for mobile calls.

Does that leave 18866 defunct?

You won't lose caller display, just that instead of it being free as it is with BT (via BT Privacy) you will have to pay for it £1.50 - £1.75 per month.

TalkTalk seem to be transferring people over to their line rental service, not sure if you can say to them, I don't want you moving me to your line rental, I am happy with the CPS service.

BexTech

boatman wrote:

Do 'just dial' allow the use of 18866 etc?

Just Dial is only a CPS provider, so your line rental will still be with BT and therefore will be able to continue to use 18866.

Keeping BT line rental and using a CPS provider is the ideal solution, and then you can add indirect providers like 18185, 18866 and 1899.

denise38

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Service has been diabolical and probably not even that good. Just spent another 40 mins trying to get through to customer services and came on here to see what the alternatives where.
Meant to be on a talk 3 plan at £7.99 free for first 3 months but for some strange reason they bill £11.05 then refund. Or they are supposed to they hadn't even got that right last month.
You get the strangest amounts appearing on your bill and then even stranger discounts so in the end you are totally confused and have no idea what you are being billed for.
I am tied in probably for 12 months because of the broadband deal but am seriously considering moving and taking a battering on the broadband as every month I spend another hour or 2 trying to get things sorted.
It took 6 weeks to get my home phone sorted I would appear that no one was recording calls for a month . Then all of a sudden they started billing and got weird months and part months being billed. having moved my services a few times but this has been extremely stressful for a while it was every thursday night for 2 hours trying to get things sorted.

ginger_nuts

denise38 wrote:

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Service has been diabolical and probably not even that good. Just spent another 40 mins trying to get through to customer services and came on here to see what the alternatives where.
Meant to be on a talk 3 plan at £7.99 free for first 3 months but for some strange reason they bill £11.05 then refund. Or they are supposed to they hadn't even got that right last month.
You get the strangest amounts appearing on your bill and then even stranger discounts so in the end you are totally confused and have no idea what you are being billed for.
I am tied in probably for 12 months because of the broadband deal but am seriously considering moving and taking a battering on the broadband as every month I spend another hour or 2 trying to get things sorted.
It took 6 weeks to get my home phone sorted I would appear that no one was recording calls for a month . Then all of a sudden they started billing and got weird months and part months being billed. having moved my services a few times but this has been extremely stressful for a while it was every thursday night for 2 hours trying to get things sorted.

Until last week I had always liked Talk Talk .A few problems at the start concerning calls to ROI but nothing serious . Last week I had to phone Talk Talk as they had taken my 81 year old fathers free evening calls away .Customer service denied he ever got free evening calls .They said the option team would never offer an extention to the free calls ,tbh they where nasty to me .I asked for the option team and the line went dead ! I phoned back and got another operator and I got what I wanted ,more free calls .I live in Northern Ireland and TT are one off the few that dont charge international rate to ROI thats why I use them but Any more crap like last week and I am moving .