ONETEL. Some good points and some very bad

vinylmusic

I went with onetel for calls only
Although I make hardly any calls at all through Onetel I find I am still elegible for free weekend landline calls. I tend to override BT & Onetel by using 18185 and similar for most other calls.

I made sure not to go with Onetel for line rental as well because I learnt that if I did I wouldn't be allowed to override them for 18185 calls etc.

I am now very happy I didnt because I just found out that their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

When my BT line last went down for some days they re-routed all incoming calls to my mobile at no extra charge to me or to callers. Also I found the customer services very professional and very helpful

I recently found out that my mother went with Ontel hook line and sinker.
Yesterday her phone went down and she called for help. Onetel offerred no assistance such as re-routing to mobiles and their very obviously Asian call centre were very hard to understand. All they could say was it would take them at least four days to start to look into it.
Needless to say my mother is going to go back with BT for line rental.
I'm so glad I didn't fall into that hole.

I hope this story proves to be useful advice for some

matrix999

I totally agree 100% with your point regarding the poor level of service from Onetel. There customer service is terrible and your right about it being a foreign call centre.
I have just moved back to BT for my line rental and calls although I will be using 18866 for 01/02 numbers to save money.

Like you, I have found BT very professional and helpful when contacting their customer services...Oh and its a freephone number!!!

SallyD

My Mum has used a Onetel phone pal for sometime and is registered for lp a minute internet access but retained her BT line until she fell for the Onetel sales patter and transferred over to Onetel lock stock and barrell in August. On Christmas Eve her phone line went dead. ...what a nightmare it has been trying to get the Indian call centre to respond positively. We have rung everyday saying there is still no dial tone. We are told a line check had been done and no fault found,but not to worry, they will refer the enquiry over to the Technical Team. Every day since 24th we have had the s ame story. At very long last, I did today speak to a Customer Services Officer which resulted in an appointment for a BT engineer to call on Saturday as an outside fault has been detected electronically...................hip hip horray, an operator with a bit of savvy. Once the phone line is up and running again, Mum will be switching back to BT. I have worked in Trading Standards for many years and NEVER, EVER come accross a Customer Services Department that comes anywhere near as BAD as ONETEL. Now, are Tesco's going to deliver Mums tv today?