New Payg Virtual Network Offering 5p a min calls to UK Landlines and Mobiles.

d.m_3

Why do you think 5p a minute is remotely good anyway? I pay 2.5p a minute, and that includes a blackberry 9700 and excludes my texts and data. So if you could quantify that somehow I'd pay even less.

Steve_xx

d.m wrote: »

Why do you think 5p a minute is remotely good anyway? I pay 2.5p a minute, and that includes a blackberry 9700 and excludes my texts and data. So if you could quantify that somehow I'd pay even less.

Are you on a contract or PAYG?

d.m_3

Ah, excuse my ignorance, I assume this is a PAYG thread? I'm on pay monthly contract.

Steve_xx

d.m wrote: »

Ah, excuse my ignorance, I assume this is a PAYG thread? I'm on pay monthly contract.

Yes, it's PAYG. You can see the appeal for those who don't use a huge amount of minutes per month, or those that want to make international calls at weekends for 1p per minute.

AVOIDvectone

I've ordered a SIM shortly after they launched the service. It came months later. I had a locked phone from Tmobile, but couldn't use the SIM from vectone. So I've left it aside till this week.

when I made the big mistake to try and use it. £5 topup on Friday; made the first international landline calls, first surprises - no phone ringing, no voice from the other side - but I was charged!!!

Saturday morning I tried the first international call on mobile - surprise - it was not 1p!!!!

Useless to say I had to dial a few times till the call was ringing... most of the time I was getting a "Network busy" from the phone or a similar recorded announcement to try later.

So I decided to call the customer service - and I tried, and I tried; most of the times I was ending with a voicemail box, to leave a message and they will call me back; in the end, after more then 50p spent on calls towards 111, somebody answered. he had and answer to all my concerns:
- I couldn't call a lot of destinations:mad:! - Answer: we have a few technical problems:D;
- I was not charged 1p:mad: - Was it your first topup:D? - yes:mad:! - Answer: you have 1p after you've had 2 topups:D. But it's not written anywhere:mad:!!! - No answer to this.

So please stay away from them!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

Muhammad_Ibrahim

Steve_xx wrote: »

Ineterestingly, section (f) below refers to your query, but it does not provide the answer!

5. Charges and Payment
(a) To be able to use the Services you must ensure that you have sufficient Credit. In particular you will not be able to use a Service where you have no Credit or where the amount of Credit is less than the minimum charge for that Service.
(b) As Charges are incurred they will be deducted from the Credit. Charges incurred simultaneously are deducted simultaneously. In the event that the Credit is insufficient to meet all Charges due those contracted for earlier will receive preference thus Charges for Additional Services shall be applied in the order in which those Additional Services were ordered by you and shall be applied after Charges due for the Basic Services.
(c) The Charges are available online at www_vectonemobile_co_uk and from our customer services department.
(d) You must pay for the Services in advance and do this by purchasing Top-up Vouchers. Once you register a Top-up Voucher it, and its Credit, is recorded against your Account and Charges applied to your Account are deducted from the Credit attached to that Top-up Voucher.
(e) Where you have more than one Top-up Voucher recorded against your Account the Charges will be deducted from the available Credit on the earliest activated Top-up Voucher first.
(f) Top-up Vouchers are not redeemable for cash and will expire if you do not use all the related Credit within the period or before the deadline stated on or with the Top-up Voucher itself.

Regarding Vectone Terms and Conditions 5(f), it seems that top-ups now automatically "expire" if you don't use them within a certain time period. This must be the latest fraud that Vectone are pulling on the unsuspecting public. It seems that they change their terms and conditions every three months, just so that they can develop new legal loopholes to make extra money at the public's expense.

Expiring Top-up Vouchers? That's a new one. Has anyone on here bought one of these expiring top-up vouchers recently? If so, please tell us when you bought it, how much it was for, and when does it expire?

Jill__2

Muhammad_Ibrahim wrote: »

Expiring Top-up Vouchers? That's a new one. Has anyone on here bought one of these expiring top-up vouchers recently? If so, please tell us when you bought it, how much it was for, and when does it expire?

Most networks have expiring topup vouchers, Oranges is 12 months and I think T-Mobile/o2s is 6 months

Muhammad_Ibrahim

Jill_ wrote: »

Most networks have expiring topup vouchers, Oranges is 12 months and I think T-Mobile/o2s is 6 months

Thanks for your input Jill, but I'm not interested in finding out about other networks - I'm interested in finding out about Vectone's latest scam.

Vectone also has a "Termination Clause" which comes into effect if you don't make any calls within a six-month period:

8. Termination
(a) Where you do not use the Services at least once every 180 days your Vectone Mobile SIM will be disconnected from the Network, this Agreement will be terminated, any Top-up Voucher recorded on your Account that has not expired will be forfeited and you will lose your Number.

I'm not interested in the Termination Clause though, because Vectone has already stated it openly on their website for everyone to read about. What I'm interested in finding out is the things that Vectone don't state on their website. Last year it was 0800 calls costing £2.35p per minute, whereas this year it's expiring top-ups. Vectone do not state anywhere on their website when these top-ups are likely to expire, so the only way to find out would be to buy one.

What I'm asking for is some input from someone who's actually bought one of these expiring top-ups, so that I know what to expect. This will enable us all to make an informed decision about whether or not to use Vectone as a Mobile Service Provider.

redux

Most but not all SIM cards will expire if unused for 180 days.

What is the point of slagging off this company about terms that are very similar to other companies, and demanding to know what it is like in use, without having used it oneself?

Muhammad_Ibrahim

Please take your time, and read the question carefully before answering.

My question was not about termination. My question was about expiring top-ups. This is a totally new concept that was introduced by Vectone on 1 Jan 2010. As far as I know, no other mobile phone company does this. The idea is simple: You buy a top-up voucher. The top-up voucher has an expiry date on it. If you don't use all your call credit before the expiry date, your call credit disappears. Vectone do not tell us on their website how long we've got in which to use our call credit, but it's probably a lot less than six months.

As for slagging off Vectone, I already have a Vectone SIM. I have even provided a balanced review.

I bought my Vectone SIM last year, before Vectone introduced expiring top-ups. My remaining call credit will not expire, but any new call credit that I buy will definitely expire. I just don't know when.

Since I don't have all the information that I need, I think I'll just bin my Vectone SIM as soon as it runs out of credit, and use my Lebara SIM for UK calls instead.

Lebara are currently offering £10 free call credit for every £20 top-up. Calls to all UK networks are 10p per minute. International call quality is clear. Termination (if you don't make any calls) is 80 days. Top-ups do not expire unless your account is terminated. All you need to do in order to protect your call credit is to make at least one call within every 80 days.

As for Vectone, I totally agree with a previous post on here. Avoid Vectone - they will take every opportunity to rip you off.