Tesco Internet Phone Service Stopping -April 27th 2010

AndyRaybould

Have spoken to a helpful person at Tesco who says the company is aware of the problems this is causing and are looking into getting agreements with other companies to allow porting of numbers. They suggested i wait a week and call to get more details.
Fingers crossed...

jazzy

AndyRaybould wrote: »

I don't suppose they will buy these back off us??

Q&A from Tesco's
Will I be able to get a refund on the Tesco internet phone I've bought in store or through Tesco Direct?

We will be happy to offer you a full refund providing you have a receipt or proof of purchase and it was bought after 27th December 2009. Please return the phone to your local store. Alternatively, if you bought your phone from Tesco Direct, please call 0845 600 4411.

But there is no mention of any credit refunds?

Silk

Tesco VOIP was run by Freshtel an Australian VOIP company.

Might be worth contacting Freshtel themselves to see what can be done about porting numbers.

Tesco's invested over $12m in Freshtel back in 2006 but looks like it's going belly up now as they were struggling this time last year, so it must be far worse by now.
Article about them here ... http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/strategy/23559-freshtel-going-backwards-fast

Silk

jazzy wrote: »

Q&A from Tesco's
Will I be able to get a refund on the Tesco internet phone I've bought in store or through Tesco Direct?

We will be happy to offer you a full refund providing you have a receipt or proof of purchase and it was bought after 27th December 2009. Please return the phone to your local store. Alternatively, if you bought your phone from Tesco Direct, please call 0845 600 4411.

But there is no mention of any credit refunds?

Hi Jazzy,
They cover it on the Q/A's on the internet phone homepage.....

Question: What happens after 27th April if I have credit on my account:

Answer: We would recommend you make the most of your remaining credit and use it before 27th April. However, if there is still credit on your account after this date, we will email you shortly after the business closes to advise on the next steps.

virgo17

Same boat.

Would like to keep phone number as lots of contacts have it and it is quite memorable.

Not too worried about the credit. Can use that up before closedown.

Bit miffed

Might buy my groceries elsewhere for a while :rotfl:

fattony

same problem, not bothered about the credit just about the number as I use it for business, I have bell boxes with the number printed on them, just had 500 business cards delivered with the number on it. Will look at vonage as I'd like to know I have an alternative if Tesco decide they cant do anything!

PTM2

Hope this isn't correct from the Home Phone Choices website.

"Unfortunately Tesco VoIP subscribers will be unable to port their current phone numbers to any other service, however if you join Vonage you’ll be able to choose a dialling code of your choice, meaning if your Tesco number is a London number, you can choose another London-based number."

The link is www .homephonechoices.co.uk/tesco-shelves-voip-internet-phone-service-29032010.html (sorry have to break the link as a new user)

Has anybody had any luck with another VOIP supplier? I called Vonage and they say they are looking into porting Tesco Phone numbers, but be warned they hard on the sales pitch.

croggyboy

I have heard Tesco are working to arrange so numbers can be ported, but I've not heard this from Tesco first hand.

I am sitting tight for a while to see what happens.

fattony

Who owns the numbers I just can't see its that hard to port them I must be missing something, I guess we must put our trust in tesco doing the right thing

croggyboy

I did have this explained to me tonight, excuse me if I miss bits, but the problem is numbers have to be bought in large blocks, to port just one number to someone else requires various termination fees.

What Tesco customers have to hope for is that a decent alternative takes over the whole number block.

I am currently looking favourably at sipgates 0845 number alternative and have some other options, including a startup who may or may not be ready before the Tesco cut off date,