Primus Saver Home Landline Advice Please???

jgallcash

Having read Martins guide on cheap home phones I called this company up yesterday to book for a changeover from Sky calls (with BT line rental) to their £7.99 per month package for line rental and free evening and weekend calls.

On having placed the order I happened to come across a variety of reviews that slated this company for their customer services and a whole host of other nightmares they had when dealing with Primus.

I know I should have checked first but I (stupidly on my part) presumed that as they were in Martin’s guide that they would be a decent company to deal with.

Does anybody use Primus and if so are they ok to deal with for calls only (no broadband)?

If they are poor and I wanted to cancel is there a cooling off period before they do the switchover?

Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Sun-Is-Fun

You can cancel now if you wish - I think its up to the day before switchover - but do it as soon as possible.

My personal experience, that has been echoed by others, is poor customer service if something goes wrong - non or slow reply to emails, long telephone calls with Indian call centres, increases in prices without notification, etc.

To be fair, I didn't have any problems with the line or calls and the switchover to them went smoothly, but would have dreaded it, from my current knowledge of their customer services, if anything had or did go wrong.

You may be lucky and have no problems. Am I glad I'm switching back to BT - currently yes ! I've had great communication so far from BT of the switchover - emails and letters ! To be fair, I never had any real issues with BT before I left for Primus - only switched as Primus was cheaper then (but isn't now for my requirements).

Hope my small input helps you clarify your decision, but in the end, it's up to you !

jgallcash

Thanks for that info.

I'm quite torn because it is so much cheaper than any other option. We use the landline maybe once per week but prefer to have evening and weekend calls just incase.

As it's only the landline which we use so rarely I am still quite tempted to go with it if its only a customer service issue - particularly if the switch was smooth.

Any other thoughts welcome.

OldGreyFox

Plenty of feedback etc here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2760972

Sun-Is-Fun

If you only use the phone for that amount of time and don't have any add ons like caller id (which they charge heavily for), if the switch goes smoothly (it should !) and you don't have any other problems whilst with them, then go for it, as it will be cheaper than BT.

Can you not get the line rental cheaper than primus if you combine your broadband, rental and calls if you are in an llu area, e.g. sky, etc.? Have you looked into that?

steveE2

mjfp509 wrote: »

Can you not get the line rental cheaper than primus if you combine your broadband, rental and calls if you are in an llu area, e.g. sky, etc.? Have you looked into that?

That would be a good idea and don't forget that you are currently getting a £5 reduction on the cost of your broadband with Sky by having the calls package,so your BB would increase by £5, probably cancelling out the saving by switching.

jgallcash

it's £11 per month line rental only with Sky - plus the broadband and calls - so it wouldn't be cheaper.

I'm going with BE broadband as they have some excellent feedback and high speeds for internet from my neighbours - the company do landlines too but unfortunately not in our area.

In the interests of keeping things simple I even called BT to pay the £120 for the year for line rental (cant remember the name of the deal) but they wanted an extra £3 per month for the evening and weekend calls.

Current cost of TV, Broadband and calls is £48 per month (£13 BT line rental and £5 to Sky) - getting rid of TV; which we barely used and switching could (if things go well) take the cost to £22 per month (£14 Broadband and £8 calls)

BargainGalore

I use them for calls only not landline. Haven't had any problems in just over a year that said I haven't had any need to call them

steveE2

it's £11 per month line rental only with Sky - plus the broadband and calls - so it wouldn't be cheaper.

Sky rental with E/W calls £11.25
Sky Unlimited Broadband £7.50
No Tv taken £2.50
Sky Total £21.25

Cheapest Be Value £14.08
Primus Rental+ E/W calls £7.99
Primus + Be Value Total £22.07

R34GTT

jgallcash wrote: »

Having read Martins guide on cheap home phones I called this company up yesterday to book for a changeover from Sky calls (with BT line rental) to their £7.99 per month package for line rental and free evening and weekend calls.

On having placed the order I happened to come across a variety of reviews that slated this company for their customer services and a whole host of other nightmares they had when dealing with Primus.

I know I should have checked first but I (stupidly on my part) presumed that as they were in Martin’s guide that they would be a decent company to deal with.

Does anybody use Primus and if so are they ok to deal with for calls only (no broadband)?

If they are poor and I wanted to cancel is there a cooling off period before they do the switchover?

Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Before you switch make sure BT cancels all your calling features e.g. CallerID, CallDivert etc. Primus charge extra for these and are automatically carried over when switching even if you don't request them from Primus.

My main headache with Primus was getting these features removed after the switch and subsequent billing errors. I will probably switch to Plusnet or BT when my contract is up.

Sun-Is-Fun

If you move your calls back to bt you can get free evening and weekend calls, by following a weblink on their website. Don't know if I'm allowed to post it here, so will pm it to you. Then set up 18185 account for daytime calls to cost 5p max.