18185 and Plusnet

brewerdave

I'm with Plusnet for rental/calls and use 18185 for daytime calls with no issues.:money:

Plusnet_company_representative

Hi,

tplunkett wrote: »

Q.I am currently considering moving my landline to Plusnet. Will I be able to use 18185 for calls to mobiles from my landline.
BTW.This is important as Plusnet mobile rates are way more than I pay with my current BT deal.

Yes, you can use carrier pre-select services with Plusnet, including 18185...

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

This issue of using 1899 is very important to me as I am just about to help migrate a close relative's broadband line over to Plusnet.

...and 1899.

I have looked into the situation described by the original poster and I'm confident this is no longer a problem (assuming it was in the first place).

It seems very odd TBH because our suppliers route call data records directly to the CPS carrier when one of these calls is made. Theoretically we shouldn't even know about the call.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I tried to PM Plusnet's Company Representative on this issue but I see that annoyingly he/she has blocked the PM feature.

As mentioned by others, it's a site policy rather than a decision we've made. We'd love to be able to receive PMs

Hope this provides the necessary clarification.

Best regards,

Bob Pullen

NonGeographicalMan

Plusnet_company_representative wrote: »

It seems very odd TBH because our suppliers route call data records directly to the CPS carrier when one of these calls is made. Theoretically we shouldn't even know about the call.

Yes I do agree with your view that it seems distinctly odd that what the OP originally described as happening was even possible. Yet the OP described their problem confidently and clearly enough that one felt duty bound to believe that what they described was indeed taking place. Although I do wonder about the fact that the OP suddenly went quiet on the matter and never came back to the forum with a final conclusion to the saga.

The only way in which Plusnet ought to be able to stop its customers using Indirect Access would be to block access to the Indirect Access service completely as for instance TalkTalk has done with their phone customers but is not true of yourselves, BT or Post Office Homephone. And of course the only reason customers usually want to route their chargeable calls elsewhere via Indirect Access in the first place is because of the wholly unreasonable and ever spiralling nature of connection fees and per minute charges for phone calls which are not included in a customer's free evening and weekends phone calls bundle.

As we know to our cost as domestic phone customers Ofcom unfortunately and quite inexplicably continues to sit on its hands and do nothing over the hugely alarming increases in these new connection charges (and their counterpart first minute of the call charges) over the last three years or so since their introduction despite the fact that they are surely discriminatory against most people who are out at work during the hours of the chargeable calls and also against the interests of the majority of single person households. Most of these phone customers used to pay far less for their calls before the introductions of the ever spiralling connection charge and first minute of the call charge (previously there was only a single minimum 5p call charge for BT customers) along with the spread of so called "free" 1571 (forcing calls to be answered where no conversation actually takes place and nor is a message left to BT's financial advantage) allowed customers to be more or less forced at the point of a financial gun in to taking an Anytime Calls bundle.

I'm happy to hear that my relative will have the freedom to continue using 1899 when they become a Plusnet phone and broadband customer although as a thought perhaps Plusnet ought to try and do rather more to encourage customers to take an Anytime calls bundle by also including a certain number of minutes per month to mobiles. This could particularly be the case with the £6 per month bundle that currently only gives customers the benefit of some calling time to overseas landlines in addition to Anytime Calls. I rather suspect your typical Plusnet phone customer actually has far more need to call UK mobiles from their Plusnet landline than they do to call overseas fixed landlines, Well just as thought anyway..............

Thanks once again Bob for commenting on and clarifying this issue for both myself and other interested customers or potential customers. Does this mean you have also now taken over from Matt Taylor as Plusnet's Company Representative on the MSE forums or does Plusnet's Representative on the forum perhaps vary according to the question being raised and the urgency of the need for an official corporate response?

Plusnet_company_representative

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I'm happy to hear that my relative will have the freedom to continue using 1899 when they become a Plusnet phone and broadband customer although as a thought perhaps Plusnet ought to try and do rather more to encourage customers to take an Anytime calls bundle by also including a certain number of minutes per month to mobiles.

Whilst not pro-actively sold, our sales department are able to offer a package that features inclusive mobile minutes. The exact details escape me though so you would need to give them a call for further info.

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Thanks once again Bob for commenting on and clarifying this issue for both myself and other interested customers or potential customers. Does this mean you have also now taken over from Matt Taylor as Plusnet's Company Representative on the MSE forums or does Plusnet's Representative on the forum perhaps vary according to the question being raised and the urgency of the need for an official corporate response?

Matt tends to frequent these parts more than most however a few of us have the authority to post. To be honest I'd rather we all had our own accounts but unfortunately this is frowned upon by the mods and not in accordance with forum policy.

Best regards,

Bob Pullen

System

Plusnet_company_representative wrote: »

It seems very odd TBH because our suppliers route call data records directly to the CPS carrier when one of these calls is made. Theoretically we shouldn't even know about the call.

Bob Pullen

Er, surely Plusnet is entitled to know about the call, because Plusnet can (and presumably does?) bill Finarea for an "Originating Charge" (presumably per minute?) agreed between Plusnet and Finarea. However Plusnet does not need to know, and possibly does not know, what number the call terminates on. (Though possibly some operator is required to keep a record of this, in case the police have good reason to ask for the information?)

Just to be pedantic, Finarea is an Indirect Access Provider, not a Carrier Preselect Service.

Plusnet_company_representative

We're not a transit provider. The service we supply is effectively a resold BT Wholesale product and it's Wholesale who manage the billing etc. They only pass us the records we need to know about, which in the situation being discussed here amounts to nothing.

YoungNick wrote: »

Just to be pedantic, Finarea is an Indirect Access Provider, not a Carrier Preselect Service.

Appreciate the correction.

Best regards,

Bob Pullen

NonGeographicalMan

Plusnet_company_representative wrote: »

The service we supply is effectively a resold BT Wholesale product and it's Wholesale who manage the billing etc. They only pass us the records we need to know about, which in the situation being discussed here amounts to nothing.

If so its very hard to imagine how the original scenario described by the OP in this thread of also being billed for these calls by Plusnet ever came about.

Plusnet_company_representative

True. Given the date of the OP and the lack of noise since, I don't think we're going to find out either

Regards,

Bob Pullen

amorphix

neon013 wrote: »

Registered with 18185 and receive the messages 0p per minute etc so presumably its working with a pre-dial of 18185 provided from my phones handset (my Dectsys phone allows 6 digits).

My problem is that I just received my bill from plusnet and 18185 and they are now BOTH billing me for the same calls - 18185 at reduced rate and plusnet at 12.5p connection and 12.5p for first minute. Therefore I have lots of call from plusnet at 25p per minute plus the 18185 charges.

On contacting plusnet support the best answer I can get is to try using the 0808 1 703 703 as a pre-dial.

I had assumed (perhaps wrongly) that as plusnet used a BT line AND the calls went through correctly that the 18185 prefix was working.

My question is therefore:-
Q1/ Has anyone got 18185 working with plusnet (and not been billed twice) and if so how?

If I am forced to use the 0808 1 703 703 prefix (which will not be possible to program in with my current phone) my second question is:-

Q2/ Does anyone know of a phone (preferably DECT) that can predial a long number or a dialer/PABX which will do the same job?

Thanks in advance..

12 months ago I was with Primus Saver (when they did the annual line rental saver for £120) and I used 18185 prefix and got free UK landline calls all the time, no probs.

I switched to Sky Talk & Broadband (under duress, big mistake!) and they actively block the 18185 prefix with a "busy/engaged" tone (but denied doing it, yet 18185 confirmed it was Sky.. They also CHARGED for all calls to the freephone 0808 number offered by 18185, despite Sky Talk's T&C stating clearly it's a free phone number. One of my calls was £9! and I only managed to get it struck off the bill by bringing OfCom onto them.

Anyway, I digress, back to Primus Saver and the original question.. I have just managed to wrestle my line back from Sky Talk and switched back to Primus Saver for their phone and unlimited broadband package (they no longer offer the annual saver phone service, you have to pay monthly).

My new line/number was activated by Primus today and to my dismay I discovered that Primus/Newcall now blocks the 18185 prefix. If you dial any number with the prefix in front, you get a "number unattainable" message from Primus. This despite TWO assures by Primus Newcall before I moved back two weeks ago, that they still allowed the 18185 prefix to be used. It really annoys me how dishonest Telecom companies are or simply incompetent when it comes to advising customers on their billing policies. You ask a question, and expect to get an honest, straightforward answer right?

To make matters worse, 18185 have now started charging for calls to UK landlines from a UK landline via the 0808 number, at 1p a minute. I'm pretty sure these calls used to be free before.

All in all not good. I wish I'd gone with BT now and just paid the £58 re-connection fee (thanks to Sky Talk for removing my line off the BT exchange without even asking or telling me).

Summary: If you want to use 18185 to get free unlimited daytime calls to UK landlines go with BT. Even though their line rental is £20 more a year than Primus, and you may have to pay a one-off activation fee (£40+VAT).. I'm 100% sure BT definitely does not block 18185 and so you'll have much smaller bills if you call a lot at peak rate, than you will with Primus.

I'm now trying to get out of my contract with Primus and switch to BT with OfCom/Independent Ombudsman assistance due to Primus giving misinformation about 18185.

Paul

P.S. It might be a good idea for someone to setup a sticky thread on here, or even a separate website that lists all telecom companies and whether they block 18185 and/or charge for their 0808 number since there's many now with misleading/confusing billing practices. The only reliable way is to get users of the telecom companies themselves to post their reports.

jem16

amorphix wrote: »

because BT does not block 18185 and so you'll have anytime of the day unlimited free calls and much smaller bills if you call a lot at peak rate.

That may be true for now but as from next year BT no longer has to provide access to the likes of 18185 and you may find that they start blocking calls too.