Avoid Primus/Newcall

flossy_splodge

StevieJ wrote: »

I will be signing up with Primus next month when my BT contract comes to an end, £6.29 a month seems too good to refuse.

Really?
Well if even after all the above posts you still go ahead you will only have yourself to blame.
I have been with Primus years and only since they 'became' New CaLL' has there been rudeness, garbage service and sheer incompetence.
I am now switching back to BT and will happily deal with THEIR errors in preference to primus who most certainly do not honour agreements and simply don't care.
Bye bye primus. A real shame after years of no problems. Who ever New Call are they should be shot.:mad:

spike7451

I had much the same sort of problem with them but the direct debits in my case,did not fail,they didn't get paid because they had set up them incorrectly & were not showing up on my bank,despite me confirming the details by phone & in writing on more than two occasions.
When they cut my line off because of this,I could not even dial their free 0800 accounts dept number.
When the amount was paid they didn't deduct it from the following months bill so they took that months PLUS the month that I had already paid! This happened a couple times because of their inability to set up a simple direct debit with my bank.They also passed this 'debt' onto Scotcall & despite it being paid,are still contacting me over money I don't owe,the last call I got from them,their 'operator' was quite arrogant & abusive on the phone & that I told him to 'foxtrot oscar' & hung up!
I've now switched to O2 for my phone (already got my BBand from O2) & so far very happy.

flossy_splodge

Still in the process of switching away from Primus.
If I had any doubt about the wisdom of doing so it was re-inforced this week when they sent me a text asking me to call them.
When I finally got through (took forevvvvverrr) they said my bill was unpaid.
I explained that it was not, I had received confirmation from my bank that the payment was in their account on the right day.
He basically said they only update their system once a week and so it could take a week to register my payment.
When I pointed out this was the fault of a lousy system he hung up.
Their call centre staff are SO rude.:(

drhunter

I've just had my first bill for Primus. After clicking through a couple of the different viewing options on their website I found the part detailing the charges.

I have been charged for a few days of Caller ID, probably the tail end of my BT contract ad have also been charged in advance for June's line rental.

I'll be keeping a close eye on their bills to make sure that I don't get over charged.


My previous employer was a small IT company who started providing telephone packages in a setup that seems similar to Primus.

They buy a bundle of minutes from a larger supplier (who buys in larger quantities from BT wholesale).

The provider also provides billing and the website template with their own logo, name, contact details etc.

My ex employer would simply answer any customer queries and immediately cut off anyone who didn't pay on time.

The staff knew very little about telecoms part from billing systems.

Let's just hope that I don't have any problems with them.
I moved from BT as I only need a fixed line for my broadband and make perhaps one or two calls per month on it - for half the price of BT I'll take my chance!

FlexDream

I am with Primus phone and broadband. I have had one big problem, but that now seems fixed. I signed up for unlimited broadband but they put me down for capped, and I got stung with a charge of £170 one month! When I showed them my order email they accepted they were at fault and have credited my account. So hopefully all seems ok now.
So, while I think their metered accounts are scary and you have no way of checking, monitoring or limiting claimed usage, I think the unlimited account is good value.
I certainly haven't found them rude or unhelpful and I've had no difficulty getting through to customer services on the phone.

StevieJ

I am due to start with Primus tomorrow, when do they bill you? straight away in advance?

flossy_splodge

Move away from Primus now complete.
I am now a happy bunny.
ALL their recent bills have been wrong!:o

greenslade2112

On Sunday 8th july i completed online registration and direct debit to PRIMUS for phone/broadband .
have had NO EMAIL reply? to 3 EMAILS got through on phone they said their system had gone down so couldnt help me? ,but would call me back on same day NO CALLS RECEIVED i have emailed them again telling them to cancel order and disregard my bank details,,,, still NO EMAILS or CALLS from them???

badgerhawkins

i thought that i would ad my twopeneth to this.

although primus do take a long time to answer the phones, which i must admit is annoying, up until now i have had no problems with them.......
i then got a bill for over £40 which is twice what is usual, there is nothing shown on their bill, just £2.19 phone calls plus line rental. (why this is not shown on the bill is a little confusing too). i emailed them 3 times, with no answer, so, i phoned and after about 20 minutes they answered. they told me i have gone over my 40gig limit, this seems strange, as before i left my previous supplier, i asked how much i used. they told me around 20 gig very occasionally going slightly over. i therefore though that 40gig would be plenty. primus are now saying i am using over 50gigs a month and i am already used over 40gig this month and we only on the july 11th! this i cannot believe, if anything i am using less. is there anyway i can check my usage? because something is not right. i was told that i could increase my usage, but that would sign me into a new contract, not sure if i want this, another 18 months of not knowing what i am going to be charged is not good for me, so refused.

has anybody else had any similar problems?

[Deleted User]

As a lot of people have observed, these companies are great at getting our money but they don't want to know about problems. Once you sign up they keep taking your money no matter what you do. BT wasn't much better. Until today the phone service was good but now there is a line fault contacting them is a nightmare. Of course the phone doesn't work so I have to use my mobile- still waiting after 20 minutes. Hung up. Sent an email. Apparently they only have a fault fixing service in office hours!!! So what happens if you need your Community Care Alarm phone as my mother does. This passage about letters of complaint from their Customer documents should be a warning:

You can expect a response within 7 working days from us receiving your letter but please note that delays may occur due to the postal service, both in our receipt of your correspondence and our response to it.

Oh yeah. Right. I'll post the result if I ever manage to speak to someone tomorrow.

Private Enterprise does it best you know. Yeah, right. Except nobody is identifiable or accountable in the private sector. They can do exactly what they want and get away with it - like all the banking fraudsters. It's not right.

PS Apropos broadband - no problems ever with Be broadband after 5 years tho of course that may also be down to luck.