Avoid Primus/Newcall

[Deleted User]

I couldn't get through at all yesterday - this morning took 5 minutes, fault reported to BT but no confirmation 5 hours later so I phoned again - 17 minutes on my mobile. Told that BT gave 3 days to fix the line. Primus have no system in place for keeping customers informed. So now I have to wait 3 days to see if anything happens. Probably will if BT have said so.

I still haven't received a reply to my email.

Its just as bad via BT - you wait forever trying to get through and then you get through to a call centre in India. Last time I had a line fault BT would text and keep me informed. Maybe that has changed. Or its because I am not a direct customer.

Maybe its the same in other countries but in Britain nothing seems to change for the better for the customer. The problem is at voting time people seem to have amnesia about all the problems they have in their daily lives and never challenge their MPs or Councillors.

Pumpkin65

Hi

I have had exactly same problem, my bill this month is£90!!! I can't get into my online account to view the bill, i cant get through to customer services so I've emailed them, but judging by previous comments I'm not holding my breath.

Wanton

I've been with Primus for quite a while now (maybe a few years) and have never had a problem with them, until now.

They seem to have increased my monthly line rental from £9.71 plus VAT a month to £15.97 plus vat a month, I haven't been told this by them, the only communication was from them calling me and telling me the prices are changing and I had two options, to increase my line rental (which includes a host of free calls, etc) or reduce it to £7.99 a month but this didn't include calls. As I only have the line so that I can have broadband I chose the £7.99 option, as I say this was the only communication and I didn't even go through security when they called me they just asked for Mr S.

I think the person also said this was a 12 month contract, which I was OK with as £7.99 is good value. Now we've had the bill and it's a lot more than they said I'm a bit worried that we're tied in to nearly £20 a month on a 12 month contract, when this is not what I accepted.

Even though I didn't get asked any security questions and the price is a lot more than what was agreed will it be my word against there's, or do they have to prove I agreed to a 12 month contract?

I've only just seen the bill so can't call them as their offices are shut now, but will be calling tomorrow.

John_Auld

I have pursued my complaint through their ombudsman I have now received a letter frrom Ombudsman Services "at present we are experiencing problems with this company "
Deal with Primus at your own risk before Newcall took over they were fine Newcall are I am afraid devoid of customer service

ALAN_BARNES

One word...don't !
Last month i made the mistake of trying to switch my telephone line provider from talk-talk to primus .
Since the initial set-up through home phone choices,i have had my phone disconnected from talk-talk, and primus has totally failed to connect me.i am without a land line now since the 1st of sept, and i am having to use my mobile phone for everything now which is costing a fortune as i work from home being self employed.
I have jumped through all of the hoops of course,and to date have had absolutely no response from primus at all!
I have even contacted ofcom and the ombudsman,but without ant helpful advise or assistance.in fact the latter said that i would have to wait 8 weeks before they would even loo into the matter !!! I think that ofcom are more interested in nuisance calls and bad tv adverts than real problems with the [many] telecoms companies performances etc.
I have even contacted the original company/website "home phone choices",who have twice promised to investigate[or at least get a response from primus], but without response so far.
Even bt ,who i have contacted with a view to changing over to them instead of continuing wasting my time with primus,advised that i should continue trying to resolve the problem with primus first.
I fear that i will be forced to take up a new line provider with all of the attached costs,and also having to accept a new phone number [great for any business !!!].but even bt would take up to one month to reconnect as they said that they would have to send out an engineer to reconnect me ?!?
I could rabbit on and on in detail with what has happened,but this would take too long...any ideas anybody ?

Heinz

The problem probably relates to your Talk Talk connection being to their LLU equipment and, therefore, the need for someone to physically move the line back to the BT equipment (or Primus's, if they have their own).

BT Openreach have to do that work and the new provider has to pay. That probably accounts for the delay (none of the 'new' providers likes having to pay money out).

ALAN_BARNES

Thank you for the info Heinz.I have still not heard anything from anyone up-to-date,so I think that I will start the process off with Ofcom etc ,although I am not expecting anything useful from them.The line to my home from the exchange has been here for years and is in the middle of the countryside,so I doubt if T-Talk have a special connection anyway.When I contacted BT about transferring over to them instead of Primus,they said that if they were to re-connect me ,it would cost £130 and that I would have to wait about a month anyway!
In fairness to the guy at BT,he did suggest that I should try everything to get Primus to connect me and also that I should seek compensation for having to use my mobile at least.However,this is great in theory ,but not much use if Primus are not answering my E-mails.
I find it absolutely absurd that a company can behave like this at all,especially as they have the responsibility of supplying telephone communications.I do not understand what OFCOM are doing [or not doing] here as I thought that they were supposed to be the regulators.I am afraid that any Tom !!!!!! or Harry can set themselves up in business in this country these days and do as they like ,especially if it involves making lots of money out of idiots like myself...move along the trough please Mr Cameron,and make some room for more free-loaders !!!!!

bendipa

I know you are new here. But if you had read up many of the threads on Primus before jumping in, you would have realised that if you don't already have a BT line when you transfer to Primus then you are going to be messed around what seems like forever to get one installed. I was fortunate that I transferred from BT 18 months ago and so far things have progressed without a hitch (touch wood). Mind you. Primus just increased my line rental by a whopping 15%, but it's still much cheaper than what BT will be charging next January, so I'm still happy to continue.

If you contact Primus again make sure you know the name of the person you are speaking to, the date and time of the call and what was discussed. And insist that they email you to confirm any terms'conditions discussed Give them a time limit to do that and get back to them if they fail tot comply .As for Ofcom, complaining to them is usually a waste of time and equally frustrating.

ALAN_BARNES

THANKS FOR THE INFO.
UNFORTUNATELY WHEN I RAN INTO THESE PROBLEMS WITH PRIMUS,I WAS NOT AWARE OF THIS WEB SITE FORUM,AND ONLY FOUND OUT ABOUT IT WHEN I WAS LOOKING INTO ALTERNATIVE SUPPLIERS FOR MY TELEPHONE LINE.
iT IS ALL WELL AND GOOD SAYING THAT I SHOULD KEEP RECORDS WHEN I CONTACT PRIMUS AND TO INSIST THAT THEY RESPOND WITH EMAILS ETC ETC.HOWEVER ,IN REALITY, THEY STILL HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO ANY OF MINE ,AND ALSO HAVE NOT EVEN RESPONDED WHEN "HOME PHONE CHOICES" ASKED THEM TO ON MY BEHALF !!
I WAS TOLD YESTERDAY BY HOME-PHONE-CHOICES THAT PRIMUS WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CONNECT ME ANYWAY AS THE LINE WAS PREVIOUSLY CONNECTED BY TALK TALK ,AND ALSO THAT THEY CLAIM TO HAVE TOLD ME THIS WHEN I FIRST CONTACTED THEM!!!
IT IS QUITE BREATHTAKING HOW THIS "COMPANY" IS BEHAVING.THEY MUST THINK THAT I AM A RETARD OR SIMILAR TO HAVE EVEN COUNTENANCED SUCH A CONDITION AT ALL.THEY HAVE SIMPLY LIED.
I BELIEVE THAT THE REASON THAT THEY HAVE NOT RESPONDED TO ANY OF MY EMAILS IS QUIT SIMPLE.THEY DO NOT WANT ANY WRITTEN EVIDENCE E OF THEIR STATEMENTS ETC WHICH COULD BE USED AS EVIDENCE/PROOF OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT I STILL DO NOT HAVE A TELEPHONE LINE ,AND THAT'S ALL THAT I AM INTERESTED IN...WHAT A SORRY STATE THIS ONCE GREAT COUNTRY HAS ALLOWED IT'SELF TO GET INTO, WHEN EVEN THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM IS LEFT TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR...WELL DONE THATCHER AND CHUMS AND HURRA FOR THE FREE MARKET FORCES !!!!!!!!!

flossy_splodge

A quick update.... Got my final bill from Primus and guess what? It shows I am in credit to the tune of over a fiver.
I had argument after argument with them when switching away and back to BT as they said I owed money and I knew I didn't. However I sent a one off payment because I did not want them to be able to block my leaving them.
So now I am trying to phone them to get my money back and each time I ring 0800 036 3839 (the number on their paperwork and on their website) the line rings once then is disconnected!
Their quality of service just knows no bounds does it.
Use Primus/New Call at your own risk!