Cheapest way of diverting calls to mobile

macman

I very much doubt if more than a tiny number of people source suppliers through the printed version of Yellow Pages these days, unless your target market is an elderly age group who don't have internet access.
YP as a physical product is on it's last legs now, even assuming that Hibu can stay afloat for much longer in their sea of debt. Their only solution seems to be another ludicrous rebranding.
Most people will use an online directory, or just Google it.

RebTech

macman wrote: »

Most people will use an online directory, or just Google it.

What they're looking for in this case is a computer repair service. OK, so smartphones and second computers are becoming quite common, but you'd be surprised by the number of people who, when I ask where they got my number, still say Yellow Pages or Thomson's or the local ad rag... (and yes, many of them are seniors)

RebTech

Quick update on this: I decided to stay with Plusnet for the landline and got a year's line rental in advance just before the price went up. However, just this morning, I've found a business landline deal that includes 100 free mobile minutes a month and with line rental costs £19.99. So it's too late for me this year but might help somebody else. The company is called Daisy and they're doing a deal with Infoserve (not that I enjoy dealing with them for advertising) that throws in a year's broadband.

I've resolved just to use call diversion to the mobile more carefully in the short term, and put the mobile number on my ads in the longer term. The freephone->mobile option is a complication too far, as well as taking a year or more to pay for itself. I can cut my landline->mobile bill generally by using the mobile instead to call mobiles, because I usually don't use up my free minutes. Obvious, you might say, but I'm happier at saving the money now than ashamed at not having done it before.

Stuart_W

RebTech wrote: »

This looks quite good, the only thing giving me pause for thought is that the cheapest 0800 number seems to be £50. Plusnet has a setup charge of 12.5p, plus 12.5p per min or part thereof, so the cheapest call is 25p, and these calls do tend to be shortish. If they were all 1 min or less it would take 5000/25-7 = 278 calls to reach break even point.

Roughly speaking, that amounts to one call every working day for a year. Not an enormous saving but worth it assuming I expect to being using it for a few years, which I do. And the 0800 number could be advertised alongside the local one. Thanks very much for this suggestion.

But one uncertainty: on the Plusnet website they say diversion can be to any mobile or landline number, but I don't know whether that should be taken to include non-geographics. I'll ask them and report back.

Well I can't speak for plusnet, but in the case of BT call diversion to an 0800 number didn't add ANY call charges in the past - call connection fees and per minute charges don't apply to FREE calls, and 0800 numbers are FREE. The only cost on the BT bill was the monthly subscription fee to the call divert service. I used todivert a landline to 0800 quite a lot in the past.

I would be surprised to learn if plusnet charge differently.

Double check what the 0800 route would cost - I think you are only looking at the £50 one-off set up cost, 7p per minute (per second prepay charging) and the plusnet monthly call diversion subscription fee. It could be that plusnet do not offer call diversion to 0800.

Ypaymore

If you want a landline service with a bundle that includes calls to mobiles. Orange do one http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/buy/orange_broadband_anytime_plus/?_cid=67243274

RebTech

Stuart_W wrote: »

Well I can't speak for plusnet, but in the case of BT call diversion to an 0800 number didn't add ANY call charges in the past... It could be that plusnet do not offer call diversion to 0800.

They do and it's free. I mentioned what I'm currently paying for diversion to mobile to compare that with using the 0800 number, which is how I worked out how long that would take to pay for itself.

RebTech

Ypaymore wrote: »

If you want a landline service with a bundle that includes calls to mobiles. Orange do one http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/buy/orange_broadband_anytime_plus/?_cid=67243274

Thanks but I have the same problem with that as with the one I mentioned: I just paid a year's line rental in advance to Plusnet.

RebTech

Feeling slightly stupid, it only just occurred to me, as 01/02 geographical numbers are free on my Plusnet plan I could use one of those from Flextel instead of an 0800 one, pointed at the mobile for call diversion from the landline, saving about £40 (£50 - £10) on the purchase price of the 0800 and 3p (7 - 4) each minute! That kind of saving easily justifies a little extra complexity!