Post Office Home Phone Plan Changes

user_001

Heads-up, I received a letter from Post Office yesterday 'explaining' changes to my Phone and Broadband package costs. The call rates have changed (up by 1p/min) but reading closely, they are also activating VoiceMail as standard on everyone's account, and charging an extra £1.50/month for this service.

Reading the fine-print, there is a telephone number to call in order to opt-out of the new VoiceMail service (and avoid the £1.50/month charge). The telephone number is an automated service that asks you to enter your telephone number and the numeric digits from your postcode. This was easy enough for me but for others I am sure will have trouble and start incurring the extra charges.

Ian011

For most people, the price increase in the per-minute rated call charges should be irrelevant.

The normal way we pay for calls these days is through an inclusive calls allowance. This should cover calls to landline numbers starting 01 and 02, non-geographic numbers starting 03 and mobile numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079. Most people have an "unlimited anytime" package such that calls of up to 60 minutes (70 minutes with some providers) duration incur no charges.

There should be no need to call numbers starting 084 or 087 as usage of these numbers is now banned for most purposes.

Most people also never call premium rate numbers starting 09 and most also avoid calling directory enquiries numbers starting 118.

Charging £1.50 per month for voicemail sounds like a way to recover revenue lost when Ofcom banned charges for caller line identity information display. This took effect on 1 October 2018.

poppasmurf_bewdley

user_001 wrote: »

Heads-up, I received a letter from Post Office yesterday 'explaining' changes to my Phone and Broadband package costs. The call rates have changed (up by 1p/min) but reading closely, they are also activating VoiceMail as standard on everyone's account, and charging an extra £1.50/month for this service.

Reading the fine-print, there is a telephone number to call in order to opt-out of the new VoiceMail service (and avoid the £1.50/month charge). The telephone number is an automated service that asks you to enter your telephone number and the numeric digits from your postcode. This was easy enough for me but for others I am sure will have trouble and start incurring the extra charges.

It's about time nasty moves such as this were stopped by Ofcom. It should always be an 'opt-in' system, not an opt-out.

AndyPK

Thanks for your post to highlight the issue.


Worse than BT, when they got ppl to sign up when free, and then later stated they would charge those that had signed up in the future