Telecom + - How Good?

rusty6pack

Hello,

I did try a search for some answers on this but didn't come up with anything.

I am thinking of signing up for telecom Plus (Landline)telephone service.

Are they savings to be made? ???

TIA

Rusty

gt94sss2

Instead of joining Telecom Plus, you will save a lot more money than if you use/join:

1. the TalkTalk special Talk1+ tariff for free evening and weekend landline calls (all free for a year + you get £10 to join if you are referred - see my signature)

2. Use 18866 for 1p/call to UK landlines during the day and to call mobiles at weekends

3. use 1899 to call mobiles during the week.

18866 - https://www.18866.com
1899 - https://www.1899.com

If you do join TalkTalk, prefix any 0845/0870 calls with '1280' as that means they will be routed over BT (who is cheaper for these calls than TalkTalk)

Hope that helps

Regards
Sunil

hansi

Hello,

I did try a search for some answers on this but didn't come up with anything.

I am thinking of signing up for telecom Plus (Landline)telephone service.

Are they savings to be made?  ???

TIA

Rusty

yes there are, I use TP+ phone service and it's very cheap

Smartasss

There are catches with the T+ service - there is a minimum charge of £1 each month as well as a compulsory membership charge of £1.76 each month.

They cannot compare price-wise with the suggestion from gt94sss2 above.

Their Ts + Cs are "unusual", and customers have reported problems with them storing credit card numbers. (They ask for a credit card to be used before setting up a direct debit - should you wish to dispute a bill, and stop the direct debit whilst the dispute is settled, they seemingly just use the credit card details which they have kept to get the money).

Look for the threads "Telecom Plus Exposed" and "Telecom Plus poorer and poorer" in the gas/electricity forum for more insight into this company.

hansi

Smartass, you are right on some points, but they didn't ask me for a credit card at any time, and I'm sure you will agree that most people spend at least £1 per month on telephone calls!

Smartasss

Hi Hansi

they didn't ask me for a credit card at any time

Interesting!

You cannot sign up on-line with T+ without giving either a credit card or a debit card AND a direct debit instruction.

The Telecom+ Ts + Cs say:

If we have not received a payment by the due date, a late payment charge of 1% of the balance outstanding on your account will be added to your next monthly bill or statement. We may also collect overdue payments from any debit or credit card whose details you have provided to us.

When this aspect of T+ business practice was discussed in page 2 of the Telecom+ poorer &  poorer thread (in which you complained about them taking money from your bank account without giving you proper notice), you posted this about the credit card problem being experienced by another poster:

ah yes, but Hansi hasn't registered any credit cards with thembecause of exactly that!

This seems a slightly different angle to this problem than your post here!

The minimum monthly charge for T+ telephone service with the membership fee is £2.76, not £1!

You can make a 276 peak time calls via 18866 a month for that (9 every day!) - and all your evening calls will be free for a year if you sign up for talk talk.

You can't make any possible argument in favour of T+ in the light of those figures!

T+ won't even let you sign up with them for their telephone service until you pay them £10 in advance! (i.e. the equivalent of a thousand 18866 phone calls!)

T+ have other downsides - too many to start off on again here, (unless you want to, Hansi), but all discussed in other threads on this Board.

lisyloo

I'm sure you will agree that most people spend at least £1 per month on telephone calls!

Perhaps most people do, but I'm one person that doesn't

rusty6pack

Hi There,

Thanks for the replies. I was actually going to sign up fot the Gas and Elec until I read the threads relating.

Smartass - I read the threads in the G&E section where you make lots of contributions over the billing fiascos. Is this not the case of a newish company expanding rapidly and their back office not being able to cope or do you think all the mucking around is more deliberate?

And in case you are wondering, I am not a T+ distributor in disguise.

TIA

Rusty

Smartasss

Hi Rusty

The billing problems can't just be put down to them being new - they've been around since 1996.

(In fact one thing they seem definitely efficient at is collecting money from their customers!)

There are other issues with T+, which I'm sure you will have come across being discussed in the Gas/Electricity forum.

A major concern is their misleading advertising regarding being the cheapest supplier.

They ASA has agreed their advertising is misleading, but they take no notice of them, and continue to make the same misleading claims. (It seems the ASA is powerless to act over false advertising on the internet).

And they make their customers agree that they can increase their prices without giving them any prior warning.

They did this recently (1/10/04), but some of their customers (including Hansi!) only found out about the increase by reading about it on this Board!

Consequently some of the price comparison sites still have their "old" tariffs in their databases, so look out for that if you are considering changing gas or electricity.
At least you have had the opportunity to learn some more about them from the forums here before making your decision!

Hopefully you now know more about this company from the forums and will make your decision with a better insight into T+!