Buzzcard -- Anyone used it

RadioactiveFrog

andy88 wrote:

Mobiles

whether they are blocked by mobile networks that recognise them as calling cards that they receive no revenue from.

I first asked this of you 19 days ago, but you answered about Orange UK, and even now still appear to either not know the answer or try to belittle the question.

I realise that on a per country basis, some networks block more of these than others eg in Netherlands KPN blocks more than Orange

Callboxes

Also in Netherlands, even some callboxes block access, and the country has higher callbox tariffs than most, which makes me wonder about your claimed 9.5p flat rate everywhere.

Some calling card firms do respond to enquiries more promptly than your 2 weeks with clear detail of their charges, and 3 emails from one company yesterday tell me that their callbox surcharge tariffs vary from €0.10 France through €0.26 Belgium to €0.49 Netherlands, again rather at odds with your flat rate 25p profiteering on 9p accusation - 2 are cheaper.


edit - ok, perhaps I am overdoing things about Netherlands - clearly one of the cheapest mobile ways to phone UK from there is using Lebara Mobile, which charges €0.12 per minute for many countries landlines - unless it is possible to use their SIM with Buzzcard's 0800 number for less, of course
http://www.lebara-mobile.nl/engels/home.htm

Andy88,

As my answers do not seem to be fully satisfying your questions regarding Buzzcard can i refer you to our dedicated customer service team who will be more than happy to help you with any further queries that you may have including the quoted post above. I have refered them to your posts here but you will need to contact them so that they may communicate with you via email.

With regards to your most recent post existing customers benefit from a service that informs them of their card's balance before proceeding with the call.

Kind Regards,

Graham Martin
Buzzcard.co.uk

coolsteel

RadioactiveFrog wrote:

Hello Coolsteel,

Firstly we display our costs without VAT as this is the standard method for calling card companies to display the rates and minutes per card.

Our rates page shows the rate that we charge you to make a call to the relevent destination. The 9.5ppm charge by the phonebox company is not our charge, it is the callbox companies charge and you pay it through your buzzcard. Even using a Buzzcard through a callbox with their charge it is still very cheap to call home when on holiday! But to save even more avoid paying the callbox charge and find a hotel phone or a landline that does not have such surcharge!!

Maybe we could look at introducing a call calculator so people can work it out for each destination!! I will discuss it with the team.


Kind Regards,

Graham

Graham me as a consumer am not really interested who puts what charge on the card, all im interested in is what it ACTUALLY costs me per minute, to say and i quote you, "Firstly we display our costs without VAT as this is the standard method for calling card companies to display the rates and minutes per card", this in fact doesnt make it right because other card companies do it, ok if you state the price with all the extra's on, your product wont look as impressive, but take a lead give true prices in tables with VAT & surcharge and get your company a good name.
Coolsteel :cool:

RadioactiveFrog

coolsteel wrote:

Graham me as a consumer am not really interested who puts what charge on the card, all im interested in is what it ACTUALLY costs me per minute, to say and i quote you, "Firstly we display our costs without VAT as this is the standard method for calling card companies to display the rates and minutes per card", this in fact doesnt make it right because other card companies do it, ok if you state the price with all the extra's on, your product wont look as impressive, but take a lead give true prices in tables with VAT & surcharge and get your company a good name.
Coolsteel :cool:

Coolsteel, i appreciate your comments i wil take them to the Buzzcard team for discussion.

The reason we do as others is not because we feel obliged to do what others do nor because we think it is right because they do it, but because we feel that we should make it easy for consumers to make the comparison between us and others.

As i have said i will take your comments and suggestions and we will look at the possibility of providing an alternative rates table.

Many Thanks,

Graham

andy88_2

If you have asked your customer services these questions and been unable to answer them, what difference will my email address make?

You have publicly promised to investigate and elaborate here on my comments on the differences in rates from different countries' callboxes and people that are interested in the product should not be deprived of the results by you now wishing to do this privately.

In addition it is permissible to enquire in public about blocking by other networks.

These two points apply to all calling cards, as detailed in general in my post #2 on this thread.


I have not seen another calling card company state VAT in the manner you describe; most have the inclusive price (sometimes with a footnote that says so) eg €5 buys 333 minutes at €0.015 (Belgium to UK)

RadioactiveFrog

Dear Andy,

there are many demands on my time and although I personally value input I have to refer questions to our customer services team who can respond appropriately and also then update our FAQ page. I am keen not to dissapoint other enquirers from other sources and have asked our customer services team to look after you. This particular thread was not originally started by Buzzcard, and although it may prove useful I do have other business committments that weigh heavily on my personal time.

Our customer services manager, David Burns and his team, is really excellent and has numerous commendations from Buzzcard users. Please do make use of his time as he is there to help.

Thanks,

Graham

andy88_2

I think you are the one that lobbied Martin to be allowed to spend more time on this thread., so don't suddenly start complaining about us wasting your time by identifying the tariff queries that you have taken over two weeks to clarify.

andy88_2

andy wrote:

Other calling card firms have said that the charge from callbox operators varies per country

RadioactiveFrog wrote:

We have been told that this is not the case but if that is what you have been told then we will check it out anyway and let everyone know if anything changes. It could be that the amount they markup the charge changes per country which changes the amount but that is an assumption on my behalf.

By insisting I now discuss this privately with your colleague, have you now reneged on this undertaking to let everyone know?

xenophobe

I have been using Buzzcard to call the UK from overseas and have been reasonably happy with the service.

However, a week a go I received a mail from Buzzcard indicating that there is a new surcharge for calling the UK from overseas.
This surcharge effectively decreased the value of the card/calls by a factor of 10. So for me, this card no longer represents value for money.

Xenophobe

RadioactiveFrog

Hello Everyone,

Yes, this is absolutely correct that our telecoms provider has levied a surcharge for calls made from outside the UK and that we notified everyone as soon as we had detailed information. For some countries this is only 2p whereas others have larger amounts. This has been beyond our control but we are working very hard to have these removed. Buzzcard is still cheaper than its rival cards - the post office card levies 25p surcharges for calls originating outside the UK. We've made our rates page clearer too.

However, all is not lost. We are currently negotiating with a new carrier that will abolish overseas surcharges, open up South Africa, Turkey and Brazil and provide even lower rates. We are also looking at a callback system that will enable Buzzcard to be used in any country and provide huge savings for mobile users. Customers are top of our list and every single one is valued. That's why we notify everyone of changes and keep you informed.

If you are affected by overseas surcharges we have advised all our customers who have contacted us to hold onto their cards and use them again once we have switched carrier as card pins will be transferred over.

Please be aware that this does not affect any customer calling from within the UK - rates still remain as low as 0.5p per minute with no surcharges.

Should you have any more questions please don't hesitate to contact our dedicated customer service team

Kind Regards,

Graham

egbe

I've been on their mailing list for updates, etc. I received a reminder to buy or top-up by the end of the month for another chance to win the iPod.

It didn't mention any tariff changes, but I can see on their site now that call prices look a lot higher than I remember when signing up for the mailing list.