AlphaTeleSCUM

spl0dge_2

I signed up to this portugese company in the hope of cheap international calls. "Alpha Telecom".

I used it for the first few weeks, indeed 2-3 pence a minute to call mainland europe. I put in £25. It seemed good.

5.5 months later, I had forgotten about it.
small print says "make no calls in 6 months then your account expires"
sucker rings me up "we're willing to give you a special offer, pay £20 now and get £30 worth of calls (£10 free)", he knew full well that my account was about to expire (so they were hoping to screw me out of £20 more).
I turned it down, sounded fishy.

3 weeks later. I tried to make a call. I found out my account had been shutdown, all money had been lost.


In all I made about 5 minutes of calls, it cost me £25.
Instead of 3p a minute, it ended up costing £5 a minute.

thieving scumbags.
avoid like the plague. They are doing this to people all throughout Europe.

Losing £25 quid is bad enough, but the scumbags ringing me up just before they know my contract is about to expire asking me to put even more money in - that is the pits. basts.

BFG_2

Without sounding sarcastic, if you could afford to have the £25 sitting in their account for six months without using it then you're not really going to miss it now?

A lot of companies close 'dormant accts' after a period of time.

Stonk

BFG, you do sound sarcastic.

It may be in the T&C's, but it counts as jolly poor play in my book. Basic good manners would be to try and contact the account-holder before closing down their account - especially since they were on the phone anyway.

BFG_2

I'll try again - just pretend you have the £25 credit still in your account; you've used 15p worth of the credit. If you were to continue to use it at this rate it would take you about 75 yrs to use it up.

Xbigman

If you knew that the account was about to expire when they called to make you the offer, why didn't you just make a 1 minute international call to keep it alive?
Regards




X

spl0dge_2

Xbigman, how stupid are you? of course, I didn't know they were going to shut it down. duuhhhh.

BFG, I don't know when I'm going to make international calls. I guess you're more stupid than Xbigman, closing dormants accounts is a scam. Yes, they all do it, OK. that makes it right then. yeah right!!!!! assshole.

I've just started to use vartec/talktalk instead, no initial charges, pay as you go, much better.

Alpha Telecom - bog off , take BFG (t) with you.

BFG_2

Splodge, pls put down your handbag and step away from the keyboard.

If I've offended you, I heartily apologise.

I agree it's a bit rough to close your account without telling you.

Have you considered writing and asking for your money back?
Have you considered writing and asking them to re-instate your account and the credit?
Have you considered suing them in small claims court?


ps..some people (inc board mods) might find your reply above doesn't quite come within the guidelines for MSE'rs; could I respectfully suggest that you have a quick look at them sometime?

spl0dge_2

you didn't offend me. I expect replies like yours.

anyway, your hambag is bigger than mine.

Alpha Telecom probably make £10 million per year (at the very least) by doing what they did to me and to thousands of other people throughout Europe.

There's probably somebody smoking a big fat cigar in Portugal right now (thinking yeah - this is so easy money).

Am I bitter, yes. very. but like everybody else I've got other things - more important things to think about. so they get away with it.

viktory

Splodge

You are very rude and it is totally unnecessary. Your inital post was not clear, hence the comments made by XBigman and BFG.

There is no need for swearing.

Might I suggest that next time you sign up for something you read the small print??

Vicky

asharon

Try writing to them and seeing what they say.

spl0dge_2

asharon, I will write to them, I'll see what they say.

viktory, yeah right, so I guess you are trying to tell me that you read the small print for every single item you buy. well done, you are the only human being on the planet that does. You must spend your whole life reading small print.

Would I come on here and create this post if I already knew they were going to cut me off. (no).

This post is not about me. It's about Alpha. I'm just making people aware of their dirty tricks. I don't buy the line that - "They are all doing it, so it's OK, then". That is rubbish. People should stop thinking like that.