Has anyone considered moving from BT to onetel for their line rental? I see that they are providing this service from today. The basic rental is £9.99 per month with the extras like caller display charged at £1.50 and each additional service £1. Sounds like a god deal.
At the moment I use 18866 for nearly all my calls. I am concerned that onetel won't allow access to this once I transfer over. I've checked their terms and conditions on the website for the new service and there is no mention of this. I've 'phoned their call centre twice and couldn't get them to understand me.
Any thoughts?

Sounds as if it might be an interesting option, but one thing to remember is that One-Tel will not provide Premium number barring for some reason!

If they are offering a cheaper line rental it is probable that somewhere in the small print they exclude using other providers, as IT do?

8) 8) 8)

Take the line rental package,with the free calls to 01/02 numbers at weekend,and the free directory enquiry service. Use 18866 in the week and for mobile calls,and access 18866 on there freephone number 0808 1 701 701.Idont think onetel have barred it.

Good point about using the 0808 number.

I'm currently experimenting with using VoIP over 1899 using a Grandstream adaptor for making calls, something they surely can't bar. Would be handy to be able to use 1899 or 18866 on the landline as well though.

Question: Do line-rental firms like OneTel and IT generally make a point of barring the freephone numbers? It's only a few quid saved on line rental but there's a principle at stake here  :o

8) 8) 8)
BT and Ntl did not block access to freephone numbers that went to low call price providers.So whether new line rental companies can i dont know.Depending on your calling pattern you can always take One Tels free evening and weekend offer with ihe cheaper line rental,and if you make intl calls access 18866 from there landline no 0207 001 9797.(Note.I notice that Talk Talk are now offering free calls at weekends at no fee.So any users of Talk Talk reading this should  think about changeing to this package and use it in conjunction with118866.Talk Talk do allow you to access the 18866,and 1899 freephoneno,s.)

8) 8) 8)

Further to my last posting  1899 does also have alternative access numbers.They are

0808 170 7474 and 0207 001 9696.

But don't you pay extra to access through the 0800/0808 numbers?  I think it mentions it somewhere on their FAQ page...

And as for Onetel's line rental, I have done some calculations and found that BT is actually a few pence cheaper (shock horror :o) for my line rental (BT Option 1 + Caller ID).  

Hi there!

I am on BT with One.Tel CPS as well as using Alpha Telecom, and for a while One.Tel blocked the Alpha Telecom number 0207 4772183.  After a period of time, I phoned One.Tel and I said that a friend was trying to phone the said mentioned number, and it was blocked!   Within a minute of complaing One.Tel allowed me to use the mentioned number i.e.  0207 4772183 after that call, so be warned about using the London access telephone numbers for these Swiss based telephone companies - they can easily block them - just like that!

James Bond

This is the reply I've had from One.Tel after emailing them querying whether I would still have access to other service providers such as 18866:

Thank you for your recent e-mail.

We can confirm that One.Tel line rental works the same way as your line provider as the physical line is still owned by BT. We can also confirm that you will be able to use any prefix to route calls through a different service provider.

If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us, our E-mail Team would be happy to help. Alternatively you can visit our Virtual Customer Service Centre.

Thank you for choosing One.Tel.

Regards,

Sheetal Rohra
Senior Customer Services Adviser

Sounds good so I'm going to give it a go.

I think the point is only BT are obliged to allow subscribers to use alternate routing.

Despite what the other 'providers' might say at the moment, they have the option to enforce 'use us for your calls' T&Cs if they want.

Big problem with onetel is that customer services are in India, and they are sh1t!

It took me nearly 2 weeks and a phone call to head office demanding to speak to someone in the UK, ending up speaking to a PA for one of the directors who eventually sorted the problem out (which happened to be calls going to my 1571 service supllied by onetel got a message saying my phone number didnt exist!)

All fine if all goes well, but if not you are stuck!

Rick

wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2005 at 12:35am:

Good point about using the 0808 number. I'm currently experimenting with using VoIP over 1899 using a Grandstream adaptor for making calls, something they surely can't bar. Would be handy to be able to use 1899 or 18866 on the landline as well though.

*jase*


I'd like to ask you a big favour. Can you send me screens from your configuration of  'Grandstream' account Voip 1899.com - of course without your login and password.
I have a problem - the person I'm calling can hear me while I cannot.

my Email:  i7[MONKEY]i7i.biz

wrote on Apr 7^th, 2005 at 5:45pm:

Big problem with onetel is that customer services are in India, and they are sh1t! It took me nearly 2 weeks and a phone call to head office demanding to speak to someone in the UK, ending up speaking to a PA for one of the directors who eventually sorted the problem out (which happened to be calls going to my 1571 service supllied by onetel got a message saying my phone number didnt exist!) All fine if all goes well, but if not you are stuck! Rick

Now now, that's a bit prejudiced against them ::)

I've actually had some superb sevice from Indian call centres.  They are [usually] so much more polite and are happy to do their job because they know if they don't do it properly they'll be sacked and back, jobless, on the streets.   In Britain, the call centre staff don't have a problem with being slow, sluggish and sloppy with customer service because if sacked they simply go to the union, take legal action against the employer or failing that, get a guaranteed income on Income Support.  Then when customers complain about poor service, they whine about jobs being moved abroad.  If we British can't do it properly, someone else will.

However, after phoning Onetel's customer service line, I must admit they aren't trained properly.  Can't blame them personally - it's one of the British bigshots at the top in India trying to cost-cut.

its not about doing anything properly its about saving money and exploiting the weight of the pound against the rupee.

Yes rickuk80, I think you have got a point there. Part of the  problem is that the GBP is grossly over-valued at present relative to underlying economic realities and particularly the UK's ballooning overall trading deficit.

This makes the use of Indian labour look much cheaper than it is in reality; but there is no doubt that the Premiums from illegal NGN queueing into the call centres are also being used to subsidise the increased facility costs of using India.

Just got this reply from Onetel after asking them if we could go on the Free LeisureUKTalk for 12 months as we're existing customers but not actually using the One.Tel service, and secondly I complained about their use of an 0845 number.

We apologise as we are unable to offer you the 'Free LeisureUKTalk'. This offer was only for customer who registers new phone number's online.

Regarding the customer service number been a charged number please be aware "Most of our competitors in the marketplace use 0845 numbers as customer service numbers - by doing so, they stay competitive by charging a small fee. We want to continue providing our customers with quality phone and Internet packages at great low cost. In order to do so, we have had to look at ways of cutting our costs so that we can pass on savings and provide a real alternative to BT with excellent call plans at low prices."


If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us, our E-mail Team would be happy to help. Alternatively you can visit our Virtual Customer Service Centre.

Thank you for choosing One.Tel.

Regards,


I had a look on Moneysavingexpert.com and notice that Martin says that the free 12 months is available to existing customers.  Anyone know why this isn't the case anymore??

you will find that you are tied to their adsl service if you use it  along with there crap customer service

they do have an overseas type geographicla number, its on the contact us section on their website

[glb]Regarding the customer service number been a charged number please be aware "Most of our competitors in the marketplace use 0845 numbers as customer service numbers - by doing so, they stay competitive by charging a small fee. We want to continue providing our customers with quality phone and Internet packages at great low cost. In order to do so, we have had to look at ways of cutting our costs so that we can pass on savings and provide a real alternative to BT with excellent call plans at low prices."[/glb]

Yes, it is commonplace, but it doesn't make it right.

0845 produces hardely any income campared to 0870.  Perhaps a 2nd e-mail might be in order to ask why these numbers are not included in their free time.  They will reply back saying that it costs more to administer these calls on the grounds that the owners of the numbers receive revenue.

Other telecom companies can use freephone or geographic numbers as customer service contacts, and still remain competitive!!

8) 8)  8)
All Onetel have to do to get round this is have a geographical number for customer service,which is registered by them as a Onetel user!!! Existing users of Onetel would at least get free calls to it. Point out to them that there friends Talk Talk use a 0870 customer service no,but its registered so that existing customers can call it for free.So why cant they.I expect they get a share of the 0845 no,s revenue!!!

They don't like replying to emails either.  Took them nearly 2 weeks for that reply >:(

Is it possible to "unregister" a landline then register again via their website to get the full £20 credit??  They refuse to give me the credit or even the free 12 months of evening and weekend calls, despite Martin Lewis' Moneysavingexpert.com website saying that both these promotions are available to existing customers!!

8) 8) 8)
What Onetel Tariff are you on at the moment.There doesnt appear to be any reason why you cant add line rental to an existing tariff.However i have just noticed that on the Onetel website if you click on promotions it clearly states that existing customers can have the 12 month offer!!! You cant get the £20 as an existing customer.Point this out to Onetel. The other way round it is to go back to Bt and switch straight back to Onetel.Beware the offer ends on 30 Apr.

We are actually with TalkTalk at the moment, having switched away from Onetel almost a year ago.

However, our landline is still registered with them and therefore I'm not classed as a "new" customer.  Can't find a way to "unregister" my landline completely though... :(

8) 8) 8)
If you are with Talk Talk then your provider for calls is them as they use CPS.It is possible that when you had Onetel you accessed them by a short code or smart boxand not CPS.If this is the case and you didnt cancel the service when you changed to Talk Talk,you are still able to access Onetel by the shortcode and they will still consider you to be a dormant customer.Suggest you write to One Tel and tell them to close your a/c fortwith.Once they have done this reapply as a new customer before 30 april.

Just an update on my original post...I have been using One-Tel for just over a week now for line rental and caller display etc and have found the service excellent. Access is available to 18866 etc without any problems. I had one small problem with the voicemail service during transfer from BT, but this was resolved quickly after a call to their call centre. The only real issue I have is having to repeat things three times when calling them....but I got there in the end.

Don't want to belabour the subject, but anyone who complains about onetel's current India-based customer services cannot have been a customer when it was UK based. After taking an average of 30-45 minutes hanging on hold before you could actually speak to a human being, it was frequently a problem speaking to someone who spoke/understood english sufficiently clearly. It took me MONTHS and DOZENS of calls to sort out a problem which I was repeatedly assured was resolved. The Indian customer services people are polite, fluent english speakers, and answer your call quickly.

I'm keeping my eye open for an alternative as onetel are now my second most hated company (BT is number one).

When One.Tel first started in the UK, calls were dealt with in Australia - and customer service was excellent.

The Australian company was then bought out by Centrica (here in the UK).

Daniel

Onetel's Customer Services have never struck me as being competent >:(

From a recent call to them to try and unregister: "What you mean, Carrier Pre-Select?" >:( >:( >:(

Not only that they charge 8p at all times to call 0870 numbers!!!

I have just checked on the Onetel site and it says
0870 (non-geographic national) 3.75p 7.51p 1.50p (Off Peak, Peak, Weekend ) This applies to all their Talk UK schemes.

Ricardo. I stand corrected.The confusion arose because i went into there site and went to Landline at the top of page,then call rates,then non geographical 0870 which gave me the 8p.I now see that is for there Intl Call Plan.

You got me worried as I am with Onetel, so I thought I would check. They certainly used to charge at different rates depending on which plan you were on. Seems they have simplified things now.

Is there a minimum term for having Onetel's line rental on your line?  E.g. 12 months contract?  

Or can you just switch away to a different line rental provider when you like? ???

IMHO, the most important thing is to decide whether the 51p per month saving you will be making is worth the possible delay/aggravation in getting a faulty line repaired (BT continue to maintain the line but you rent from OneTel so have to report faults to them - probably to their Indian Call Centre - and they then pass the report on to BT).

You may have guessed, I'm not changing.

I think you're right there - their call centre is rubbish.  But 51p per month over 12 months amounts to £6.12, and over an average lifetime (75 years for the sake of argument) amounts to £459.00, and Martin MSE wouldn't be too happy to hear you say you weren't bothered about saving that amount of cash ::)  You could buy 459 McFlurrys for that!!

This may be a stupid question, but what did you mean by "IMHO"? :-[

Some of us haven't got 75 years left so £6.12 a year x our life expectancy doesn't amount to anywhere near that much.  Just as I'd rather not get involved in pub fights any more, I'd rather save the aggravation of trying to get one firm to get another firm to do something for me.

Anyway, as the below very useful (highly recommended for all readers to save in their favorites [sic]) link will tell you, IMHO means In My Humble Opinion.

http://www.acronymfinder.com/

Thanks Bill, the acronym finder is very useful and I've bookmarked the page for future reference.

Going back to the earlier point, does anyone know how long you're tied to Onetel Line Rental for?? ???  I can't find their terms and conditions - perhaps I'm being retarded again... :-[

It may not be worth it for such a small saving, however I see one.tel did at one point offer free evening and weekend calls for the first year, if you took them up on the offer, and switched line rental.

Now that is slightly more of a saving, and that would be enough to sway me (once my free evenings/weekend calls from Tele2 expire)

As for fault reporting, some areas never have any problems.  I don't think I have in over 5 years now, but if you're in an area prone to BT faults, then perhaps a cable line is the best bet!!

wrote on May 22^nd, 2005 at 9:53pm:

It may not be worth it for such a small saving, however I see one.tel did at one point offer free evening and weekend calls for the first year, if you took them up on the offer, and switched line rental. Now that is slightly more of a saving, and that would be enough to sway me (once my free evenings/weekend calls from Tele2 expire) As for fault reporting, some areas never have any problems.  I don't think I have in over 5 years now, but if you're in an area prone to BT faults, then perhaps a cable line is the best bet!!

That was a few months ago - before OneTel were able to 'supply' line rental.  The offer was their LeisureUKTalk package free for a year (well, £3.99 debit from and credit to your account for 12 months which amounted to the same thing) and gave you free UK 01/02 calls evenings and weekends.

Us in the sticks (where overhead lines mean faults occur more frequently) don't have the cable option - hence my continued reluctance to switch my line supplier from BT.

Another thing to keep in mind that if you can use BT 1280 Overide service when you have got line rental with OneTel. They will charge you at there designated rates to use it.Because BT of course cant bill for the calls.

Quote:

Going back to the earlier point, does anyone know how long you're tied to Onetel Line Rental for?

A friend of mine recently moved their line rental over to OneTel and was told it had a minimum term of 3months.  I don't remember reading that on their t&c!

In my opinion though, for the sake of saving .51p per month and having all the hassle of dealing with OneTel with regards to customer services and any faults, etc and not to mention that OneTel's t&c (3.4) state that they can bar or charge a higher fee for use of any indirect access codes, I don't think its worth it at all.

I realise that you could use the 0808 access numbers of Call18866/1899 but remember that they can still charge for these calls as well although not likely and they would get loads of complaints if they did.

Remember that only BT have to allow access to all other indirect access codes and can't stop the use of freephone access codes either, and most of BT prices are either set by OfCOM or are subject to OfCOM approval if they increase them.  The likes of non-BT landlines are not subject to the same constraints as BT and they can block or charge access to any numbers they choose (whether freephone or not).  Hence the reason why the mobile networks charge for freephone number and/or any individual number they choose.  I believe orange have a habit of blocking/charging extra for calling other providers via access numbers whether they are classed as mobile numbers or not and therefore should be included within inclusive minutes.

I believe OfCOM set the rates for calls to 0845/0870 and BT can't charge higher whereas most other telephone providers charge even higher than BT.  One example, TalkTalk, comes to mind as they charge 4.5ppm daytime to call an 0845 compared to BT's which I think is something like 3.5ppm.

Below is OneTel's t&c that put me of:

Quote:

3.4 If you are a Line Rental Services customer and elect to use another provider for some or all of your calls we may at our sole discretion decide to (i) bar your use of indirect access codes, (ii) charge you a higher fee for your use of the Line Rental Service or (iii) disconnect the Line Rental Service.

You can read OneTel's t&c here.

Thanks for that - I'm pretty sure we're staying with BT on the basis of the dodgy clause highlighted by bbb_uk.

BT have freephone customer services and competent advisors, so I think it's best to keep using them.  

However, is Onetel the only provider to offer line rental as an alternative to BT??  I'm sure TalkTalk were due to offer it sometime soon...

No there are a number of others Post Office,Telecom Plus.Homecall to name a few.(Talk Talk are still thinking about it.)

::) Is it really worth switching?  Most websites can't even display satisfactory information about their service! >:(

I'm sticking with BT for now... :-/

There was one company doing really dirt cheap line rental but having looked into it - there was a catch - it turned out that if there was a fault you may have to pay for it to be repaired, etc and you could only report faults during office hours and there was no guarantee about how long it would take to repair, etc.

Personally, I don't think its worth switching yet as the line rental costs are basically the same.  At least with BT, I know i'm not going to wake up one morning and find out they've blocked access to other cheaper call providers like Call18866/1899, etc.

This was discussed in a little more detail over at this thread from moneysavingexpert.com forum.

Have noticed that the line features are cheaper with one tel. B.T charge £4.00 a month for Anonymous Caller Reject, one tel charge £1.50.