It appears that Talk Talk charge 5p a min to call  any 0844 no be it a 1p,2p,or 5p
number according to a recent posting on the Money Saving Expert site.

Have any Talk Talk customers experienced this.

If this is the case and you are dialling a 0844 access no you woud be better off using the 1280 BT overide number,as they will charge you 1,2,or 5 depending on the number.(a min call charge of 5p applies.)

I'm with TalkTalk at the moment.  I tried to find out their call charges for these prefixed numbers but when I called "Customer Services" I appeared to be speaking to someone who obviously had an intellect which rivalled that of a common ground squirrel.  They seem to put huge 'brackets' around whole series of prefixes and assumed it is the same to call them all.  And they refuse to believe that BT are cheaper for NGN calls. >:(

Doesn't take a brain surgeon to decide whether this is pure ignorance or a money-making scheme. ::)

I'm leaving TalkTalk when my 12 months free evening and weekend calls are up anyway 8)

Don't they have a guarantee to save money against BT!!

I'm not sure whether it's talk talk, or homecall, but one of them promised about £500 as they're so confident they're cheaper than BT, that they will give you this money if it can be proven otherwise.  This guarantee obviously is only against BT, and not other indirect carriers.

Might be an idea to call some of these 0844 numbers costing 1p per minute, and see if it will cost 5p minute.

If it does, then they're more expensive than BT, and you can make your claim, pointing out what BT charges, and what they charge.

Talk Talks £1000 challenge doesnt include calls to the internet, NGN ,or premium no,s i think you will find. All they do is compare the BT Option with there equivalent,and of course they will always come out tops.

TalkTalk price list is here.

The charge bands are presumably the same as BT's, so refer here. Scroll down to Part 10-13.

wrote on May 25^th, 2005 at 7:59pm:

Talk Talks £1000 challenge doesnt include calls to the internet, NGN ,or premium no,s i think you will find. All they do is compare the BT Option with there equivalent,and of course they will always come out tops.

That's not true.

If you look here and specifically paragraph 5:-

Quote:

5. The challenge is not open to anyone who is not currently a customer of TalkTalk or to customers who have more than one line, and excludes calls to the internet, 0845 or premium rate numbers.

You'll see that 0844 calls they haven't mentioned as being excluded.

I did say i THINK you will find.So thanks for pointing that out.So if you were making calls to 0844/0870 numbers for the 2 months before you left BT and you could show in your first 2months with Talk Talk you paid  more to call them using Talk Talk (PROVIDING YOU WERE ON THE SAME OPTION AS YOUR BT ONE) you could try a claim then.

Now i have had a chance to look at the T&C they also say you must have been using BT as your sole supplier of calls.So presumably if you had been using 18866,1899.or even cheap 0844/0870 intl carriers your claim would be invalid.Any thoughts on this.

Having just taken a look at MONEYSAVING EXPERT SITE,another member has stated that Talk Talk are charging similar to BT. I can only assume the poster on the site who said they were charging 5p had only made a short call and the min charge had kicked in,or they were dialling a 5p number.The whole 0844 charging issue is confusing i see there is even a 4p tariff,and as Smasher points out not even TT Cus Serv know what they are charging.

Have a look at the BT Specialised no list to see what they charge

http://www.bt.com/home/pricing/uk.htm#specialised

I emailed TalkTalk about this 0844 number charging and also their weekday peak rate times changing from 6am - 6pm (used to be 8am-6pm).

[...]

Thank you for your email.

Regards to your email with the £1000 challenge. The 0844 charges do vary depending on the number you are calling the maximum they go is 5p per min, these numbers are excluded from the £1000 with the 0845 number, internet numbers and premium rate numbers.

The off peak tarifs for Talk Talk are the same as BT's as
were changed from the 1st March, the reason for this change is because BT changed and we followed.

I hope this helps.

If you need any more help, please email customerservices@talktalk.co.uk or call
our Customer Service team on 0870 444 1820.

[...]

All they do is exclude the more expensive calls from the challenge >:(

Their attitude shows they'll never be market leaders... "BT changed and we followed". ::)

Luckily not all CPS alternative carriers have followed BT.

Quote:

...The 0844 charges do vary depending on the number you are calling the maximum they go is 5p per min, these numbers are excluded from the £1000 with the 0845 number, internet numbers and premium rate numbers.

They're wrong on excluding calls to 0844 numbers as its not on their t&c.  Well not yet anyhow as they'll probably update them shortly now.

So in theory, if you did manage to find a certain 0844 number charged more than BT's (which is hard as TalkTalk don't publish their prices of them unlike OneTel) then it could be possible to attempt to claim the money.  They would have a extremely hard job saying that you wouldn't be entitled to make a claim as they're excluded when their t&c clearly don't mention that they are!

Just received this from a reply I sent to their earlier email (above)...

[...]

Thank you for your email.

I apologise for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.  We did not amende the times of our off peak calls to follow BT, they were changed to coincide with them.

With regards to the 0844 number, this is an internet dial up number and it does state in the £1000 guarantee that calls to internet and not included.  Please see below.

The challenge is not open to anyone who is not currently a customer of TalkTalk or to customers who have more than one line, and excludes calls to the internet, 0845 or premium rate numbers.

If you need any more help, please email customerservices@talktalk.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 444 1820.

[...]

What's the difference between "following" BT and "changing to coincide with BT"??  Are these not, in principle, the same things?  The basic fact is that because of BT's change of off-peak times, they also changed their off-peak times.  

Also, I notice they exclude "internet, 0845 and premium rate numbers".  Does this mean 0870 numbers are included in the challenge?  Or are these classed as premium?  If so, I would call attention to their website which states that their 0870 customer service number is a national rate or free to existing customers.

Not only does this "Telecoms Provider" know nothing about telecoms, their advisors seem unable to spell or use adequate grammar in their correspondence.

In spite of this, some people still wonder why British Industry is sinking in the wake of Eastern and Asian competition ::)

What about non-internet 0844 numbers? Are they different?

I'll reply back and ask, but only for comedy value - I'm not expecting an actual answer ::)

wrote on May 29^th, 2005 at 2:40pm:

I'll reply back and ask, but only for comedy value - I'm not expecting an actual answer ::)

Don't forget to ask about freephone numbers aswell (internet and non-internet).  ;D

Smasher. I dont know if you are aware
Talk Talk,s  0870 Customer Service Number recognises if you are calling from a Talk Talk CPS registered no and doesnt charge you for the call .But if you are phoning from work say and it  non Talk Talk its 7p plus at peak rate.Which means  lots more wonga for them. Even BT offer unrestrictive free phone access to there customer services.Charlie Dunstone doesnt miss a trick,just like putting his stores on 0870!!!

Who's Charlie Dunstone? ???

The main man at CPW ,the guy who started it all. Now the CEO.
  www.cpwplc.com./cpw/about/history/

Read there five fundemental rules.They must be losing quite a few of there Talk Talk Customers to someone else!!! 

They're losing me for a start!  I hope Onetel bring back their free 12 months LeisureUKTalk package in time for August, when my free off-peak calls expire :-/

Im with talktalk.

I phoned up their Customer FobOff department tohave a bi**h about the rubbish speed i was getting with their broadband.
The Guy must have been very high up in the chains beacuse he actually said sorry and upgraded me to the 1meg service for the same price as the 512k AND had an automatic £5 credit put on my landline calls and broadband calls.

Really werid how it works out. But for £19.99 I get 1meg speed and free talk2 (the £5 credit on the landline) and the £5 credit on the broadband bill.

Try it somtimes!
Oh and they also refunded me for some calls to their premium rate internet support number cos there userguide lied and said the calls would be free for 45 days following installion.

wrote on May 29^th, 2005 at 2:44pm:

Don't forget to ask about freephone numbers aswell (internet and non-internet).  ;D

I included it in the reply to their reply and this is what I received:

[...]


Thank you for your email.

Yes, we are aware that not all 0844 numbers are dial up internet.  I have printed a copy of all the different charges for 0844 numbers.  If you reply with your full address, I will arrange to have this sent to you tomorrow.

With regard to the £1000 challenge, I would inform you that as per our terms and conditions, freephone and non-internet calls are included in the challenge, but the internet calls, as explained in my earlier email, are not.

If you need any more help, please email customerservices@talktalk.co.uk or call our Customer Service team on 0870 444 1820.


[...]

That's made my day! ;D