Your experience of Phone line rental and Talk.

Having been delighted with PlusNet Value Broadband,
I am now considering moving my line rental and unlimited/Anytime talk package from BT to PlusNet.
It will be more convenient to have everything in one place.

I am interested in hearing about others experience who have done this.
Including the following:
1. What happens if something goes wrong with the phone line.
Is it PNs responsibility to get BT to fix it.
2. Was the switch over trouble free.
3. Is PN phone billing easier to understand than BTs.
4. If ever I wanted to move from PN in the future will I have problems?

I did have a line fault about 2 years ago and underground cable from road to house had to be replaced.

After the usual checks Plusnet contacted Openreach who sorted the matter.

As it's purely a matter of changing billing transfer was seamless.

Never have had any problems understanding either company's billing.

As it's still a BT line moving suppliers should never be a problem.

In reply to a post by ash76:

Having been delighted with PlusNet Value Broadband,
I am now considering moving my line rental and unlimited/Anytime talk package from BT to PlusNet.
It will be more convenient to have everything in one place.

I am interested in hearing about others experience who have done this.
Including the following:
1. What happens if something goes wrong with the phone line. - you contact Plusnet phone faults and if there is some doubt whether it is a phone or broadband fault they can't pass the buck
Is it PNs responsibility to get BT to fix it. Yes
2. Was the switch over trouble free. Yes
3. Is PN phone billing easier to understand than BTs. Can't comment as I didn't BT on-line billing but I like the ability to download the calls in csv format
4. If ever I wanted to move from PN in the future will I have problems? No

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Aug-11 10:30:21)

Thanks Guys.
Very helpful responses.

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Aug-11 20:41:32)

In reply to a post by ash76:

1. What happens if something goes wrong with the phone line.
Is it PNs responsibility to get BT to fix it. YES
2. Was the switch over trouble free. YES
3. Is PN phone billing easier to understand than BTs. YES
4. If ever I wanted to move from PN in the future will I have problems? NO

I'm happy with PN BB & Phone

In reply to a post by reserved:

In reply to a post by ash76:

1. What happens if something goes wrong with the phone line.
Is it PNs responsibility to get BT to fix it. YES
2. Was the switch over trouble free. YES
3. Is PN phone billing easier to understand than BTs. YES
4. If ever I wanted to move from PN in the future will I have problems? NO

I'm happy with PN BB & Phone

So your answer to Q4 is expectation rather than experience? .

Though I do believe you are correct.

Been there, done that, no hassle.

1. Your only point of contact becomes Plusnet. They call BT Openreach to get a line fault fixed. Had a fault last year and liaison between PN and BT Openreach was good though fault was tricky and took more than 1 visit to fix. Turned out to be 2 seperate faults, one was my master socket, the other at the exchange.
2. Switch was seamless.
3. Any billing must surely be easier to understand than BT!
4. Can't comment but I doubt it. I've heard horror stories about moving away from Talktalk.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by ash76:

So your answer to Q4 is expectation rather than experience? .

Though I do believe you are correct.

Correct on both counts

In reply to a post by ppppenguin99:

3. Any billing must surely be easier to understand than BT!
LOL.
Yes. Hopefully it will be as easy and clear as the PN billing of my broadband.

Not with Plusnet, but I've completed a move from one Wholesale Line rental and calls service to another (not LLU Talk as offered by TT and Sky). The move is completed on an order from your new talk provider to OpenReach and in my case was ordered and committed (all automatically) by OpenReach within one hour of the web order from me to my new provider: the transfer then took place on the 14th day thereafter (due I believe to slamming rules, you should receive a letter from your loosing provider to confirm this).

The actual transfer took place at about 3am, and I received a prompt e-mail to my ordering address from OpenReach to confirm it had taken place. Painless.

I had to move my talk service only, and the broadband stayed with the same provider with no interruption (although once the talk service was up and running I then ordered a broadband move). With most wholesale providers like Plusnet you can move talk and broadband together, in those cases the broadband will move first followed by the line/talk.

Edited by deleted (Mon 29-Aug-11 10:44:23)

1. Call Plusnet
2. Yes (previously with BT).
3. Pretty much. We have the anytime call package (£5), so have very few charged calls, so a very easy to read bill.
4. Don't know. Haven't moved yet. No need to.

Before I had an e-mail a month for BB bills and one for referrals. Now a single e-mail for BB/calls and another for referrals. All charges at once.

Here's a screenie of what I see on my account. Nice and easy to read. Can add/remove features (call waiting etc.), look over previous periods, download to local PC.

The only things I watch out for are the things which will add on to my bill. Calls lasting more than an hour (hangup and re-dial to avoid), calls to mobiles, and 0870/1 calls will all add to the bill. In the case of the last one, I just use 'say no to 0870' and find the regional number. Occasionally we phone mobiles, but not for very long. Have a read of the call tariffs to see what your own calling habits might add up to.

Thanks for the response and the screenie.
Even I can understand your Bill.
After reading all the replies I will definitely be moving my Talk package
once my contract with BT ends in October.

On the latest product 0870 calls are included - 0844 are the ones to watch
With the latest and cheaper product you don't get the free 300 mins of international calls

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

On the latest product 0870 calls are included - 0844 are the ones to watch

Ah. Well I tend to look for the regional code ffor them too.

In reply to a post by Oldjim:

With the latest and cheaper product you don't get the free 300 mins of international calls

Yep. I almost never make international calls, so they slipped my mind.

Hi there,

If you almost never make international calls I'd say you'd be worth moving to the new Anytime package rather than the International 300 one you're on. You lose the international minutes, but you save £1.50 every month.

Ah ha!

Done!

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Ah ha!

Done!

So the 5-year minimum term is OK?

Ha!

Edit: I'd better elaborate for potential customers. Roberto is kidding.

Edited by camieabz (Tue 30-Aug-11 00:01:06)

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Ha!

Edit: I'd better elaborate for potential customers. Roberto is kidding.

Errrrr ...

... indeed, yes I am.

But I bet you went and checked the T & Cs!

In reply to a post by mand_beckett:

If you almost never make international calls I'd say you'd be worth moving to the new Anytime package rather than the International 300 one you're on. You lose the international minutes, but you save £1.50 every month.

Mand

Do you have Caller ID Display as a feature on that package ?


Wagstaff

Fraid not.

The last time someone tried to lock me into a 12 month contract, I got 0% finance and a discount.

fwiw, I have to guess at yes. I have/had CD on the int. 300 package. Have switched, and have no reason to assume my feature has been removed.

Caller display was 99p/month extra when I moved to PN. It's free with BT if you get "BT Privacy at home". This is about the only black mark I can put against PN's phone service.

As for phoning mobiles, if it's more than a bare minimum, get a cheap mobile. As an example I think Tesco do some £10/month deals that give a lot for your money.

"Mand -
Do you have Caller ID Display as a feature on that package ?" -Wagstaff


According to the PN website Caller Display is available for 99p.
I hope Mand confirms this. If Caller ID was not available I would not move.
Also, I signed up to TPS - the Telephone Preference Service - with BT years ago.
This stops most sales calls from UK Marketing companies you are not a customer of.
Is TPS affected by a move to PlusNet?
(Unfortunately not even BT can stop uninvited International sales calls.)

Edited by deleted (Tue 30-Aug-11 11:58:21)

Yes it is - I have got it
http://www.plus.net/residential/faqs.shtml#addCallFe...

Edited by deleted (Tue 30-Aug-11 11:26:24)

Thanks for the info, guys.

I'm curently on BT's Unlimited Anytime at a cost of £20.10 per month. The on-line billing is a lot less detailed than it used to be, but it looks as if my "features" are costing me £6.20 pm, which puts the line rental at £13.90 pm.

I'm starting to think that the Plusnet Anytime deal is a much better one, but I wonder if there are plans for the line rental to be increased in the near future.


Wagstaff

Nothing has been said and if there are plans nobody will say anything about them until they are published. I assume you are aware that BT have announced an increase in their rental/call charges
Regarding extras the BT charges are £6 for 2 to 4 extras and so Plusnet would only be cheaper if you don't have 4 extras but you should note that Plusnet don't offer call barring as standard

Edited by deleted (Tue 30-Aug-11 11:46:55)

Here's my call feature options on the member page, with individual and bundle prices. £0.99 for caller display and voicemail is free (I suppose the latter is standard on BT setups too).

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Here's my call feature options on the member page, with individual and bundle prices. £0.99 for caller display and voicemail is free (I suppose the latter is standard on BT setups too).

Thanks Camie.

It's interesting to see that one of the features is "Anonymous Call".

One of the problems I have with BT's Caller ID Display is that most of the calls are displayed as "Unknown" or "Withheld", which makes the Caller ID system virtually useless.
Does Anonymous Call overcome this problem?


Wagstaff

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

It's interesting to see that one of the features is "Anonymous Call".

One of the problems I have with BT's Caller ID Display is that most of the calls are displayed as "Unknown" or "Withheld", which makes the Caller ID system virtually useless.
Does Anonymous Call overcome this problem?

It can't, can it!

If you withhold your number, either by a setting or by prefixing your called number with 147, they can't reveal it at the other end. If the call is from another network which doesn't forward the number of that network's subscriber, for whatever reason, BT don't even know it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

............BT don't even know it.

That just seems crazy to me.

If I send a packet of data around the world, everybody knows that it comes from me because it carries my address with it. Why can't the same principle apply to a telephone call?


Wagstaff

Hi there,

Caller DIsplay is available on all Talk products, and costs 99p per month.

The anonymous call feature rejects calls which are made from withheld/unknown numbers (the caller will receive a message saying you don't accept anonymous calls).

Hope that helps!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

It's interesting to see that one of the features is "Anonymous Call".

One of the problems I have with BT's Caller ID Display is that most of the calls are displayed as "Unknown" or "Withheld", which makes the Caller ID system virtually useless.
Does Anonymous Call overcome this problem?

It can't, can it!

If you withhold your number, either by a setting or by prefixing your called number with 147, they can't reveal it at the other end. If the call is from another network which doesn't forward the number of that network's subscriber, for whatever reason, BT don't even know it.

Not strictly true. Most calls (certainly all ones that originate in the UK) have some sort of network identifier, which can be traced if needed (such as a police request).

The only call feature that makes use of this level of detail is the one called Choose2Refuse, which allows you to block even individual withheld/anonymous numbers (you won't know the number but the network equipment does because it's done at the exchange level).

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

............BT don't even know it.

That just seems crazy to me.

If I send a packet of data around the world, everybody knows that it comes from me because it carries my address with it. Why can't the same principle apply to a telephone call?


Wagstaff

That is not entirely accurate. If you are using NAT on your home network (which you probably are) then they will only see the IP address of the point before the NAT (ie your public IP). Your ISP could NAT this (as some mobile providers do) in which case you would see the aggregated IP address rather than the users endpoint address. You could look that phones could do a similar thing - or that phone systems in some countries may be aging to the point that the hardware is pre-caller id and therefore not supporting the standard. They may not even be digital exchanges in which case caller id would be impossible.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

Thanks Camie.

It's interesting to see that one of the features is "Anonymous Call".

One of the problems I have with BT's Caller ID Display is that most of the calls are displayed as "Unknown" or "Withheld", which makes the Caller ID system virtually useless.
Does Anonymous Call overcome this problem?


Wagstaff

On Plusnet's portal:

"Bar incoming calls from people who withold their number."

Great if you're adamant that you won't accept them. Not so great if you deal with legit orgs which withold their number. It's interesting that individuals would lose out in this setup, but if all users adopted it, companies would drop anon calling.

In reply to a post by mand_beckett:

The anonymous call feature rejects calls which are made from withheld/unknown numbers (the caller will receive a message saying you don't accept anonymous calls).

Thanks for the info, Mand.

The Choose2Refuse feature sounds like a very useful option. Is it generally available; if so, what do you charge for it?

In reply to a post by camieabz:

It's interesting that individuals would lose out in this setup, but if all users adopted it, companies would drop anon calling.

Perhaps we should start a campaign against the use of the "withhold number" option !
I can't think of any reason why someone who wants to talk to me would withhold their number.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

Perhaps we should start a campaign against the use of the "withhold number" option !
I can't think of any reason why someone who wants to talk to me would withhold their number.

There are many cases when the person has no choice, e.g. my wife when calling me from work (and no, she can't use her mobile because there is no signal).

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

The Choose2Refuse feature sounds like a very useful option. Is it generally available; if so, what do you charge for it?

It's not a standard product and we'll give it to you free for 3 months (which is generally enough time to get rid of the unwanted calls) but after that it would be £6 per quarter.

Jojo

In reply to a post by jpilson:

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

The Choose2Refuse feature sounds like a very useful option. Is it generally available; if so, what do you charge for it?

It's not a standard product and we'll give it to you free for 3 months (which is generally enough time to get rid of the unwanted calls) but after that it would be £6 per quarter.

Thanks Jojo. With the addition of that feature, it looks as if it could be a very good package indeed.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

In reply to a post by jpilson:

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

The Choose2Refuse feature sounds like a very useful option. Is it generally available; if so, what do you charge for it?

It's not a standard product and we'll give it to you free for 3 months (which is generally enough time to get rid of the unwanted calls) but after that it would be £6 per quarter.

Thanks Jojo. With the addition of that feature, it looks as if it could be a very good package indeed.

We use what is considered the best form of call control. http://www.truecall.co.uk/ Once you have the box you set it to suit yourself via a web page. It can stop all marketing, international and withheld numbers. It has a built in answerphone and can record all calls.

In reply to a post by m0aur:

We use what is considered the best form of call control. http://www.truecall.co.uk/ Once you have the box you set it to suit yourself via a web page. It can stop all marketing, international and withheld numbers. It has a built in answerphone and can record all calls.

It looks like a useful device, but I'm not sure that all the unknown and withheld calls I receive are "nuisance" calls. What is a nuisance is the fact that I don't know the caller's number; if I did then I could choose whether to take the call or not.
Interested to see that this product was on Dragon's Den - I wonder which of the dragons invested in it.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

Interested to see that this product was on Dragon's Den - I wonder which of the dragons invested in it.

Scroll down here for the answer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/entrepreneurs/steves...
Also, any number you don't recognise, a simple click on that number on your Truecall control page, takes you direct to whocalls me dot com and displays who it was.
An example. http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01202415787

Edited by deleted (Fri 02-Sep-11 10:38:56)

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

It looks like a useful device, but I'm not sure that all the unknown and withheld calls I receive are "nuisance" calls.

Seems to have some more clever features than just rejecting all unknown and withheld calls. For instance the facility asking the caller to press a button on their keypad would stop "you've won a holiday" type recorded messages.

http://www.truecall.co.uk/acatalog/trueCall_Features...

Thanks for the Link to the Dragon's Den discussions...

Very interesting.

In reply to a post by m0aur:

Scroll down here for the answer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/entrepreneurs/steves...
Also, any number you don't recognise, a simple click on that number on your Truecall control page, takes you direct to whocalls me dot com and displays who it was.
An example. http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01202415787

Wow - an impressive pitch!! Not often that all five dragons are interested in a product.

Didn't appear to suggest this on the website, but are you saying that your Truecall machine actually displays the "unknown" or "withheld" number ?

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

In reply to a post by m0aur:

Scroll down here for the answer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/entrepreneurs/steves...
Also, any number you don't recognise, a simple click on that number on your Truecall control page, takes you direct to whocalls me dot com and displays who it was.
An example. http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/01202415787

Wow - an impressive pitch!! Not often that all five dragons are interested in a product.

Didn't appear to suggest this on the website, but are you saying that your Truecall machine actually displays the "unknown" or "withheld" number ?

It does not display unknown numbers, which like international numbers, can be blocked, let through or be screened. Once an unrecognised number is forwarded to your phone after identification, it is then displayed.
There are many other options, such as adjustable overnight quiet mode that just lets named numbers through, such as family.
The facility to block International numbers is very good for those that have no family or other interest in taking International calls, which are the biggest part of scam calls. Even the BT unknown/withheld call-block service at £4 per month does not stop unidentified International calls.
A link showing one of the two pages that control settings.
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/515/truecallpage.jpg

In reply to a post by m0aur:

A link showing one of the two pages that control settings.
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/515/truecallpage.jpg

Thanks very much for letting me know about this machine. As a previous poster said, it does a lot more than just block calls.

In reply to a post by Wagstaff:

... but I'm not sure that all the unknown and withheld calls I receive are "nuisance" calls

"Unknown" we have stopped answering as nearly all are spam. We usually check later whether a message has been left on BT 1571.

We find "Withheld" is usually legitimate for us.

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

If it's good enough for Peter Jones and his millions it's good enough for me

Well said !!
But ask Peter where we can buy it in the High Street - only from his friend Theo ?

Just had my on line Bill from BT which says:
"This is the cost of your calling plan (which includes line rental) at
£18.60 a month, charged in advance from 17 Sep 2011 to 16 Dec 2011."

So I have decided to move to PlusNet early even if I get a penalty charge from BT.
My contract ends on October 2*.
I will update you all next month.

*Text received from PlusNet, 30 minutes after my request this morning, (20/9/11)
to say that change over will be on October 4. Perfect timing.

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-Sep-11 11:36:40)

Good luck, I'm sure you won't regret it

If you are on an automatically renewing BT contract, make sure you tell them not to renew it.

Thanks Oliver. I did not realise I had to do that.
I loathe automatic renewals with a passion so will make sure
that I check that out.

3. Is PN phone billing easier to understand than BTs.

Don't know about Plusnet but I am a BT customer. And no phone company, repeat none, could devise a more complicated and incomprehensible billing system than BT. You can't even print the monthly bill on less than three sheets of paper.

Their diabolical system is the one complaint I have about them after a year. My previous suppliers Toucan and Pipex were crystal clear and the monthly bill could be printed on one sheet. Just imagine the waste across BT's customer base.