The Scandal Of 084x And 087x Numbers
The BBC is reporting today about expensive calls to financial companies and other institutions like the Inland Revenue and the NHS. It’s here on their web site.
For the first time, since I moved to BT in 2010, to save myself some money compared to Virgin, I decided to check my bills.
I have a tariff that allows me to call any landline at any time, for a flat fee of seven pounds a month. As I have some long landline calls, I suspect, I’m quids in on this.
But what surprised me was a fairly long call to the Netherlands cost me just twenty-eight pence. Most of the call charges were calls to mobile numbers.
As to my bank, Nationwide and my two credit/charge cards, all are on 0845 numbers, which under my calling plan are free. Not that I ever call them, as most seem to respond well to queries sent on-line.
In fact the only higher rate number I have rung in the last few months was a short call to my doctor, to book an appointment, as it’s an 0844 number. But whether, I’m charged for it, I don’t know. You shouldn’t be charged for calls to your doctor. Booking an appointment, is something, that should be done on-line.
There is an interesting point here. How many of us have calling plans, on which some or all of our landline calls free. So as we realise what we get, if companies published their actual numbers, they might get a few less customers, angry at hanging on at high cost. After all, if you do call direct, you probably get in the same queue. So you will probably wait as long, but at no expense.
The real problem is calling these numbers on a mobile phone, as I’ve found several instances of people like benefit claimants being fleeced.
I’ve Given In
I said in this post, that a Sky Satellite dish is so yesterday.
However, as I have received a letter from BT on the subject of broadband, I decided that the best solution would be to get a dish to get reasonable sports on my television.
The letter from BT is a classic, and it is only thanks to my MP that I got a reply.
Here’s one section.
I’ve been in touch with our supplier, Openreach to ask about Mr. Miller’s situation. Unfortunately, he’s currently unable to get fibre broadband as his phone line is routed directly from the exchange to his premises.
Openreach have confirmed that the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology which they have deployed needs a fibre-enabled street cabinet to supply the service. But because Mr. Miller is located very close to the exchange and is fed directly from it, i.e. not via a street cabinet, this unfortunately means that he can’t have the fibre product at present.
So the solution to my fibre broadband problem, is to move further from the telephone exchange.
I am a qualified electrical engineer and do understand the technology, the problem and the solutions. So I can’t help but find their statement mildly amusing.
But I suppose to actually be honest about the problem, as BT has been in the end, after a kicking from my MP, would only chase customers away to other broadband suppliers, who of course because of my local loop problem, can’t actually deliver the product that everybody wants.
In my view, there should be an on-line database that everyone can access, that shows the phone and broadband standard and quality, that is available at every house or business premises in the country. After all, you might find the ideal building for your new offices and it would be prudent to confirm the status of the phones and broadband before you made an offer.
But why stop at phones and broadband, as it would be much better if all the other services were listed as well.
I’d Quite Like To Watch Or Listen To The Rugby
Until recently, I used to get Sky Sports 1 and 2, through my BT Vision system, but now the signal has been cut, probably because Sky and BT aren’t talking to each other with the best interests of the customers in mind. I could get a signal through BT Infinity, which I want anyway. Unfortunately, fibre optic broadband is not available where I live close to the City of London. Get your finger out BT!
I could get a Sky dish, but I don’t want any other channels and in a few years, everything I want to see, will be available through fibre optic broadband. I don’t even mind, if it’s on a pay per view basis, as hopefully someone will see sense in streaming this without the adverts I hate.
But the rugby isn’t even on Radio 5! So I’m just watching a text commentary and getting the odd report from Ian Robertson on Radio 5.
At least the Lions seem to be doing OK, with Robertson describing them as rampant.
Up Yours Scammers And PPI Callers!
My BT phone bill was put on-line today and an advert on the site talked about a new BT 6500 phone, which has an answerphone and also blocks nuisance calls.
BT 6500 Phone
It would appear to have all the benefits of trueCall in one package.
I’ll see how I get on with it, as I must get about ten or so unwanted calls on some days.
BT Will Setup BT Sport On The Olympic Park
There was good news today for Hackney, when BT said that they will run their BT Sport operation from the Broadcast Centre on the Olympic Park. It’s all here on the BBC.
As BSkyB is also London-based, does it not look to have been a bad decision to move BBC Sport to Manchester?
BT Broadband/Vision and Virgin Media Compared – Prices
A couple of months ago, I compared the two systems for getting TV and broadband.
The only thing, I didn’t have was any sensible price comparison. My last seven months of Virgin cost me an avverage of £132.75 and I’ve just paid my first BT bill without any setup charges. It was £45.85, which is a saving of about a thousand pounds by using BT instead of Virgin.
I’m also still getting junk mail from Virgin.
BT Broadband/Vision and Virgin Media Compared
When I first moved, I went the Virgin Media route and subscribed to Sky Sports 1 and 2.
A couple of months ago, I threw the cable out, as Virgin Media couldn’t give me a working landline telephone.
I now have BT broadband, with which I use BT Vision to get the same Sky channels.
I don’t regret the changes one bit.
- BT is much cheaper. Not sure totally how much, as I haven’t had a bill with all my landline calls. It looks like it might be about £70 compared to £130 for Virgin.
- The BT service appears to be more reliable. Virgin cable seemed to go up and down like a whore’s drawers. Perhaps this was partly due to the state of their boxes in the street, which had had the doors removed.
- Since I signed up with BT, I think I’ve only had one spam e-mail or leaflet in the mail. Virgin still keep sending them, although in the last week, they seem to have stopped. Perhaps, they’ve got the message.
- With BT, if I lose broadband, I still have the TV without Sky through Freeview.
- I know this is personal taste, but I think the BT website is easier to use. The login is certainly better.
So bye-bye Virgin and never may you grace my door again.
I suspect though it will be all irrevelant in the future, who your broadband supplier is. You’ll get all your TV channels other than the free-to-air ones on subscription of some sort through it.
I suspect too, that you’ll be able to subscribe to advert-free versions of things like Sky. At a premium of course.
BT 2 Virgin Media 0
I had a letter from BT this morning, saying could I contact them, if I thought there might be a problem setting up my landline. As the Virgin Media line has been down for a couple of weeks now, and to check my side I asctually bought a new phone handset, I sent an e-mail to BT saying that they may have trouble connecting.
They phoned me within ten minutes and even went to the trouble of ringing me back on the Virgin number to see if it did work. It didn’t.
So that made the score BT 1 Virgin Media 0
Then when I was at the checkout in Sainsburys about half-an-hour ago I got a call on my mobile marked Private. Usually, I don’t answer these, as they are often scammers or crooks. But this time I did and it was Virgin. I politely asked them to ring in a few minutes as I was at the checkout.
They haven’t so far, so that makes it BT 2 Virgin Media 0.
I shall wait in all night to see if they call!
The Anonymous Widower 