Switching phone line?

[D-Dan]

I received a letter from BT today advising me that my rolling contract (for 12 months) with Friends & Family plus mobile ends on 8 July 2010 and will be renewed unless I cancel. Now, I hardly use the damn phone, but I do make use of caller ID (So that I can ignore calls from numbers I don't know), and I make the odd international call to a Turkish mobile (for reasons many of you will know about).

Anyhoo, I figure it may be time to move to IDNet for phone, too, but I have some questions.

1. Does the model follow the same 1 month rolling contract as the BB package
2. Can I get caller ID
3. Is there any way I can use this to drag out some economy from these occasional international calls?
4. What's the monthly line rental cost? (I currently pay £12.79 + £2.99 + £1.49 per month, before I even make a call)

Steve

Edit: The one month contract is important since I may no longer be in the UK by the time Christmas arrives.

[Glenn]

1. Take a look at http://www.idnet.net/solutions/home/phone/ Steve.
2. Caller ID is free I believe.
3. http://www.0044.co.uk/cheap-international-calls/Turkey.htm is one option
4. See 1

[D-Dan]

Thank you. I was being lazy, but I'll look.

Having said that, thank you for the answer to 3 - page bookmarked 

Have a karma

Steve

[D-Dan]

Believe it or not, Bloddy Telecom just made the decision for me. I called them to cancel the friends & family etc rather than renew, and got the hard sell from the girl at the other end (including telling me I was paying far too much for BB that they could do cheaper).

Whilst I was explaining that, yes, they could do it cheaper, My existing provider doesn't traffic shape, looks like they will be exempt from spying under the Digital Britain report, and that I don't much appreciate having my web traffic monitored. She tried to dispute this when I pointed out that it would be the law.

I guess she didn't appreciate me knowing, because the call was dropped at this point.

I rang back and registered a complaint that either BT, the telecoms company, had lost a call (not a good reference) or she had hung up and I will not deal with CS that does that. Then I made sure that the packages were cancelled and logged my order to switch on IDNet's site.

Amazing how BT made the decision for me 

Steve

[Simon]

As I understand it, IDNet only take over the billing part.  The services, as such, are still provided by BT, so any features such as Caller Display, can still be provided.  The only thing that's different, is the cost, as IDNet usually works out cheaper.

[Glenn]

Thank you. I was being lazy, but I'll look.

Having said that, thank you for the answer to 3 - page bookmarked 

Have a karma

Steve

[D-Dan]

As I understand it, IDNet only take over the billing part.  The services, as such, are still provided by BT, so any features such as Caller Display, can still be provided.  The only thing that's different, is the cost, as IDNet usually works out cheaper.

I went for the home lite package, which has CallerID and 5 hours of inclusive calls. Since I rarely make outgoing calls, this should be more than enough for me. (Having said that, I just made an 18.5 minute call to Turkey which should have cost me no more than about £0.36 - thanks again, Glenn

Steve

[Rik]

As Simon says, Steve, it's still an Openreach line, but you're buying the service from IDNet, not BT Retail. A few announcements will change, eg 1571, but everything else is a transparent move. The big difference is that, if you do get a fault, you deal with IDNet, not BT. Infinitely preferable, imo.

[D-Dan]

Well - I've received confirmation this morning, and activation date is 22/6. Now, I'll probably be in credit with BT. Wonder how long it will take me to get a refund 

Steve

[Baz]

thats where I slipped up last year although I blame BT, I was thinking of changing but couldnt, for ages, find out what package I was on with them so I of course just got the renewal notice and forgot about it so it automatically kept me on it.

[sparky]

If its any help, I had my final bill from BT 17 days after the switchover date.

I owe them £3.02p which will come out of my bank account on 11th June. So pressumably if they had owed me that's when I would have received a credit ? 

[Rik]

Optimist.

[Glenn]

Don't forget to cancel the DD.

[zappaDPJ]

We tried to switch from BT to IDNet for the phone two days ago and failed. We are now locked into another year with BT. If I ever get a valid passport I might well follow you abroad because I'll blow a gasket if stay around here much longer. It's impossible to get anything done without something being screwed up 

[Simon]

Well, if it was BT's error, surely the 12 month contract is null and void, Zap?

[zappaDPJ]

That's what they said until we tried to switch then we hit the red tape. We were twice given the wrong date for the end of last years contract by phone and we've been told in any case there would have been a letter. We've asked for a copy but yesterday they admitted nothing was sent out (they don't know why).

That alone should be enough but according to she that must be obeyed they simply won't do it without applying a hefty penalty.

[D-Dan]

Threaten them with OfCom. With all the politics going on right now they can't be sure BT and Ofcom are friends.

Steve

[Simon]

I agree.  Don't let them walk over you, Zap.

[Rik]

Thirded, Zap. BT need bringing to heel.

[zappaDPJ]

I'll get she that must be obeyed to write a letter to Ofenwrong... I mean Ofcom 

[Rik]

I thought it was always wrong.

[zappaDPJ]

You are probably right, just like my spulling

[Gary]

We tried to switch from BT to IDNet for the phone two days ago and failed. We are now locked into another year with BT. If I ever get a valid passport I might well follow you abroad because I'll blow a gasket if stay around here much longer. It's impossible to get anything done without something being screwed up 

Zap I had this issue, make a complaint, we did not get a letter telling us, so BT let us out of the contract and we are now with IDNet instead, it was worth the effort 

[Rik]

You are probably right, just like my spulling

Of course, the other way is to go to the top in BT.