Reply to: Roaming Phone number and address

[Ardesco]

Whe I was with them I had a 2mbit cable line. One day an amplifier died in the green box outside whee I was living. It took them 4 weeks to diagnose the problem and once they had diagnosed it they refused to do anything until they got more complaints. 7 months later I was still getting a connection roughly equivalent to a 14.4 modem with them sending engineers round about once a month who who have a fiddle, then go outside and come back in and tell me the amplifer in the green box outside was dodgy and needed to be replaced. it was at that point my BT line came back with a nice working ADSL connection. It took me a further 2 months to get a refund for all the money they had been taking out of my account via direct debit.

My service highlights were as follows:

• Being told "Well what do you want me to do about it" after phoning up to tell them my internet still wasn't working and I was still being billed.
• Arguning with some women for 15 minutes when she told me I couldn't cancel my account on the phone. She finally agreed to cancel my account, took all the details and finished with, "if you just pop that into an envelope for us we will process it ASAP......"
• Knowing more about networking than thier third line support who was trying to tell me that it was a DNS problem that was preventing me from pinging/tracerouting an IP address.

All in all a utter bag of tulipe when it stops working, but fine up until that potin (as with most things in life).

[DeadKenny]

The problem is they'll 'feck it up' later on and then you get into the nightmare of trying to call them out. If you manage to get them to come out they won't turn up at the agreed time or at all, and then when they do they'll make a hash of it.

[Epiphone]

DON'T DO NTHell

Seriously - its fine until you have a problem, then it goes downhill fast. I'm speaking from personal experience, but I have friends whose phone line was broken for months, another who was threatened with legal action for a bill that wasn't valid.
They came round door-to-door earlier this year and claimed they had sorted out all their customer service issues - but I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.
They were quite popular round here initially - as our TV reception is useless in many parts of donut city, but so many had bad experiences.
I know of two companies who have had issues being paid for regular work they did for them. One regularly suspended production for them, for months at a time, until bills were settled, the other decided to cut their links.

DON'T DO NTHell

See my other la la la post

I'm not cancelling BT until NTL is in and working s if they feck it up they can bugger off and I'll have no downtime.

[Epiphone]

I moved to NTL once under this impression that it could not possibly be worse than BT. Oh how wrong I was........


BT may take an age to do anything and send you constantly round the house, but they do eventually deliver, NTL sadly don't even know what the word deliver means.

La lal la not listening. Everything will go fine and I'll be saving money over Demon/BT. La la la

[DeadKenny]

If you're using Skype just as a means of getting a number anyone can call from a regular phone, then yeah it's probably okay.

If you want a service where other VoIP users can call you, it's limited to just the Skype network, but yeah that wasn't the original requirement.


As for the number type, the only reason I ask is because many just offer an 0870 or similar which does put people off calling because of the cost.

[tim123]

Is that a geographical number (i.e. 01xxx etc) or an 0845 / 0870 ?

Reading around, that's using Skype-In. You have to pay extra for that I think?

Still a non-standard service though (well, like with Microsoft it will become standard just through popularity, but Skype are ignoring the agreed VoIP standards and the wealth of hardware available).

Sorry, I've no idea what the number range is allocated.

I don't recall the requirement was to find a free service, just one that followed the owner around.

It doesn't matter that Skype is non standard, that's between the box and the network, it doesn't affect the other party to the call. There are other 'Skype' type VoIP boxes that one can buy:

http://www.vonage.co.uk/

tim

[cojak]

With Skype being non-standard, what do you think of Voipfone ? Is is worth using them instead of Skype?

[cojak]

Working on the basis that RichieRich restarted a 3 year old thread I guess the company he's touting is his own.

Loved the 'rather' cheap comment.

Not the cheapest then, eh Richie?

[DeadKenny]

No, It's a normal national number that anyone can call.

You have to have a little box plugged into an always on broadband connection to receive calls.

You can plug the box in anwhere in the world and it will always be reachable on the same one number.

Of course you can't be reached at all when you are moving the box.

tim

Is that a geographical number (i.e. 01xxx etc) or an 0845 / 0870 ?

Reading around, that's using Skype-In. You have to pay extra for that I think?

Still a non-standard service though (well, like with Microsoft it will become standard just through popularity, but Skype are ignoring the agreed VoIP standards and the wealth of hardware available).

[tim123]

I moved to NTL once under this impression that it could not possibly be worse than BT. Oh how wrong I was........
.

You and 100,000 others.

The experience most people have of telcos is: no matter how bad BT are, the others are worse.

tim

[tim123]

Limits your customer base to Skype though I think and you need a PC to use it.

No, It's a normal national number that anyone can call.

You have to have a little box plugged into an always on broadband connection to receive calls.

You can plug the box in anwhere in the world and it will always be reachable on the same one number.

Of course you can't be reached at all when you are moving the box.

tim

[dmini]

DON'T DO NTHell

Seriously - its fine until you have a problem, then it goes downhill fast. I'm speaking from personal experience, but I have friends whose phone line was broken for months, another who was threatened with legal action for a bill that wasn't valid.
They came round door-to-door earlier this year and claimed they had sorted out all their customer service issues - but I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.
They were quite popular round here initially - as our TV reception is useless in many parts of donut city, but so many had bad experiences.
I know of two companies who have had issues being paid for regular work they did for them. One regularly suspended production for them, for months at a time, until bills were settled, the other decided to cut their links.

DON'T DO NTHell

[DeadKenny]

Phone. Why not get a Skype number. This will even work overseas (I know one or two people who do this)

Limits your customer base to Skype though I think and you need a PC to use it.

Not keen on Skype myself, but their marketing model has meant VoIP is just associated with them when they are a completely proprietary system.

SIP standard VoIP might be the way to go. There are several providers now who will provide a UK geographical number (some for free). With SIP you can also use a regular analogue phone with the right router or adapter.

Then of course people can also just call SIP to SIP for free. Some providers are better than others depending on what networks you can call. Nothing more useless than being able to call or be called only on the same network.


Some of the VoIP providers also do online voicemail so you can listen to or download your messages anywhere in the world with a browser.


Actually I was thinking myself of getting a geographical number from a VoIP provider to act as my 'business' line, but I'm not sure how reliable it will be. Still, it's cheaper than paying BT for a second line.


As for NTL... don't do it!

[Ardesco]

I moved to NTL once under this impression that it could not possibly be worse than BT. Oh how wrong I was........


BT may take an age to do anything and send you constantly round the house, but they do eventually deliver, NTL sadly don't even know what the word deliver means.

[Epiphone]

Someone on here recommended oval something-or-other. Gives you an 0870/0845. Thi goes to my landline and BT redirect to the mobile.

Seems to work OK (might knacker up when I move to NTL though)