Alpha Telecom

Advantages: Useful for Conducting Holiday Romances
Disadvantages: Lack of Decent Relatives to Phone

...other customers around. ALPHA THE FIRST TIME AROUND I remember reading an advert in the London Evening Standard about Alpha Telecom in 1996. The advert said that calls to India were 26p/minute. This was amazing, as the call charge to India using Unicom was 37p/minute. Like a prat I immediately signed up to Alpha Telecom. When I registered I was given loads of documentation. One of the leaflets said that the call charge to India was 37p/minute. ...
...offer. I never used Alpha again until… ALPHA AGAIN Last August my uncle told me that he used Alpha Telecom. My uncle is probably the most social person I know. During the week at least 2 families stay with him. At weekends he visits friends all over the country. So he knows what he is talking about. My father and uncle have not spoken since 1989. Both are in their late 60s and their behaviour is rather childish. Around this time Unicom started ... Read review

Advantages: Cheaper than BT
Disadvantages: Not competitive to other services/phone cards available, and a fuss to open the account

...to open an account with Alpha Telecom for their prepaid service. I noticed them due to the high number of adverts on the tube, although to begin with the calls seem to be sufficiently low priced. However, by the time I made several calls, a £20 pound credit on my account was very quickly used up. However much they boast about cheap call rates etc, I got tricked in that they had different rates for different access numbers, etc etc, so although they ...
...which are much more convenient and seriously very very cheap, I'm phoning HK at the cost equivalent to making calls within England which is ridiculously cheap. Therefore I definitely would not recomment Alpha ever again, but instead a phone card called Telco which is so so cheap. ... Read review

== BUYERS BEWARE == Alpha encourages users to top up large amounts of money to qualify for their free £5 of credit. What they do not do is make it absolutely clear i.e. not in small print - that if you don't use your account in a 6 month period, they will close your account and keep your money. I have tried on numerous occasions to get them to send automated emails to their customers to let them know when they are nearing the 6 months. As an IT manager I know that this is not very hard to do, so why haven't they implemented this - because they want to keep getting money for nothing - there can be no other reason.

BUYER BEWARE ! ! ! ! ! I was told by an alpha telecom customer service person on the telephone that calls to India would be 9p / minute. This is also the rate advertised on their website. When I checked my account I realised that I was charged a staggering 46p / minute! When I called to complain I was told that this was because of my priceplan, but failed to explain why I was not advised to go onto the most cost effective priceplan. I was told they would not remedy this situation that occured because of misinformation. A mistake on their behalf that costed me about £150. Any advise?

Advantages: NONE
Disadvantages: Many including more expensive calls than other calling card companies, don't just compare with BT

I used to use Alpha Telecoms when their calling card. I have to say the service sucks!!! BIG TIME! The call quality was TERRIBLE and when I called customer services I was hung on a LONG queue, and in the end I was CUT OFF! I was fuming! It was not a freephone number either! So people, DO NOT join Alpha! If you really need a long distance carrier, consider First Call (my current long distance calling card people, they offer very CHEAP and QUALITY ... Read review