... This was actually before they became Pipex Homecall. They seemed to offer good customer service with an in-country call centre. This was very important to me because of the fiasco dealings I had with both BT and NTL (maybe a different review in the future).
The various packages on offer ... Read review
Advantages: Sounds good on paper, but reality is FAR different Disadvantages: Extremely Atrocious Customer Service
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In addition, Homecall was offering several things we liked:
1) Free modem
2) Free connection
3) Only a 12 month minimum contract
4) Free calls to other Homecall users
5) Line rental included on the bill so no separate bill from BT
6) As stated, in-country call centre
7) Extra bonuses if you gave the names of friends or family who joined Homecall as well
About 2 months after ... ...dropping some calls. Contact Homecall Customer Service, give them the information, and at first they are helpful, but nobody seems to know what they are doing. It gets to the point that our internet connection finally drops completely and we can no longer get on. Ring to CS (customer service) again, no problems on our end they tell us, but eventually after 4-5 calls finally refer the matter to a BT Line Technician. During this time, I have also asked ... more
Last year, upon returning from a few months overseas, we looked into several options as to home phone as well as internet service. Walking down the High Street of any major town and even some smaller towns, you will probably be confronted with various salesman standing outside of mobile phone stores offering what is the latest and best trying to entice people to come into one of their stores. Well, after walking into 4-5 stores in succession, we were growing tired of what seemed like the same sales pitch. Smooth talking sales people who were only interested in meeting their quotas for the day than they were in actually providing true customer service.
Well, the last one we walked into was one that was authorized to sell HOMECALL! I must admit to start with that we were very impressed. This was actually before they became Pipex Homecall. They seemed to offer good customer service with an in-country call centre. This was very important to me because of the fiasco dealings I had with both BT and NTL (maybe a different review in the future).
The various packages on offer were Phone only, Dial-up Internet only, Broadband only, or a combination of phone and internet. We chose the 1MB Broadband service and settled down to wait for the new modem to arrive and the phone to be switched over. Right on cue, the new modem did arrive and the phone was switched over. I even had to call customer service on a few small issues and it was dealt with right away. We felt this was finally going to be a good company that we would be with for a long time.
In addition, Homecall was offering several things we liked: 1) Free modem 2) Free connection 3) Only a 12 month minimum contract 4) Free calls to other Homecall users 5) Line rental included on the bill so no separate bill from BT 6) As stated, in-country call centre 7) Extra bonuses if you gave the names of friends or family who joined Homecall as well
About 2 months after starting our service, we received a sales call to offer us a free upgrade to 2MB service. The only hitch was that your 12 month contract started again from the day the 2MB service was switched on. We were told that the lines in our area (near the edge of a town in the countryside and on a country lane) had been upgraded allowing for this to take place. I was quite pleased because so far our lines had actually only allowed 512KB access.
DISASTER STRIKES!!!!!!!!
1st - no increase in speed despite several contacts by me to find out what is happening. 3 months or so later I receive a letter stating that they can't actually increase my service speed.
Then approximately 8 months into our contract, our internet connection starts to have problems and even our phone is dropping some calls. Contact Homecall Customer Service, give them the information, and at first they are helpful, but nobody seems to know what they are doing. It gets to the point that our internet connection finally drops completely and we can no longer get on. Ring to CS (customer service) again, no problems on our end they tell us, but eventually after 4-5 calls finally refer the matter to a BT Line Technician. During this time, I have also asked whether there might be a problem with the modem itself. "No, there is no problem with our modems!"
BT gets sent out twice and there is no problem with the line. Finally, I speak with another person (now 5-6 weeks down the line and STILL NO INTERNET!) who tells me to send the modem back and they will check it out and send it back 1st class mail. Great!! So, I send it off and 2 weeks later still have not heard and two calls later nobody knows what is going on and NOBODY calls me back.
Finally after what was the 9th or 10th call, I get somebody to tell me that "Yes, the modem was bad and we are sending you a new one free of charge!" Great. Now I would be able to get on line again! After more than 2 months of no service, I finally was able to borrow a modem off of somebody that did work and allowed me to get on while I waited for the new modem. Three more months and a few more phone calls and I still HAVE NO NEW MODEM!!
2 weeks ago, I rang again and they told me that somebody had authorized the disconnection of my service!! However, there was no note on the system stating who had done this. By the way, this entire time I was being charged from my broadband which I was not able to use! To be fair, I was told that once the problem was sorted that I would get a full refund. NOT HAPPENED!
My latest bill came in this week and instead of paying £23.99 for 1MB Broadband and PHone, I have been charged £9.99 for line rental and an additional charge of £2.50 for advanced voicemail which I previously had for free!!
Oh, one other thing -- for all my problems I still had to pay for all the calls to their customer service on one of those overpriced non-geographical 0870 numbers!
RECOMMENDATION --
1) Do NOT use Pipex Homecall! 2) Do NOT use Pipex Homecall!! 3) Do NOT use Pipex Homecall!!!
Home call is from the people of phones 4 U, the mobile phone company, and has been since 1987: They claim to sell 26 phones a minute, and have an annual turnover of £1 billion (as a group), so one could assume they are trust worthy.
MY EXPERIENCE:
Living on a low income I'm a sucker for freebies and offers and in fact anything to save money…some might call me tight, but why waste money?
So having been with BT all my married life (about 23 years) ... ...guarantee to save me money on my BT bill. Currently BT charged me £10.50 a month for my line rental; they would save me 51p a month on that. In addition the calls were cheaper: With BT I was on option 1 paying 5.5p per hour call evenings and weekends…Home call would 5p for 90 minutes that worked out to 50% extra for .5p less money. All in all it seemed like a decent deal so I agreed and signed up.
If one thing is important to me it would have to ...
dabmim 07.06.2005 (15.11.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Homecall
Advantages: Cheaper than BT, free calls to other Homecall users Disadvantages: Expensice to premium numbers
...at the overall rating for Homecall on Ciao it is quite clear to see that this company does not have a very good reputation with a lot of people. As a satisfied customer I felt I had to do a review on Homecall to redress the balance somewhat. They do have their bad points which I will address in my review but there are very few suppliers of utilities these days which are all good.
I changed my suppliers to Homecall in March of this year mainly so ... ...WHO ARE HOMECALL?
Homecall are part of the company Phones 4 U which is a mobile phone retailer and you have probably came accross a Phones 4 U store which are in most major high streets or shopping centres. The Homecall part of the company deal with landline phones and the landline calls that come with it. They can also supply broadband access as well which I can't comment on as I do not have internet access through them. HOW DO YOU JOIN?
1) In ...
killiefan 24.11.2005 (17.07.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Homecall
Advantages: Calls Cheaper than BT Disadvantages: Dont keep to the offers they advertise!
...you first sign up to Homecall they offer you a free cordless phone. The modle that they offer is a cheap phone, which a friend of mine had and it lasted only about 2 and a half months! However, if you are lucky like me, then they will not have any in stock and you will get a more expensive version which comes with answer phone and load speaker, and ive had ith for a year now and it still works great!
Homecall offer 3 call time packages for landlines:
... ...service much more cheaply!
Homecall also offer 2 broadband packages:
1. Standard 150 kbps - This costs £19.99 per month, and they offer a free modem and connection. It is 3x faster than dial up.
2. Extra 512 kpbs - This costs £24.99 per month, and they offer a free modem and connection. It is 10x faster than dial up.
Homecall also offer 3 call time and broadband packages:
1. Broadband and call time: Standard broadband (as above), plus you pay ...
jeffandlorraine 04.02.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Homecall
Advantages: Good speed, most landline calls free, have greatly reduced my telephone costs, technical support answers quickly. Disadvantages: Technical support staff not always that competent. Emails not getting through.
...ago I transferred to Pipex Homecall under the mistaken impression that I was simply migrating to another part of the same company. On paper, I suppose that is correct, but, in reality, Homecall is a more or less separate entity and does not seem to operate to the high standards I had experienced from Pipex Broadband.
The first problem arose when Homecall staff assured me that I would be able to keep my existing Pipex email addresses. This was very ... ...many telephone calls (my expense) Homecall admitted thay had made a mistake, wrote confirming cancellation, and Pipex Broadband welcomed me back. End of story - I thought.
A few days later, my internet connection went dead. I telephoned Pipex Broadband tech. support and, after much investigation, it transpired that I had been migrated by Homecall. Many more telephone calls later, I decided to cut my losses and stay with Homecall rather than try ...
johninbideford 12.01.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Homecall
Advantages: From a British Company, MAC Codes Now Provided Disadvantages: Questionable Product Advertising, Inadequate Customer Service, Speed Throttling, Care Required with Small Print, Fair User Policy
For me the Homecall Broadband /Telephone call package has been little more than a complete disaster. I hope that the contents of this review helps point people in the right direction and perhaps save them some money as well.
HOMECALL is part of the British Caudwell Communications group. The group is probably best known for its PHONES4U mobile phone shops that are probably still regarded as the group's core business. The Homecall part of the group ... ...and ADSL (Broadband) market. The Homecall product that I am reviewing is a Broadband /Telephone call package that I purchased around one year ago. At the time of purchase the Homecall broadband product had not been on the market for very long and few if any product reviews were available - I knew I was taking a gamble but the deal looked just too good to miss at the time. I also like to support British companies where possible. The Homecall package ...
frankpotter 23.11.2005 (27.11.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Homecall
Advantages: UK Calls for 1p - Cheap overseas calls Disadvantages: You have to dial 18866 first - but that's not a problem!
apply thereafter.
SUMMARY
I have been using 18866 for two months now, and I have saved £££.
I have never had a problem connecting, even during peak times, and the line quality has always been perfect.
I have also recommended it to many of my friends, and they are delighted by the quality of the calls, the ease of use and the amazing low prices.
Notes:
This works with other phone companies as well as with BT lines.
The reviewer who didn't think this essay was very helpful uses Homecall and thinks it is cheaper! Homecall advertises "Just 5p per call for up to 90 minutes for local and national off peak calls". This is 500% more expensive than 18866, and it only applies to off peak - with 18866 you can call any time! And don't forget - there's no monthly charge on 18866. ...
TrueChristian 11.01.2005 (12.01.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Call18866
Advantages: discounts and offers Disadvantages: misleading information
HOW IT ALL STARTED
-------------------------------
My story started about two weeks ago when surfing a UK freebie site. Having just moved to my new and humble home, I was looking around for offers by phone companies - wanting to compare prices on international and non-geographical phone numbers.
This site had a number of offers and one of them was about "First Telecom" and its "Price Match" scheme. In brief, they were stating that "If we are not cheaper than BT, Homecall, OneTel, TalkTalk or Tele2 we will refund you the difference of the phone calls made via our network". On top of that, no monthly fee was required, itemised billing was free and one of the latest DVD releases was up for grabs. Sounded too good to be true was I decided to give it a go and clicked on their website link...
THE WEBSITE EXPERIENCE ...
expertop 18.10.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of First Telecom
Advantages: Undercut BT by huge amounts! Disadvantages: There's someone cheaper to call mobiles on!
Recently there has been a lot of media coverage of alternatives to BT - homecall, TalkTalk, Toucan and Tele2 to name just a few but there is one company who is unbeatable on landlines and that is call18866.
I could go into the ins and outs of the various prices for mobiles (12p per minute all day weekdays and 3p per minute all day weekends plus 1p connection fee) or their fantastic international rates (2p per minute plus 1p connection fee to call the USA) but they're really side issues to where the money saving excellence lies.
One penny phone calls.
That's it. Phone your mum in Tooting for 3 hours at 2pm and it will cost you a penny. Call your brother in Inverness for 6 minutes at 7.30pm and it will still be a penny. Hell, go crazy and phone your wife-to-be at 4am after your stag night for however much drunken shenanigans she ...
Wellers 14.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Call18866
