18866 and protecting your data (or Who Wants Cold Calls?)

Don't be silly. You get it back from the credit card company.

IME, they always do.

How does that differ from other Telcos?

Well, they seem to be gaining market share without much advertising spend. I wonder what a high-profile TV advert campaign would have cost by comparison.

Indeed they are, but as you've not been able to identify a snag as far as customers are concerned...

It was a drop from 1p + 1p/mon to 1p + 0.5p/min, then 1p. Perhaps it's a research project to test the elasticity of demand. Perhaps the white mice are at it again.

Absence of other apparent motives for your apparent vendetta.

Ah. No idea. I only have the one of them, and it seems fast enough.

Duh! "about 2p"

I can't see how that will help if they have got your money.

In the senario where they increase their prices to a ridiculous amount and you continue to use the service then the charges although very high could still be correct.

Yes you can, from the credit card company. While you cannot stop a continuous authority on a credit card, it does not permit the merchant to take money illegitimately. You can still dispute the charge and wait for the merchant to prove to the CC that they were okay to make the charge. I had successful "reversed" a couple of unfair charges by rental car companies via this route.

I don't know about the cost of a TV campaign ad, but in the indirect telecom's industry, the cost of customer acqusation used to be costed at 20 per customer. Hence these Telcos were able to give away dialler boxes for free (when cost about 20 each to buy and fulfill).

It is interesting to note that TalkTalk gives affiliates a 15.05 bounty per customer sign up via CPS, so I guess the above 20 figure is not far off for indirect access.

Tiscali rates were good but they are realistic. i.e. 30% below NTL standard rates during the day and higher than BT and NTL standard rates at other times. 18866 current rates do not appear to me to be realistic. Tiscali were/are? also a major European Telecomms company with although currently they are in some difficulty.

I'll let ya - my DVD-717, fairly high end kit - was a nightmare to use compared to todays £30 generic jobs. Great picture though!

---------- I Deliver.

I've got lots of spare Nokia batteries thanks

I'd be more worried about exposure to the sun, (both the tabloid and our star)

My fridge uses many times more leccy

No they're not, what price ones to ones health being stuck indoors waiting for a phone call?

and the danger of it, more people are killed by lightning coming down the phone line holding a telephone handset than any other way

Steve Terry

That's when Tiscali actually bother to send a bill, what happened to your Tiscali conspiracy campaign to them only sending out bills to the unlucky? ;-)

Steve Terry

I've got lots of spare Nokia batteries thanks

I'd be more worried about exposure to the sun, (both the tabloid and our star)

My fridge uses many times more leccy

No they're not, what price ones to ones health being stuck indoors waiting for a phone call?

and the danger of it, more people are killed by lightning coming down the phone line holding a telephone handset than any other way

Steve Terry

Womby, I am with you 100% in what you have said. Make use of the service while it lasts. They already have my personal details and CC number so I may as well use them a lot.

But my posts are sparked by an interest in what they are getting up to with such predatory pricing.

Har har. Not if your credit card company wants to refund you, unless you are explicitly protected by Section 75 of the CCA in which case you can insist on it.

I hope your experience can be extrapolated.

But which other telcos have this sort of thing in their contracts:

(1) "Information you provide or we hold about you may be used by us and/or our partners to contact you by any means (including mail, telephone, email or text messages) about ... any other services and products, provided by us, or our partners, now or in the near future"

(2) "We may disclose information we hold about you to third parties ... as part of the process of sale of one or more of our businesses" ... "these third parties may be located outside the EEA in countries which do not have the same standards of protection for personal data as the UK."

Maybe the mice are. And maybe they are not. I would say the odds against it are nearly as large as those employed by the Improbability Drive.

Isn't a vendetta to do with revenge? I don't have revenge as a motive. I am trying to cast a critical eye on this. You know, get some Total Perspective. I somehow don't think FINAREA have a Heart Of Gold.

I am referring to a company who does this and then goes into receivership.

The receiver ain't paying you a cent until he has paid off all the preferential creditors first and also paid those very strange and very large preferential loans made to the company by the directors & shareholders which always seem to appear as if by magic when insolvency is on the horizon. Oh, and after the receiver has paid himself generously too.

Don't forget that FINAREA/Call18866's president is a qualified liquidator so he will know all the ropes if the time comes.

These two are both within the last 12 months:

CC fraud even happens *to* companies.

That is easily explained by the shambolic billing system they inherited when they bought Liberty Surf. No conspiracy, just incompetance.

But more are killed or injured because mobiles are used while driving or being mugged for your mobile. Possibly more by people walking into lamp posts, because they are engrossed in their phone conversation. Possibly even by heart attacks brought on by the irritation caused by other peoples phone conversations.