Re: BT new prices


"pmj" <post@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:_2***.110889$wl.53887@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Rabbit" <Rabbit_is@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

So...
Since you have a Phone that actually costs several Hundred Pounds
& it was given to you for Free (or for well under a Hundred Quid)
when you took out the PAYG Contract (& yes, it *is* a Contract),
then the Mobile Service Provider naturally wants to (& is surely
expected to?) get that (subsidised) price back, by charging for the
Calls that you *do* you make from it?

Yes I bought the phone I have ATM for under a £100 'cos up till then I used
son's cast offs but they ended up with too many bells and whistles so I
bought a fairly basic ( i.e a phone *not* an MP3 player or camera etc. Tools
for the job you know;-) ) So I bought the phone and put my old SIM in it.
That SIM came with a mobile bought 11 years ago come November and has
actually in it's time been with three different providers.

If you aren't paying any Monthly Fee for it, then they would charge (more)
for the Calls made from it.

Yep I accept that.

& if they were to offer *all* Calls to 080x Numbers for Free, [*1]
like a Landline firm does (or some, but very few Monthly Contract
Phone Tariffs do), you would probably use the *other* Telco Service
Providers that offer Calls through 080x Numbers for making the Calls?

So that means the Mobile Service Provider, who bought (& paid for)
your Phone from the Manufacturer of it, wouldn't make enough money
to continue to make a Profit & offer Dividends to their Share Holders.

So they'd go out of business (or get bought up by another firm)

But presumably BT doesn't charge as much to call an 0800 number on their
lines the mobile companies could charge at less than the normal call rate.
Mobile companies don't charge for calls to 999 or 112 and the AA is *our
other emergency service* ;-)

So then, you'd have to buy another Phone, from a *different*
Service Provider, who *does* charge for the Calls.

It's all, basically worked out so that they make a Profit - that,
after all is why they are in business!!

Yeah but there are profits and obscene profits. Pile 'em high sell 'em cheap
started off many a profitable business.

[*1]
Remember, many Mobile Phone Service providers *don't* actually charge
for 080x Calls to the AA, RAC, Green Flag & ChildLine things, even
though they *do* charge for other 080x Numbers.

If you don't want to be charged for making 080x Calls (or for 080x
Calls to things like the AA) from your Mobile, then you've got to use
a different Tariff/Service Provider, who will recoup the cost from you
(or from their other Customers) in different ways.

As I said /\ up there my SIM has been in the hands of three mobile companies
and the only one which gives a decent and dependable reception here is
Vodafone.

'Course they are ripping me off. All PAYG mobiles do :-(

Yep.
So why stay using a Tariff that is ripping you off then?
Change to one that gives you better Value, for the Call Pattern that
you make.

PAYG under normal usage does fit my call pattern very nicely.

So, what are you complaining about then?

I'm complaining about being overcharged not charged in itself.

... In fact all mobile companies rip you off

Yes, to a certain extent.
But the one I use seems reasonable, for most of what I use it for.

Thought yes, as with all things there are *some* things that
I'm not completely happy with - I (as you can) can always choose
to change, if I decide that (for my particular usage) they no longer
suit me.

I still maintain that mobile companies no matter which are ripping
us off for call charges from and termination charges to mobiles
compared to just about anywhere else in the world, certainly we are
the most expensive in Europe.

I don't think so.

Almost all other places charge you (up front) for the Phone,
in the first place!!!

Yep but unless you must have the latest all bells and whistles mobile phones
themselves have dropped in price considerably.

So, when you take into account the total Outlay (Cost you pay) of
the *Phone*, as well as any Monthly Charge (if you pay one) & then
the (typical) Cost of a normal amount of Calls made on it, then
I think you'll find that the UK Prices aren't actually any more
expensive!!!

My brother, (in Aruba, in the Dutch Carribean) for example has to
*pay* for *Incoming* (International) Calls on his Mobile!!!

& that's in addition to the Price that *we* have to Pay for the *Outgoing*
Calls to them!

That's how it jbexes in USA too. Though to call a USA mobile is the same
cost as calling a landline even from this country.

... or OFCOM wouldn't have told them to cut their charges.

Hmmm...

I'm not altogether sure that having Regulators like that is best?

Whatever happened to "Market Forces"?
& "Competition"?

What competition ? Yes various companies offer various packages
but in the end they don't differ much.

Well, yes, but when one firm does drop their Prices, (to gain a small
competitive advantage) the others pretty soon follow suit!!!

Over the years (most) Mobile Call Prices *have* in fact dropped.

Well yes. I had a mobile phone before they came with a SIM, size of a brick
and definitely only for emergencies.

Wasn't the idea of all this "Privatisation" stuff, that the firms
would have to *Compete* for the business?

And we know what happened to things like utilities and transport
under privatisation.

Yep.

So...
What's the answer then?

Should the Mobile Phone Service Providers be "Nationalised"?
Or what?

A compromise between rip off prices and profits.

If people continue to pay whatever is asked by the firms, then
of course, they will try to charge whatever they can.

Exactly why we need the likes of OFCOM and ICSTIS.

Nope.

The other Point of View ("other side of the coin") is...
That's exactly why we need people to *choose* not to buy Products
& Services from Firms who they think are over-charging them!

Nobody *forced* you to use the particular Phone Company & Tariff that you
are on.
You chose it.

& nobody is *forcing* you to keep using them, if you don't like their
Charges, or Service or anything.

See above. I really don't have a choice apart from a contract which wouldn't
be economical for me.

I just know I had checked how much was in the account just a couple
of days earlier and after calling the AA I was nearly £6 less.

Well, yes, using a PAYG Tariff does make it much harder to see
exactly which Calls have cost how much.

... All I had done in those days apart from calling the AA was send
3 texts.

So, how often do you call the AA then?

Since 1989 4 times.

Well, that doesn't add up to all that much then?
Say about a fiver each time (assuming all of the Calls were made
on that Tarrif which does actually Charge for Calls to the AA)...

20 Quid in nearly 8 Years?
That's only £2.50 a Year!!!

Or about 20 Pence per Month!!!

Not bad, is it, for having the use of a Mobile Phone available,
for all that time.
& being able to call the AA when you needed to.

Oh it's much cheaper for me than that 'cos the other three times I called
the AA I used a landline. Used to have them, in boxes, on many street
corners. You must remember them ;-)

You would need to work out whether the savings on Calls (& the
Free Calls) that you get from a proper (Monthly) Contract type
Tariff would be enough to compensate for the Monthly Charge.

Or try Ringing a Local Garage (on a *Geographic* Number, which
is much cheaper to ring), when your Car breaks Down...

But I don't carry a list of local garage phone numbers :-)

Well, why not?
If you think that it would be cheaper to Call them out (which it
won't be), when your car breaks down, it would make sense to spend
a few minutes Compling a List.
:-)

It would have cost me the same to call a garage though as to call the AA.

& then see how much you have to pay the Garage to make the
Car Fixted!!!

The local garage charged £35 for what the AA wanted £85 for :-)

OK, that would have paid for quite a few Calls to them then,
wouldn't it?

So, maybe they *aren't* so expensive, after all?

So why not Ring them up & give them your business, rather than Paying
the Annual AA Subscription & *also* paying a Fiver to call the AA?

If you don't use the local Businesses, then how can you be sure they
will stay in business?

See news:4hi4jdF1radl2U1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx for the whole story.

LOL!
Yep.
That seems to back up most of the comments & points I have been making.

I'm surprised that the AA bloke was prepared to Follow you to the
Garage, where you decided to go *after* his Diagnosis!

Yes, well he was concerned that I wouldn't get to the garage and I
appreciate that. He didn't BTW advise me to go to the garage, he never said
anything like that ;-) ;-) That's another thing I appreciated.

How much would the garage firm have charged you for Diagnosing the
Fault & then Supplying the Battery, (& the Call out/Recovery/Towing
Charge) if you had called *them* (at the Local Rate from your Mobile),
rather than calling the AA to Diagnose the problem?

Probably not a lot more, the garage does my servicing, MOT etc and has never
ripped me off. A rare thing in a world where most garages will try to rip
off a female. And don't dare argue about that it's true, I've proved it many
times :-)

BTW - How old was the Battery?
Didn't it have a Guarantee/Warranty on it?

& if so, wasn't it still within the Warranty Period?

It was the factory fitted battery so four years old and being factory fitted
I doubt it would still have had anything but the normal car warranty of one
year.
--
Sandra
People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did, but
People will never forget how you made them feel.




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