# Tele 2 scam



## foxylady (17 May 2005)

If you are thinking of signing up to tele2 based on their 3 hours of free calls, dont bother. - beacuse instead of receiving 3 hours of calls free i.e 180 minutes. they just deduct €1.64 from  your bill which they calculate the cost of 3 hours to be.


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## Lemurz (17 May 2005)

False advertising?


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## RainyDay (17 May 2005)

Do you disagree with their calculation? I'm not clear why you consider this to be a scam.


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## Crunchie (17 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> Do you disagree with their calculation?



I'm guessing here but maybe tele2 has a minimum call charge in which case, for example, 90 x 2 minute calls would probably cost a lot more than €1.64.

Does €1.64 represent the cost of a 180 minute call???


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## C2H5OH (17 May 2005)

"Based on a call credit value of 3 hours of national evening calls from a fixed line to a fixed line (at 1.1 cent/minute) used in calls of more than 6 minutes in duration. Other types of calls cost more and will use the credit more quickly (minimum call charge of 6.35 cent)."

It's in the small print on the very bottom of their home page. They really should say "Up to" .... "3 hours of free phone calls" in the banner ad at the top of page.


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## tonka (17 May 2005)

see www.askcomreg.ie  but Comreg can take up one year to investigate false advertising by Telcos


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## foxylady (18 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> Do you disagree with their calculation? I'm not clear why you consider this to be a scam.


 

I consider this to be a scam because it says 3 hours free and hours are measured in minutes ie 180 mins, they should just say that they will deduct this much off your first bill.


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## RainyDay (18 May 2005)

foxylady said:
			
		

> I consider this to be a scam because it says 3 hours free and hours are measured in minutes ie 180 mins, they should just say that they will deduct this much off your first bill.


I still don't get it - Are you disagreeing with the amount? Or just the manner in which it is deducted?


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## podgerodge (18 May 2005)

Ahh come on - this is blatently deceitful advertising - by my calculations if you made about 26 calls lasting 1 second - where you just got someone's answering machine there goes your "3 hours of calls".  (26*6.35= Eur1.65)

Small print just ain't good enough.

At least with Eircom's talktime package minutes are minutes and you could theoretically make over 5000 calls lasting 2 seconds for a 180 minute allowance.  Tele2 putting a minimum call charge of 6.35 cent into a free calls option is nothing more than a serious attempt to pull the wool over people's eyes.

Fair play for bringing this up!


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## foxylady (19 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> I still don't get it - Are you disagreeing with the amount? Or just the manner in which it is deducted?


 
I am disagreeing with fact you are not getting 180 minutes as stated . they should really say in the ad that your first bill will be decucted by 180 minutes charged at 1.1 c , but the n no-one would be interested . so they are blatantly decieiving people my making them think its based on time not cost.


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## Humpback (19 May 2005)

podgerodge said:
			
		

> Small print just ain't good enough.


 
While, in general, you can't argue with the principle of a statement like this, I think it's a cop-out of the highest order to use it as an excuse for getting yourself into a situation that you didn't fully understand, or weren't 100% aware of.

In everything that you do these days, there's small print. And everyone knows that.

If you don't read the small print, you're doing yourself a disservice.


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## RainyDay (19 May 2005)

foxylady said:
			
		

> I am disagreeing with fact you are not getting 180 minutes as stated . they should really say in the ad that your first bill will be decucted by 180 minutes charged at 1.1 c , but the n no-one would be interested . so they are blatantly decieiving people my making them think its based on time not cost.


So by your reckoning, what should be the value of the 3 free hours?


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## ClubMan (19 May 2005)

C2H5OH said:
			
		

> They really should say "Up to" .... "3 hours of free phone calls" in the banner ad at the top of page.



You've hit the nail on the head there as far as I can see.


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## foxylady (20 May 2005)

ronan_d_john said:
			
		

> While, in general, you can't argue with the principle of a statement like this, I think it's a cop-out of the highest order to use it as an excuse for getting yourself into a situation that you didn't fully understand, or weren't 100% aware of.
> 
> In everything that you do these days, there's small print. And everyone knows that.
> 
> If you don't read the small print, you're doing yourself a disservice.


 
its a bit hard to read small print when this is foffered to you over the phone


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## foxylady (20 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> So by your reckoning, what should be the value of the 3 free hours?


 
well it should be like this. if your calls total say 3hrs 40  mins then you should only have to pay for the 40 minutes


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## podgerodge (21 May 2005)

3 hours - 180 minutes. simple.


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## RainyDay (22 May 2005)

foxylady said:
			
		

> well it should be like this. if your calls total say 3hrs 40  mins then you should only have to pay for the 40 minutes


Thanks - So in financial terms, what is the difference between 'only paying for the 40 minutes' as you suggest and paying for 3 hrd 40 mins and getting the initial discount off your bill.


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## podgerodge (22 May 2005)

Because 3 hours is defined by Them and not by You.  It's potentially 3 hours if you use the phone exactly as they suggest in their ad.  But it could be far far less.  180 minutes would be Really 3 hours whatever way you used the phone.  If Foxylady used the phone for lots of short phone calls she would end up paying a lot more than if she only had to pay for the 40 minutes in her example.

"Based on a call credit value of 3 hours of national evening calls from a fixed line to a fixed line (at 1.1 cent/minute) used in calls of more than 6 minutes in duration. Other types of calls cost more and will use the credit more quickly (minimum call charge of 6.35 cent)."


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## RainyDay (22 May 2005)

OK - I think I'm finally starting to understand this, though I'd still love to see some sample calculations. In all fairness, their banner ad does contain an '*', i.e. "3 hours *" so it's not all that surprising that there are some terms & conditions around this.


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## podgerodge (23 May 2005)

podgerodge said:
			
		

> if you made about 26 calls lasting 1 second - where you just got someone's answering machine there goes your "3 hours of calls".  (26*6.35= Eur1.65).




Eircom's talktime package minutes are minutes and you could theoretically make over 5000 calls lasting 2 seconds for a 180 minute allowance. (because it does not incorporate minimum charge of 6.35cent).


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## podgerodge (23 May 2005)

Better to put it this way:

Eur1.64 is the call credit.

EVERY call costs a minimum of 6.35 cent.

So the MAX number of calls you can make for this credit is 26 calls (1.64/.0635)

If these calls averaged 30 seconds each your "free 3 hours" would be 13 minutes (26*30 seconds) a LONG way from 3 hours!

If these calls were 1 minute each long your "free 3 hours" would be 26 minutes!!

If they all lasted 3 minutes your "free 3 hours" would be 1 hour and 18 mins.

The closest you would get to 3 free hours would be 26 calls of 6 minutes duration or maybe one phone call of 3 hours duration.


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## RainyDay (23 May 2005)

I don't see what the big problem is, given that they explain it pretty clearly in the * footnote, i.e. "Based on a call credit value of 3 hours of national evening calls from a fixed line to a fixed line (at 1.1 cent/minute) used in calls of more than 6 minutes in duration. Other types of calls cost more and will use the credit more quickly (minimum call charge of 6.35 cent)."


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## podgerodge (24 May 2005)

I agree - it's not a scam.  Just a little sneaky as there is a world of difference between 3 free hours from Tele2 and 3 free hours from Eircom.  For once, there isin't a catch with Eircom.


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## ThomasJ (26 May 2005)

Don't be fooled.........there is always a catch with Eircom...


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## podgerodge (27 May 2005)

you can't make sweeping statements like that!  The Eircom talktime package is simply an allowance of minutes per month included in the monthly fee.


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## foxylady (30 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> I don't see what the big problem is, given that they explain it pretty clearly in the * footnote, i.e. "Based on a call credit value of 3 hours of national evening calls from a fixed line to a fixed line (at 1.1 cent/minute) used in calls of more than 6 minutes in duration. Other types of calls cost more and will use the credit more quickly (minimum call charge of 6.35 cent)."


 




how can u see a footnote when this is offered over the phone????


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## RainyDay (30 May 2005)

foxylady said:
			
		

> how can u see a footnote when this is offered over the phone????


Was there no paperwork involved in making the switch?


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## foxylady (31 May 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> Was there no paperwork involved in making the switch?


 

none whatsoever


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## RainyDay (31 May 2005)

foxylady said:
			
		

> none whatsoever


Fair enough - Did they cold-call you, or how did you become aware their offer?


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## foxylady (1 Jun 2005)

RainyDay said:
			
		

> Fair enough - Did they cold-call you, or how did you become aware their offer?


 

cold calling


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## gus (5 Apr 2006)

*Tele2 complaint*

Hi how's it going?

I have actually been stitched up by Tele2. I tried to set up an account with them when i moved house last October. My partner is Japanese and needs to call home a lot, so the 85% saving they offer compared to Eircom was pretty darn attractive. But they botched it and only she was worried about the balance with them did we find out about seven weeks later that they had never set it up.

Oh dear.

750 euros worth of oh dear. It clearly states in their contract from their website that they have a resbonsibility to process my application which they patently dramatically fluffed! This responsibilty however has never been honoured - the best I could get was about 20 free minutes - paltry in the extreme! And then to add insult to injury they set me up with an account after I explicitly told them I thought they were incompetent and wouldn't ever deal with them again except through a solicitor. It took three requests and three bills to get that cancelled and their so called customer service manager has never informed me of any query about what happened. 

Just starting to get the word out - they're fine if nothing goes wrong, but then...

Look forward to your opinions,

Gus


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## Guest127 (6 Apr 2006)

gus: sympathise with you on this one. not entirely unlike bt in the broadband saga. Did you check talk talk rates for Japan? if you dial 13636 before the number you get the cheap rate.


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