Eircom talktime ..."most improved"?

Telestunt

To Dr Moriarty

You say that my charges from landline to mobiles will appear on my Eircom bill to whom I only pay rental.
When I contacted Eircom to chech this out the receptionist did'nt know what I was talking about but rang me back later to say that someone in Eircom's office have heard of Telestunt and that the call to mobile charges would appear on my next Eircom bill.

Here's the catch. I have just received my Esat BT bill
through which at the moment I make all calls and I find the calls I made using Telestunt's prefix to 0818 appearing on their bill. What are Eircom referring to in this case?

To Shufty:

Are you positive about that weekend rate of 4.92 cent.

I cannot see anything on Telestunt's site to say this and
Dr Moriarty thinks it's only 1.92c at the weekend.

Thanks

Telestunt

Shufty:

Sorry the Dr thinks it's 1.26c to call mobiles at the weekend.

Thanks again

Re: Telestunt

the Dr thinks it's 1.26c to call mobiles at the weekend

Click to expand...

Martin (& Shufty),

So does Eircom! What I quoted above —
Local Daytime 4.92c
Evening 1.26c
Weekend 1.26c
National Daytime 8.17c
Evening 4.92c
Weekend 1.26c
— is from the Eircom website, and I just rang 1901 to confirm it...

[Edit] P.S. Martin, I can't understand why those calls showed up on your EsatBT bill, 'though — I thought Eircom "owned" those 1890/0818 prefixes. Maybe ask EsatBT about it?

phonetalk

Dr.M: Got my first bill today under the talktime 2 arrangement. Rental and vat on rental as stated €68.
1000 off peak minutes all used up ( oddly enough there was no extra charges and no indication of any calls being made off peak outside these 1000 minutes, which I find unbelievable.) there was additional charges for daytime calls , mobile calls, premium rate and enquiries and that total bill which also had a refund of calling barred charges of €4 came to €89. One point I have to query is the call a friend for 'free'. I advised them of a number for this and said number appears a number of times in the 1000 all Ireland off peak minutes and there is no indication anywhere else to show that the free 400 'free' minutes has been used up anywhere else, which means that I should have a carryover to next billing period of any calls which are supposed to come under the call a friend for free option ( up to the 400 minute mark, and then they can deduct them off the 1000 All Ireland minutes if necessary. Barring that the account appears ok. So now have to make sure that family are not using Vartec except during peak hours.

Re: "talktime 2 arrangement"...?

Cuchulainn,

Firstly, glad to hear you're seeing an improvement...

But I'm puzzled — from what you've described here, it sounds like you're not on the "Talktime" package, but their older "Talk3000" — the one they were offering up to last July, which included line rental and a bundle of free off-peak minutes, then separate charges after that for your peak-time calls (plus mobile & international, of course).

The more recent "Talktime" package — see ninsaga's distinction above, and my own link to the rates card — is a different beast altogether. You pay:
(a) Eircom for the line rental (€48.54 incl. VAT every two months, billed separately by Eircom)
(b) Euphony €10 incl. VAT per month for unlimited local and national calls, any time of the night or day — as long as no single call exceeds 60 minutes
(c) thereafter, you can choose to buy "bundles" of minutes to mobiles & international numbers, depending on what you think you'll use — and Euphony certainly beats Eircom for these, 'though not dramatically moreso than other operators (which is why you'd rightly use the Vartec prefixes for these at peak times...)

Now it may well be that the bill profile you've described in your own post is what works out best for your lot's usage patterns — loads of free off-peak minutes, plus a bit of mobile & international traffic — but not too much during peak times...(?)

My problem, though, has been more the cost of loads of (usually fairly short) peak-time local calls — like to the "best friend" who lives four doors away! :mad — all attracting the minimum call charge of 5.6c or whatever it is. What I'd really like to achieve is a combination of:
(a) €24.27 a month line rental to Eircom, plus
(b) €10.00 a month flat rate to Euphony for all the local/national calls they want, and then
(c) use Telestunt for all the mobile & international stuff — i.e. billed by Eircom, but at 1890 & 0818 rates (see above my clarification to Shufty). I've actually now set up our DECT 'phone to bar all calls dialled directly to any 08* number, and loaded the relevant Telestunt prefix into the phonebook as the first entry — "AAAll mobiles"! — just in case the little angels might "forget", or be in too much of a hurry to go to all the bother of punching in a few extra digits. What a cruel and unnatural father, eh..? :rollin

If I'm right, this little arrangement should give me:
A flat-rate monthly spend of €35 (incl. VAT) to cover rental and unlimited local/national calls*, and then calls to mobiles on top of that, but via Telestunt, at rates of 8.17c/4.92c/1.26c per minute, depending on the time. Oh, and the odd international call, at local rates. Then — as Ian Dury might have put it — "won't I get a crinkly mouth!"

* Thinks: must see if I can programme the 'phone to automatically cut off after 59 minutes...

Now, where did I leave those Summer 2005 holiday brochures...? :smokin

Dr. M.

re

I think I need what the good Dr is talking about all our calls are made to local and mobiles during the day hubby is semi retired builder nothing made after 6pm just do not know how to go about setting up things

talktime

Dr M: I appear to have 'signed up' signed up to something called talktime and on band 2. I am not unhappy with the first result, and when I queried with Eircom yesterday why the 'free' friend minutes were deducted from the 1000 all-Ireland minutes they assistant stated that it should not have happened that way and that they were seperate. The real puzzler for me was the I used up EXACTLY the 1000 minutes and there was no bill for any excess which is strange. As you have stated I have an awful lot of evening and weekend calls so maybe I will give it another month before looking at your option, which looks good but as Tracy says how do you sign up for it?
ps for what its worth there was 6 calls of over 1 hours duration during the previous two monthly period. Better half has relatives all over the shop, Dublin, Clare, Galway, Monaghan, Norn Iron, and 1 hours calls are almost the norm at weekends.
Cheers

Re: talktime

1) Cuchullainn, I'm as puzzled as you are, at this stage..! Hope it works out for you, either way — anything that brings the feckin' 'phone bills down has to be good news! — and we might yet compare notes on this again. Incidentally, I'd have to say that Euphony's customer services aren't managing any better than what I'm used to from Eircom — I e-mailed and rang them on July 29th to arrange the switchover, and also rang Chorus to close my PCS a/c with them. Chorus — for once! — reacted fairly promptly, closed my a/c on 10th August and sent me their final invoice. But in the meantime, having heard nothing further from Euphony about my new a/c with them, I rang them again and said "look, I've closed my a/c with Chorus, so as of now now am paying for everything at Eircom's rates; your guy told me on the 29th July I'd get a pack in the post and my a/c with you operative within 5 working days, and still zilch — what's the story?" Best I could get from them was that my original application had been received ('cos all my details were on file) — and they'd send out all the stuff again... :/

So — still waiting, and ever-hopeful...!

2) Tracey, notwithstanding my rant above, I'd suggest you just give them (Euphony) a ring at Freefone 1800-357142 — presuming you have an Eircom line. As for the mobile & international calls, see the posts above for details of Telestunt's rates. All I can tell you is I'm using them, and it seems to work. And you don't have to contact them or set up a new a/c or anything... The prefix for calls to Irish mobiles is 0818-270101 (wait for the voice prompt, then dial your number as usual and add "#" at the end) — and for international calls to nearly anywhere, the prefix is 1890-943123. But have a look at their website (link above) for fuller details...

Slán go fóill,

Dr. M.
Bring back the carrier pigeons, is what I say...

P.S. ["ps for what its worth there was 6 calls of over 1 hours duration "] Cuchullain, a large birch cane is what you & me need...!

re

ta Dr M will ring Euphony on Mon do I then just tell Eircom of the change,
will I still get a landline bill from Eircom? and I also have the internet 25 hours for 9.99 with them, help is much appreciated

Re: re

Tracey,

Ask Euphony, but as far as I know they'll have to send you a package which includes a form to be signed and returned — and which they will then forward to Eircom — saying you want all your calls routed through Euphony in the future. Which means there's no need for you to contact Eircom yourself ...except to tell their bloodhound sales reps when they "cold-call" you that no, you don't want to move back to them! But you might want to call them to ask about what happens the €9.99 internet package. If you go for the Euphony €10-a-month deal, your line rental is still going to be going to Eircom, so in theory keeping on your internet package shouldn't be a problem. Mind you, at this stage nothing would surprise me when it comes to telcoms operators..!

re

thanks Dr M take the rest of the evening off you have earned it!!

re

contacted Euphony today with a view to changing from eircom it appears that my husband has to do the change as his name is on account and they have to get permission for credit check as he is out of the country for another 6 weeks I decided to contact Eircom and get my name on account then phoned euphoney again but they can do nothing till I get phone bill form eircom in 2 months time, well my momma did tell me there would be days like this

Re: Euphony and Telestunt

hi there,

I am thinking of using Telestunt now for mobile calls. What is the definitive answer to costs to mobiles ? does it vary according to which mobile number you are calling ( 086 , 087 etc ) ? And finally how do these calls show up on an eircom bill ?

thanks for any advice

ps. I am thinking of signing up to the new UTV Talk offer also, as most of my calls are weekend and evening ( and usually quite long ones ) .

We were not sure if w/e was 1.26 or 4.92 to 0818 for mobile

Either is a lot cheaper than anything else around though

I still say its 4.92c a minute to ring an 0818 number at the weekend and not 1.26c as they said on the telestunt website , I dunno anyone else under 10c a minute so it matter not . Same price to all mobiles yes.

www.telestunt.ie

Re: We were not sure if w/e was 1.26 or 4.92 to 0818 for mob

thanks Shufty,

have you used them already ? if so how do these calls show up on an eircom bill ?

cheers

the total cost

4.92c to eircom and nothing directly to telestunt , eircom pay them out of the 4.92c

its 8.1c daytime during the week to ring an 0818 number but over 25c to ring a mobile direct

I had a pushy woman trying to sell me euphony once so i dislike them since , god she was a bag .

UTV to offer free calls weekends and evenings

UTV to offer free calls weekends and evenings

Irish Independent 27th Aug 2004

TV FIRM UTV has entered the residential telephone market here and has introduced a number of free calls and cut-rate offers that, it expects, will entice Eircom customers to change.

According to UTV, it expects to take up 300,000 customers in the first 12 months. This would represent 5pc of the fixed-line market.

UTV Talk is offering free calls at evenings and weekends to anywhere in Ireland and the UK.

The new product is being backed up by a €1m TV and radio marketing campaign.

It also claims 10pc savings on standard Eircom local, national and international call charges, and 5pc savings on standard Eircom call charges to Irish mobiles.

According to Scott Taunton, group business development director at UTV, the company will offer the services using its own infrastructure and that of Eircom and Esat BT.

And he expects a further shake-up in the market in the future. "More competition is inevitable and it will put pressure on existing operators," he said, "but, at the end of the day, it will be the consumer that will determine the level of competition.

"We're delighted to introduce the most competitive telephony service in Ireland, from a company that Irish people know and trust."

The introduction of single billing to the fixed line market has already increased competition with the likes of Esat BT and Smart Telecom offering an alternative to the incumbent.

UTV Talk is also offering single billing and is charging the same line rental as Eircom.

According to the company, a transfer from a current service provider can be arranged without a disruption of service.

Customers can also keep their existing telephone numbers.

"The telephony market has been renowned for confusion about pricing combined with a lack of real competition, which has been very frustrating for customers.

"With UTV Talk there are no hidden charges, no catches, free really means free," he said.

UTV is already in the Irish internet market and its broadband products have gained a 5pc market share in the last year.

Ailish O'Hora

Re: UTV to offer free calls weekends and evenings

just got this reply from Telestunt regarding their charges :

The access numbers for calling within Ireland are:
Landlines 1890 943 123 local rate *
Mobile 0818 270 101 national rate **

* Local rate: Sa-Su: 1.26 ct/min
Mo-Fr 6pm/8am: 1.26 ct/min
Mo-Fr 8am/6pm: 4.92 ct/min

** National rate: Sa-Su: 1.26 ct/min
Mo-Fr 6pm/8am: 4.92 ct/min
Mo-Fr 8am/6pm: 8.17 ct/min

so it seems that weekend rates to mobiles are charged at 1.26 cpm after all.

again

Telestunt Lied To You. Comreg Complaint time I fear.

Here is the Eircom Price list , it is accurate.

[broken link removed]

see the 0818 link when you get to the above page , I linked it below.

[broken link removed]

PAGE 10 there confirms that the rate ex vat er second is the same at evenings and weekend, 0.0678 per second

0.0678 x 60 = 4.068 x 21% Vat = 4.92c

The weekend rate is 4.92c and not 1.26c

4.92c is still half what anybody else charges at the weekend for a call to an irish mobile from an irish landline so you are not being ripped off

Re: again

thanks Shufty !