Hours of free calls

[dytham]

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I am paying extra for the NTL telephone service tariff which gives free calls to 01 and 02 numbers "off-peak and weekends".

I thought that the off-peak hours used to be from 7pm until 7am, but have recently had bills for calls at 06:45am, so assume that free period is only 7pm until 6am.

Am I wrong in my perception that it used to be until 7am ?

If not, when did it change, and did they inform customers ?

[dytham]

I have just come across (old?) copy of terms and conditions for Talk Unlimited which say "There will be no call connection fee applied on zero-rated calls, which start within the Evening (6pm to 8am) and Weekend (all day Saturday and Sunday)."

- so originally, it was free to 8am, not 6am.

The question remains: When did it change, and did they inform customers ?

[Shaun]

Probably not. For £7.99 a month you could get free landline calls at all times from Vonage. Can highly recommend the service, been using it for ages now.

[dytham]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Probably not. For £7.99 a month you could get free landline calls at all times from Vonage. Can highly recommend the service, been using it for ages now.

I'd been considering Vonage. I assume voice quality is OK. What sort of startup costs did you have Shaun ?

[1701-e]

from ntl.com...

Daytime: Monday – Friday 6am – 6pm
Evening: Monday – Friday before 6am and after 6pm
Weekend - All day Saturday and Sunday

[Paul K]

NTL would not have been allowed to change the timings of free calls without informing customers so you may find that they sent out a mail shot or email about the changes but the info was probably mixed in with other bits and pieces so might have been missed.

[greyfox1974]

i have never had any mail or emails from ntl to tell me they was doing this

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by dytham

I'd been considering Vonage. I assume voice quality is OK. What sort of startup costs did you have Shaun ?

Voice quality is the same as a normal line. some say there are issues if you are using torrents or the like at the same time but I've never had that issue.

As for start up costs, I rang to enquire and they told me if I signed up that day they'd wave the £9.99 connection fee. I just paid then £8.99 for delivery.

They're currently offering three packages:

Domestic package: £5.99 for the first 6 months then £7.99 for unlimited calls to UK and Eire.

World Call One: £7.99 a month for UK and Eire as well as:
USA
Canada
France
Spain
Italy

World Call Two: £7,99 a month for UK and Eire as well as:
USA
Canada
Ireland
Australia
New Zealand
Germany

Both are really good packages IMO. When compared to Ntl's they are really something to think about!