🚀 go-pugleaf

Alastair B Roberts <abr@tardis.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

: HYPE: Telewest Communications claim they offer "free local calls to
: other Telewest Numbers [within certain hours, not including calls to ISP
: PoP's]".

: WHAT I DID: Changed my package to Teleplus 4 (free local calls, yeah!;
: bought a second line; teleworked from home when it was convenience to do so
: via Edinburgh University's dialup service, always making my calls during
: the "free call" times.

: FACT: Telewest Communications landed me a bill consisting of over 60
: POUNDS OF "FREE" CALLS. Another 60 POUNDS OF "FREE" CALLS waits for me on
: my next bill.

: WHY THE HELL?: Unbeknown to me, Telewest policy is only to add the
: Teleplus services (the free calls, etc) onto THE ORIGINAL LINE. The fact
: that Telewest FAILED UTTERLY to tell me this is completely arbitrary, it
: seems. (This was found out when I phoned up Telewest after receiving the
: bill.)

: SHOULDN'T YOU HAVE READ THE DETAILS ON THESE SERVICES?: They failed
: utterly to send me one scrap of paper which detailed how the Teleplus
: services worked, and what phone lines they applied to.

Not sure what you received but the letter introducing TelePlus that I 
received seemed to make it fairly clear that the free cable-cable calls
were a part of the combined TV+telephone package. You could argue that
they should have informed you that your second line was not covered
by this contract (effectively you will have one teleplus contract
which provides TV + 1 phone line and a second one for the other phone
line)

Also, arguably dialling into the the University is the sort of call
that they are trying to exclude from the free calls. The press release
on TelePlus states that the free calls excludes calls to "Internet
Services" and not just to a POP - i.e. if you used internet from your
dialin line then they may claim that that was not a qualifying call.

BTW, search for TelePlus on the telewest web site and read the
August 18th '96 press release that details the tarrifs. You say
you are on TelePlus 4 - TelePlus 5 is only GBP 5 per month more and
that includes a 2nd line which is almost certainly cheaper than
TelePlus 4 + 2nd line. You could take the line that you have clearly
been sold the wrong package.

: FACT: I have submitted a complaint in writing to Telewest Communications,
: Edinburgh. I await a response.

When I had problems with my original connection I found sending a 
lengthy fax provoked a response.

: ANOTHER FARCE: Telewest Communications claim that "any call made between
: two modems is exempt from the free local call scheme". (Made by a Customer
: services representative to me on the phone). This BLATANTLY CONTRADICTS
: their small print on brochures, etc, which says something like "not
: including ISP's PoPs".

: Apparently if you phone up a friend's computer, this call will be charged,
: even if you are eligible for free local calls, and your friend is too.
: What utter nonsense! This fails to be the case at the moment.

: For a COMMUNICATIONS company, Telewest seem to fail to realise the
: difference between a 14.4K modem bolted onto a 486 PC, and a full-blown T3
: modem-dialup Internet Service Provider!!! (This is the impression I get.)

No - the issue is that modem-modem calls of any nature tend to have 
a much longer connect time - and if they are free there is no incentive
to hang up. This skews all the usage patterns and is the problem that
many US telcos (especially in the Bay Area) are having to deal with with
long free local modem-modem calls taking a significant proportion of the
local switching capacity. Note that the press release that announces
it states

"Excludes .... and calls to Internet services"

Sadly the main answer to this may well be "caveat emptor".

-- 
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                              david shepherd
 SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics Ltd, 1000 aztec west, bristol bs12 4sq, u.k.
        tel/fax: +44 1454 611522/617910  email: des@bristol.st.com      
      "whatever you don't want, you don't want negative advertising"