Cheap Phone Calls???

taung

Has anyone tried this phone company;

http://www.call13434.ie/index2.php

There prices seem to good to be true?

Are they a bona fide company?

How come there is no contact information on their website?

Have they been licenced by Comreg?

taung

taung wrote:

Has anyone tried this phone company;

http://www.call13434.ie/index2.php

There prices seem to good to be true?

Are they a bona fide company?

How come there is no contact information on their website?

Have they been licenced by Comreg?

To answer some of my own questions.....

They are not licenced by Comreg; http://www.askcomreg.ie/home_phone/List_of_Home_Phone_Service_Providers.70.LE.asp

They company providing the service is actually Finarea SA, a Swiss company. They are also active in Britain and the Gaurdian reports that people are happy with the service; http://money.guardian.co.uk/phones/story/0,13283,1400996,00.html

ch750536

These are an excellent company to choose for cheap phone calls. Used their company in the UK all the time (http://www.call18866.com/) coulnt be beaten on price. Never had any problem with billing etc, had my mobile with them too.

Finally really cheap calls in Ireland.

cubix

Nice find Taung, am i reading it wrong or are calls to landlines in the likes of spain/canada etc half of one cent(0.5) or is that 5cent because if its 5cent they are being a bit cheeky as some of the other desto's like "armenia (land lines)" has 5 beside it but no 0 before it
Cubix

hawthorn

I notice from the website calls to Ireland are 0.0cent! ir they are free!! Couldnt believe this and I was right to be sceptical.....all calls are subject to 5c connection fee. So its 5c per call, still cheap but not free. You would have to work out how many calls you make in the month. Calculate it, then add the basic line rental (Eircom about €24..??) and see is it cheaper than Eircom €40 per month for ALL calls to landlines free.


However it would pay you to use it ringing UK at .5c per minute.

K

viking

hmmm..

What comeback have you got if they charge you incorrectly?

Easy billing through your debit/credit card.

taung

Well, I signed up for their service.....they seem to be a bonafide company.

I can't judge the quality of the phone connections yet as my first call only got through to voicemail. I will report back here when I've tried it out more.

This seems to be the same company who are providing the http://www.telestunt.ie phone service (voice prompts are exactly the same!!).

Their service from mobile phones does not appear to be operational yet even though they are advertising it. The service number for this is 016 850850 but I cannot connect to this number at all....seems like eircom haven't provisioned this phone line at all (I get 'number error' message).

Their Freephone access number 1800 820820 is working perfectly.

The are answering service calls as well, through their website (service@call13434.ie)

You've got comeback for mischarging if you sign-up with your credit card......

turbot

I gotta say, provided you have broadband, Blueface have fantastic rates for VOIP.

I'll probably save €1000 this year by using them... possibly even more.

check out BlueFace.ie

best regards,

Thomas

TinCool

turbot wrote:

I gotta say, provided you have broadband, Blueface have fantastic rates for VOIP.

I'll probably save €1000 this year by using them... possibly even more.

check out BlueFace.ie

best regards,

Thomas

Also www.smart076.ie should always be checked out. I have ditched my landline in favour of their service.

cgarvey

taung wrote:

To answer some of my own questions.....

They are not licenced by Comreg; http://www.askcomreg.ie/home_phone/List_of_Home_Phone_Service_Providers.70.LE.asp

That site rightly says "This is not an exhaustive list" .. and they have been allocated a Carrier Select number ([url=http://www.comreg.ie/numbering/num_nat_num_search.aspcheck here[/url]), so if they need to be licensed, it's safe to assume they have been.

viking wrote:

What comeback have you got if they charge you incorrectly?

The same as you'd have with any other Direct Debit mandate. Minimum notice, appeals to your bank, or the courts.

.cg

cubix

Taung did you find out if the 0.5 listed on some of their desto charges is half of a cent or just a crafty way listing 5cent,becasue as I was saying before they have 5cent desto calls but there is no zero infront of it

Cubix

albania (land lines) 9
albania (mobile) 15
algeria (land lines & mobile) 14
argentina (land lines) 0.5
argentina (mobile) 14
armenia (land lines) 5
armenia (mobile) 15
australia (land lines) 0.5
australia (mobile) 15
austria (land lines) 0.5
austria (mobile) 17
bahamas (land lines & mobile) 5

carrotcake

seems pretty obvious to me that it's half a cent! you're worring about nothing

anyway, great find. i'll have to give them a go when my phone card runs out

viking

Anybody sign up with them? Whats the call quality like, any echos or delays?

v. interested in this, might be worth a try...

Sponge Bob

feckers spammed me , I is not happy with them .

wanwarlock

the wife was using call18866 when she was in the uk. really cheap and good lines. never had a problem, will try and give this a go...

great find taung!

ch750536

I signed up yesterday, not been able to get the mobile working yet, though I suspect this is due to 02 blocking the number rather than them messing up, I have emailed them and await a response.

Strangely the call quality was better than normal for me. I dont understand how, but I dont have an echo with the dialler where I do when I route through Eircom?!? Im confused.

Only other issue was that they invoiced me after a day, which seems a little odd.

Yesterday I made a few calls from my home phone, last 2 columns are time and cost inc. vat & connection charge

03-02-2006 11:53:09 00441512****** 0:13:14 0.1200
03-02-2006 12:13:50 00441642****** 0:01:43 0.0600
03-02-2006 12:19:29 0915****** 0:02:57 0.0500
03-02-2006 12:23:36 08680***** 0:00:31 0.1500
03-02-2006 16:02:32 004479796***** 0:07:00 1.1000
03-02-2006 16:13:58 0513****** 0:08:57 0.0500
03-02-2006 16:28:28 00447979****** 0:25:39 3.9500
03-02-2006 17:10:22 0685****** 0:02:02 0.0500
Total = €5.53

So national calls to ireland (you always have to put the area code btw) are 5cinc vat and 0c pm. Note the uk mobile call, 26mins for 3.95, would have been €9 with eircom.
Comparison with what eircom would charge

03-02-2006 11:53:09 00441512****** 0:13:14 1.99
03-02-2006 12:13:50 00441642****** 0:01:43 0.30
03-02-2006 12:19:29 0915****** 0:02:57 0.25
03-02-2006 12:23:36 08680***** 0:00:31 0.23
03-02-2006 16:02:32 004479796***** 0:07:00 2.42
03-02-2006 16:13:58 0513****** 0:08:57 0.73
03-02-2006 16:28:28 00447979****** 0:25:39 9.99
03-02-2006 17:10:22 0685****** 0:02:02 0.16
Total=€16.07

So about a third of the cost for me.

ch750536

To access Call13434 services from mobiles*:

Dial 016 7001 9797, wait for the voiceprompt and enter the follow-on telephone number.

Meaning that the mobile deal, as it stands, is pap. With call18866 I got a freephone number, was hoping for the same.

Also tried calling the number given above & it just rings & rings without response.

Landline = Yay
Mobile = Nay

Orionetheus

www.voipbuster.com

kinda like skype...you pay 1 euro and you get UNLIMITED calls to landlines....for mobiles I just use skype/my mobile

Orionetheus

www.voipbuster.com

kinda like skype...you pay 1 euro and you get UNLIMITED calls to landlines....for mobiles I just use skype/my mobile

MisterAnarchy

I am using Voipbuster for the last 3 months since ditching Euphony.
I've rang Irish numbers,UK,Us and a few others and the total cost has been zero.
Sound quality is very good too,better than Skype in my opinion.

pauldave

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I am using Voipbuster for the last 3 months since ditching Euphony.
I've rang Irish numbers,UK,Us and a few others and the total cost has been zero.
Sound quality is very good too,better than Skype in my opinion.

Same parent company but free calls to more destinations.
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Singapore
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
United Kingdom
United States
100% Free, no call setup.
You have to put €10m credit on your account then make as many calls to above destinations for 1 hour free of charge and it cuts you off after 1 hour and doesn't start charging you unlike some companys.
You can use your credit to call other destinations not listed above and cheap rates.
Been using for last month and haven't paid for a single call in a month,

www.voipstunt.com
Enjoy

viking

pauldave wrote:

...You have to put €10m credit on your account...

Wow, thats some minimum amount... :eek:

stevejazzx

viking wrote:

Wow, thats some minimum amount... :eek:

Yeah I've just sunk my last 10mil into property in the algarve, damn coulda had free calls!:( :rolleyes:

pauldave

MisterAnarchy wrote:

I am using Voipbuster for the last 3 months since ditching Euphony.
I've rang Irish numbers,UK,Us and a few others and the total cost has been zero.
Sound quality is very good too,better than Skype in my opinion.

Voipstunt has the same parent company but offers free calls to more countries.
I am only paying for mobile calls now. All my landline calls are free...

taung

Been using this service for the past month....the line quality is usually good (although I had to abandon a call from an Irish fixed line to an Australian mobile due to poor quality)....in general I can recommend the service.

However, there is one provisio; if you access the service from a non-eircom phone line provider (e.g. SMART) and use the 1800820820 access number you will be charged at higher tariffs than advertised e.g. calls to Italy advertised as 0.5 cent/min are charged at 2 cent/min. Still, it's good value.

podgeandrodge

hawthorn wrote:

So its 5c per call, still cheap but not free. You would have to work out how many calls you make in the month. Calculate it, then add the basic line rental (Eircom about €24..??) and see is it cheaper than Eircom €40 per month for ALL calls to landlines free.

So at 5c a call I work it out that you would have to make 320 Irish landline calls in a month before you would reach the Eircom Talktime €40 a month offer. That's over 10 calls a day so I reckon most people will do better with 13434.ie

geecee

taung wrote:

Their service from mobile phones does not appear to be operational yet even though they are advertising it. The service number for this is 016 850850 but I cannot connect to this number at all....seems like eircom haven't provisioned this phone line at all (I get 'number error' message).

Their Freephone access number 1800 820820 is working perfectly.

Hi all
Just wondering if anyone managed to get 13434 working through their mobile phone?

The 016850850 and 1800820820 numbers do not seem to work for me...

I have mailed them about this, but no reply as of yet...

taung

Access to call13434 services from from mobile phones does not work.

Customer support will tell you that it does "everything is fine on our end" and to "contact your mobile phone operator" but I believe call13434 have not obtained correct access numbers from the Irish mobile phone operators.

>
>Dear Sir or Madam,
>
>Thank you for your email.
>
>Everything seems to be working fine at our end; please dial 016 7001
9797 or 016 850 850
>access number from the registered mobile and let us know if it works.
>
>We hope this has answered your question.
>
>Should you have any further queries about Call13434 please visit our
list of Frequently
>Asked Questions http://call13434.ie/info.php
>
>Kind regards,
>Call13434 Customer Services
>http://www.call13434.ie
>
>
>

Even if call13434 had correct access numbers I'm sure Vodafone/O2/Meteor/3 would take call13434 to court to prevent them from 'diluting' their revenue.

By the way, check this site out to determine the cheapest way to make your phone calls;

http://www.cheapertelco.com/default.asp?menuitem=1

geecee

I have mailed them 5 times in the last week on this matter and always get the same form reply as posted by Taung above.

Until the last mail which was another form replay asking me to describe the symptoms to them... Which of course i already had 4 times!

Needless to say the contents of my most recent mail to them was pretty sharp... And I'm still waitig on a reply...

I'm not happy that they have taken my credit card details but are unable to provide me with the service as advertised

Sponge Bob

they know it does not work from Mobiles, did they take any money off the CC for this service that does not work ?.

Do you have any connect with that scam site Taung ??? Stay well away from that scam site cheapertelco, has nobody noticed that you cannot contact them about anything and if they <cough> 'recommend' a service provider you never heard of you have no comeback once you give the scammers your cc details .

No email , no phone number , no correct registration in whois. cheapertelco is a long firm fraud setup if ever I saw one and of course They spam extensively as well like all scammers do.

keithclancy

I pay 24.95 a month for flat rate to the world ... except mobiles.. that includes my landline number with blueface. No line rental either as were with chorus

Jeroen1973

Sponge Bob wrote:

they know it does not work from Mobiles, did they take any money off the CC for this service that does not work ?.

Do you have any connect with that scam site Taung ??? Stay well away from that scam site cheapertelco, has nobody noticed that you cannot contact them about anything and if they <cough> 'recommend' a service provider you never heard of you have no comeback once you give the scammers your cc details .

No email , no phone number , no correct registration in whois. cheapertelco is a long firm fraud setup if ever I saw one and of course They spam extensively as well like all scammers do.

cheapertelco.com is not telco at all, they only compare rates from many IE telco's. I think www.cheapertelco.com is a damn handy site.

Sponge Bob

Jeroen1973 wrote:

cheapertelco.com is not telco at all, they only compare rates from many IE telco's. I think www.cheapertelco.com is a damn handy site.

Well I KNOW they updated their whois record since yesterday after they spent the whole weekend spamming Irish email addresses .

Whois yesterday (cheeky ****ers) .....look at the owners email

owner-contact: P-OMV33
owner-fname: opm
owner-lname: van baten
owner-street: europaboulevard
owner-city: alkmaar
owner-zip: 1825rr
owner-country: NL
owner-phone: 0847565900
owner-email: Email address protected from spam harvesters

Whois today after all the complaints

owner-contact: P-OMV33
owner-fname: opm
owner-lname: van baten
owner-street: europaboulevard
owner-city: alkmaar
owner-zip: 1825rr
owner-country: NL
owner-phone: 0847565900
owner-email: info@mediabyte.nl

MediaByte.NL home page

Huidig project is cheapertelco.com, een telecom vergelijk site voor de UK.

But Mediabyte are developers , and the website is fairly crummy so who are the beneficial owners of cheap scam co .com and why are the contact details missing so that for example a telco could correct wrong information even

cheapertelco .....Its a scam I tells ye and is best avoided and YO! Jeroen1973 why did the cheapertelco scam site spend the weekend spamming Irish email addresses ???? Good Dutch name that , Jeroen !!!!

Alun

cheapertelco Its a scam I tells ye and is best avoided and YO! Jeroen1973 why did the cheapertelco scam site spend the weekend spamming Irish email addresses ?

Let's see ... Jeroen is a Dutch name. Fill in the blanks yourself

Sponge Bob

no apologies for spamming ireland *.* like a good ole Dutch 419er either . I still reckon that cheaper scamco will be looking for credit card numbers very soon .

taung

Just to make it clear that I do not have any connection with cheapertelco.com ...... in actual fact I only heard about them through two spam emails they sent me last weekend.

Apparently they had a 'tell a friend' service on the website which has now been disabled....this may have been the reason for at least some of the spam emails.

Irrespective of the spamming issue, their website provides a very useful service.

Sponge Bob

taung wrote:

I only heard about them through two spam emails they sent me last weekend.

jayzuz head do you pimp every spammer in here like you pimped that one ??? I accept your clarification though

Apparently they had a 'tell a friend' service on the website which has now been disabled....this may have been the reason for at least some of the spam emails.

Nope, they showed up all over the logs on my mail server, it was a good ole Ireland *.* spam on saturday and sunday

Irrespective of the spamming issue, their website provides a very useful service.

nobody knows where they get the data on which they base their rankings, or how to correct if wrong. Thats the way scammers and spammers make their money ....by ' recommending ' the services which give them a cut of the action .

Avoid this vermin. Not even an apology for the spamming from jeroen but fukit I never expected one !

Doodlebug

I'd be wary of them after Sponge Bob's experiences... but I went on the site to see if they were advertising any cheap numbers for Irish mobiles and they came up trumps - www.tele99.com's site have a number (0818 - non-geographic number, so national rates) for irish mobiles. Never heard of them before, but there's no sign up, so it'll do me until they decide to stop the 0818 service (I used to use cheapchat.ie's offering, but they pulled the plug on mobile calls and switched over to 1520 numbers same as telestunt.ie )

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

Wouldn't give any of 'em my CC details in a fit after all thats been written here though!

Cheers!:)

Sponge Bob

an 0818 to mobile is fine, you simply ring the number and dial a mobile number at the secondary dialtone with no account setup or cc details involved. Its safe to test at 5c a minute off peak .

But did it work ???

Doodlebug

Yeah, tried it out and it worked fine. I used "Cheapchat" (same setup) before and was wary of the 0818 number, but confirmed those rates when my Eircom bill arrived - of course Cheapchat promptly changed the service to a 1520 number (I dunno why - getting too popular??):rolleyes:. BTW, the voice-prompt sounds remarkably similar to the cheapchat one...

So yeah, this looks like good value to me. 1 euro for a 12 min call to mobiles (only tried Vodafone so far) during the day or a 20min call in the evening is good. IMHO its still not so cheap that you'd stay on the phone all day or anything, but its the best I've seen lately.

I have Eircom TalkTime, and mobile/premium calls barred (bills were getting ridiculous!), so this suits me down to the ground.

Any better out there? Has anyone had any bad experiences with this service?

MartMax

I don't make calls over mobile much but somebody gave me this call15.com. Haven't tried or compared with the other yet. Must have O2 line thou. And, it's Irish.

Mart

Doodlebug

Doodlebug wrote:

www.tele99.com's site have a number (0818 - non-geographic number, so national rates) for irish mobiles. Never heard of them before, but there's no sign up, so it'll do me until they decide to stop the 0818 service.

Well, Tele99.com have gone the way of cheapchat.ie... They've just switched the number to ring mobiles from 0818 to 1520 (15c/min) :mad:

I've had a look around and haven't come up with as good a replacement.

Anyone found any company offering good rates from landlines to mobiles?

Ideally without a set up fee or any of that mallarkey!

Blaster99

ch750536 wrote:

To access Call13434 services from mobiles*:

Dial 016 7001 9797, wait for the voiceprompt and enter the follow-on telephone number.

That's not a valid phone number.

Doodlebug

Had forgotten about this thread! Thanks Blaster99!

So - whats the cheapest way to ring a mobile number from a bog standard landline then?! Anyone?

magicEye

What about dialwise.ie??? I see they have local rate for calling Switzerland landlines....and 15c for calling mobiles.....that's not too bad, I think!!!

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Magic

Doodlebug

Hadn't heard of www.dialwise.ie - still looking for a cheap way to ring Irish mobiles from a landline - looks like we'll never see the 1c/min of the 0818 days again - ah well!

For ringing Switzerland, www.telestunt.ie have the following (from a landline):

1890 943 123 for landlines (local call rates)
and
1520 932 601 for mobiles (15c/min)

carrotcake

i call using http://www.poivy.com. when you put credit on your account you can call landlines in a lot of different countries for free. there's a list on the front page

mickoneill30

carrotcake wrote:

i call using http://www.poivy.com. when you put credit on your account you can call landlines in a lot of different countries for free. there's a list on the front page

www.poivy.com
www.voipdiscount.com
www.voipcheap.com
www.voipstunt.com
www.voipbuster.com

They're all under the same company but they have slightly different rates (e.g. some do free mobile calls to certain countries). If you're ringing abroad a lot you can save a fortune. It's worth getting an analogue telephone adapter if you use these guys a lot so you can use a proper phone, rather than a headset plugged into a PC.

Oracle

taung wrote:

....Even if call13434 had correct access numbers I'm sure Vodafone/O2/Meteor/3 would take call13434 to court to prevent them from 'diluting' their revenue.

I don't think so because you're still making a call to a landline (01) number from your mobile. That call is charged for or taken from your inclusive call minutes.

I've used 13434 for a couple of years now, it's a great service and money saver. Just a couple of small issues. The rates are slightly higher for non-eircom people who use 1800 820 820, and you have to listen to a voice prompt every time. Also they seem to charge in 30-second increments for mobile calls (For example, a 70 second weekday call to an Irish mobile will cost 20c. 10c for 60 seconds plus 5c for the next 30 seconds plus 5c connection fee) They don't seem to mention this on the web site, I only found out by checking the call details section of my online invoice.

The free itemised online invoice is another great plus for this service and it works out way cheaper than the regular phone services. Just 5c now for all Irish landline numbers.

Update: They do mention per min. charging on their web site:
Rates are in cents per minute. Calls are billed per minute rounded to the nearest cents, include 21% VAT and are subject to change.
Calls are subject to a 5ct connection fee.

carrotcake

mickoneill30 wrote:

www.poivy.com
www.voipdiscount.com
www.voipcheap.com
www.voipstunt.com
www.voipbuster.com

They're all under the same company but they have slightly different rates (e.g. some do free mobile calls to certain countries). If you're ringing abroad a lot you can save a fortune. It's worth getting an analogue telephone adapter if you use these guys a lot so you can use a proper phone, rather than a headset plugged into a PC.

There's a full list here. I've just noticed that their latest service has Irish mobile calls for 9c + VAT. I'll be switching when my Poivy credit is used up

gunsofbrixton

bit confused by all the options. I have only a mobile phone and want to make calls to a Turkish landlines and mobiles is there any service out there thats as super cheap as some of the qoutes above.

Will i always be charged to call the intial service number? i mean any actual freephone numbers to call from mobile