Blueface peak rates on last two bank holiday Mondays

fatherdougalmag

Just to let you know that when I was checking my call history I noticed that 'pay as you go' calls (e.g. to mobiles) were charged at peak rates when they should have been classed as off-peak.

Might be worth checking if you are a subscriber.

Mossy

Thanks Dougal.

They charged me peak rates yesterday for a mobile call.

HelterSkelter

Thanks for that, I just noticed they charge me peak rates for all public holidays as long as I have been with them:

These are the dates to check:

Monday 5th June 2006
Monday 1st May 2006
Monday 17th April 2006 (Easter Monday)
Friday 17th March 2006 (St Patrick's Day)

WillieFlynn

Drop them an email and I'm sure they will sort it out quickly. I've always found their customer service to be very good.

Mossy

Sent them an email last Tuesday, no response yet.

Blueface have a reputation for fast responses, but I have found them to quite slow at times.

fatherdougalmag

Took a few days to adjust my balance. They also asked for an example of these charges.

HelterSkelter

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Took a few days to adjust my balance. They also asked for an example of these charges.

I have examples ready, basically every call from every public holiday this year. I suggested to them that they check all customer accounts.

HelterSkelter

They replied and stated that "Peak times are 8.00 to 18.00 GMT, monday to friday. As both our customers and suppliers are based internationally public holidays are not off peak. If you wish to view where we state this please go to this link on our wes site http://www.blueface.ie/rates/rates.aspx"

I checked their site over the weekend and I am 95% sure it stated that public holidays are off peak. Looks like they have changed it. Can anyone confirm this?

fatherdougalmag

I double checked this before I made my claim and public holidays were definitely mentioned as off-peak times.

That's a bit unfair by Blueface and it could be worth pursuing with the ASAI. If they wanted to change their policy it should be prospective and not retrospective i.e. as of and from today public holidays are deemed as peak-time. To pull this kind of stunt is a bit of a negative from Blueface.

Shame on you.

HelterSkelter

They just replied and said the web site was updated at the weekend. They didn't mention anything about refunding me though. Bad form indeed. Replied asking if they will refund me as they advertised public holidays as off-peak up until today.

fatherdougalmag

Although you retrieve it from the Google's cache the only thing that's cached is the actual rates list. The header where they define peak/off-peak is retrieved from Blueface's website each time. If you go to their rates page and do 'View Source' that's what Google would have cached. You'll see that the 'peak times' section isn't there. I wouldn't have made a claim if the current policy stood last week. I even went to Oasis' government to make sure of the public holiday list.

Furthermore, if this was the case then how come they refunded me last week when I brought it to their attention? It's quite clear that they have changed their policy over the past couple of days and are enforcing it retrospectively.

HelterSkelter

Where's yer man's post about the Google cache gone? He deleted it??

Foxwood

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Although you retrieve it from the Google's cache the only thing that's cached is the actual rates list. The header where they define peak/off-peak is retrieved from Blueface's website each time. I wouldn't have made a claim if the current policy stood last week. I even went to Oasis' government to make sure of the public holiday list.

Furthermore, if this was the case then how come they refunded me last week when I brought it to their attention? It's quite clear that they have changed their policy over the past couple of days and are enforcing it retrospectively.

I deleted my post when I looked at the source of the Google page, and realised that the Public Holidays condition isn't in the actual page, it is actually contained in a Flash files, rates.swf.

I'd be surprised if there isn't someone reading this forum who doesn't have a caching proxy server that might have an old copy of rates.swf in it. It might be useful to garb a copy of that, for future reference.

I wouldn't have any problem with Bluefaces position on Public Hoidays, but I'd be concerned about changing the conditons after the fact.

fatherdougalmag

Must have realised how the cache worked Even if you view the source of the Google cache and search for 'peak times' it won't turn up. I'll see if I have the original aspx page at home in my cache but that aside, it's clear that the policy changed in the last couple of days.

aaronc

Just to avoid the confusion here and apologise for it the change with regards Public Holiday rates are effective from 0900 today. We are working on rectifying the incorrect billing for the recent public holiday and if you are still waiting for your situation to be fixed please email support@blueface.ie and put "FAO: Aaron" in the sublect or email.

Aaron

fatherdougalmag

Yay to Blueface for clarifying the situation. I can understand that whilst other fixed line telephony providers can offer public holidays as off-peak it might be a bit more complicated for VOIP providers. But it's a shame to change the policy when it's stood for so long. Must have been an oversight originally.

HelterSkelter

aaronc wrote:

Just to avoid the confusion here and apologise for it the change with regards Public Holiday rates are effective from 0900 today. We are working on rectifying the incorrect billing for the recent public holiday and if you are still waiting for your situation to be fixed please email support@blueface.ie and put "FAO: Aaron" in the sublect or email.

Aaron

Thanks for your message Aaronc. May I suggest that you yourselves check all customer accounts for overcharging. I reckon a lot of customers will not notice this mistake. I would never have checked my call history only for I read fatherdougalmag's post here.

HelterSkelter

fatherdougalmag wrote:

I can understand that whilst other fixed line telephony providers can offer public holidays as off-peak it might be a bit more complicated for VOIP providers.

Actually I don't understand why this is. Could you explain please?

Foxwood

fatherdougalmag wrote:

Must have realised how the cache worked

I know ho the cache works. I was caught off guard by the fact that they used a Flash "applet" for the terms and conditions.

Even if you view the source of the Google cache and search for 'peak times' it won't turn up.

Which is how I realized that I was mistaken.

I'll see if I have the original aspx page at home in my cache but that aside, it's clear that the policy changed in the last couple of days.

The .aspx page won't help you.

aaronc

HelterSkelter wrote:

Actually I don't understand why this is. Could you explain please?

There are two reasons for our decision.

Firstly a public holiday in Ireland does not necessarily correspond to a public holiday in the UK where we have major suppliers and therefore we are not receiving Off-Peak rates on irish Public Holidays to be able to pass them on.

Secondly it causes confusion since public holdiays differ depending on geographic location and our rates would theoretically have to take into account UK public holdiays for our UK customers, Turkish ones for Turkish customers etc. etc. We have had to make a decision whether this is feasible to support and have decided it is not.

We do regret the confusion this has caused and are working to identify and compensate affected customers.

Aaron

amby666

Fairs Fair. Hands up, an honest explanation and a promise to resolve.
Can't really ask for more.

HelterSkelter

Just a quick note to say my balance has been adjusted, looks fine now.

JimmySmith

fatherdougalmag wrote:

I double checked this before I made my claim and public holidays were definitely mentioned as off-peak times.

That's a bit unfair by Blueface and it could be worth pursuing with the ASAI. If they wanted to change their policy it should be prospective and not retrospective i.e. as of and from today public holidays are deemed as peak-time. To pull this kind of stunt is a bit of a negative from Blueface.

Shame on you.

Very sneaky from blueface changeing the policy on the sly and pretending it was always there. Of course they didnt post anything about it until they were caught red handed. Goes to show you. Always save a copy of t's & C's

Cabaal

JimmySmith wrote:

Very sneaky from blueface changeing the policy on the sly and pretending it was always there. Of course they didnt post anything about it until they were caught red handed. Goes to show you. Always save a copy of t's & C's

Maybe they did maybe they didn't either way fair play to them for actually sorting it out in the end, plenty of companys wouldn't care if they caught.
imho

HelterSkelter

Cabaal wrote:

Maybe they did maybe they didn't either way fair play to them for actually sorting it out in the end, plenty of companys wouldn't care if they caught.
imho

Ha, bet people wouldn't be so understanding if Eircom pulled the same stunt

aaronc

JimmySmith wrote:

Very sneaky from blueface changeing the policy on the sly and pretending it was always there. Of course they didnt post anything about it until they were caught red handed. Goes to show you. Always save a copy of t's & C's

The policy changed on Monday and will take affect for future public holidays not past ones and we have always stated this. I'm not sure when the next one is but I suspect that gives at least 30 days notification.

We are acknowledging we missed the public holidays this year and are working on fixing affected customers balances as quickly as we can.

Aaron

Mossy

aaronc wrote:

I suspect that gives at least 30 days notification.

I assume, then, that you intend to notify all your customers of the change.

Imagine someone who "knows" that public holidays are off-peak because they've seen it on your website (obviously nobody is going to check the rates page on a regular basis to see if public holidays are still off-peak ). They're not going to be too happy if they find that they're charged peak rates for the next public holiday, but imagine how annoyed they'd be if they then find that you've changed your pricing policy for public holidays without telling them! If that was me I'd be asking for a refund.


BTW Good work on getting on top of the problem and explaining the situation. This kind of responsiveness is part of the reason why Blueface is well-liked on this forum.