Land line phones (are they a thing of the past?)

So how do you do it?

  • I always use a LL phone when at home

    Votes: 24 31.2%

  • I never use a LL phone when at home

    Votes: 17 22.1%

  • I'll use both

    Votes: 25 32.5%

  • I don't have a LL

    Votes: 5 6.5%

  • I don't have a mobile

    Votes: 7 9.1%

  • I don't care, I'm off down the pub

    Votes: 4 5.2%
  • Total voters
    77
frank said:
Hardly use the LL now except maybe at the weekends, free calls up to 59 mins at weekend. We changed providers from Sky to Virgin and asked for a new phone number while doing the change, solved the problem of cold callers/ppi etc in one fell swoop. If companies want my phone number they get my mobile, if they insist on a LL number its tough tittie, they lose my custom. Only close friends/relatives have the new LL number but we are contemplating getting rid of that now and use mobile only.
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I do it the other way around. All and sundry can have the land line as there is a screening system in place, and I'm out all day :)
Very very few get the Mobile.
 
I have it for my broadband, but almost never makes calls. Pretty much only when calling freephone numbers that are chargeable to a mobile.
Landlines also have a positive effect on credit rating.
 
There's no mobile signal here and probably never will be since even the much trumpeted Mobile Infrastructure Project fizzled out - because hard to cover areas are hard to cover(!)
- what used up most of the £150m of Government funding is what I want to know, because precious little has been achieved.

Still don't use landline much now, as more and more inclined to send emails which people can read and respond at a time that suits.
The drop everything and run to the phone days are gone because at least half the calls are marketing of one kind or another.
 
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Bernie174 said:
I grew up with no landline at home,
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I was mid teens before my parents got one too.
Maybe that was because there was a phone box Just a few yards away
(what ever happened to them? ;) )

Maybe it is, as I speculated a few posts back, "an age thing"


4wd said:
There's no mobile signal here and probably never will be since even the much trumpeted Mobile Infrastructure Project fizzled out - because hard to cover areas are hard to cover(!)
- what used up most of the £150m of Government funding is what I want to know, because precious little has been achieved.
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TBH I've never even thought about that.
I always assumed that it was 100% cover now.
Apparently not according to a couple of posts at least!
 
Cobra said:
I was mid teens before my parents got one too.
Maybe that was because there was a phone box Just a few yards away
(what ever happened to them? ;) )

Maybe it is, as I speculated a few posts back, "an age thing"

TBH I've never even thought about that.
I always assumed that it was 100% cover now.
Apparently not according to a couple of posts at least!
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Memories. We had a phone when I was growing up - I'm 61 now - but, thinking back, a lot of people didn't. My old man didn't encourage 'unnecessary' or long calls though, and the phone was in the hall. We didn't have central heating and it was the coldest place in the house. I doubt if that was a coincidence..................! People didn't make international calls very often either. My mother's family were in South Africa, and I don't think they ever spoke on the phone. They wrote to each other.

Coverage definitely isn't 100%, and it's a bit frustrating when people rant about poor 4G delivery. The nearest 3G signal to us is about 20 miles away.
 
We got a land line when I was about 7, when we moved from a farm into the city.
It was a "party line" for years, shared with out next-door neighbours.
Forgotten hom many times the phone was picked up to make a call, and either Mr or Mrs Pegg were on thier first :LOL: :LOL:
 
viv1969 said:
It was a "party line" for years, shared with out next-door neighbours.
Forgotten hom many times the phone was picked up to make a call, and either Mr or Mrs Pegg were on thier first :LOL: :LOL:
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Ah yes, party lines, bit of a joke really weren't they? :D
 
Cobra said:
Maybe that was because there was a phone box Just a few yards away
(what ever happened to them? ;) )
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Had to use a phonebox on holiday recently due to lack of mobile signal. You have to put 60p in the box before it'll even let you dial a number, and then you have to put more in when you get through. It was also to an 0845 choose option this, that & the other, so the money was flying through it. :eek:
 
Peter B said:
Had to use a phonebox on holiday recently due to lack of mobile signal. You have to put 60p in the box before it'll even let you dial a number, and then you have to put more in when you get through. It was also to an 0845 choose option this, that & the other, so the money was flying through it. :eek:
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That's another thing that annoy's me.
Why is it, that "normally" you have to dial a premium rate number to complain?
For those of you that are un-aware of its existence, this is a handy little site
(I'm sure there are others as well)
http://www.saynoto0870.com/
 
Peter B said:
Had to use a phonebox on holiday recently due to lack of mobile signal. You have to put 60p in the box before it'll even let you dial a number, and then you have to put more in when you get through. It was also to an 0845 choose option this, that & the other, so the money was flying through it. :eek:
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60p ??? :jawdrop:
Christ! I remember when 2p got you the same privilege :LOL:
 
Cobra said:
That's another thing that annoy's me.
Why is it, that "normally" you have to dial a premium rate number to complain?
For those of you that are un-aware of its existence, this is a handy little site
(I'm sure there are others as well)
http://www.saynoto0870.com/
Click to expand...

Not anymore, the EU Directive concerning premium numbers for customer service use came into force in the UK on the 13th June.

From 13th June 2014, it will be illegal for companies to provide premium-rate numbers (including 0845, 0870 and 09) for their customer service lines. This law was passed as part of “The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013″ on 13th December 2013.

This applies to any phone line that is in place for existing customers (anyone who has a contractual relationship with a company or is an ongoing receiver of a company’s services) to make a query or complaint. This law does not apply to value-added services, such as technical support or sales lines.
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http://www.callcentrehelper.com/100-days-left-for-0845-numbers-56260.htm
 
Dave1 said:
Not anymore, the EU Directive concerning premium numbers for customer service use came into force in the UK on the 13th June.
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Its about bloody time,
But they still haven't gone far enough IMO

This law does not apply to value-added services, such as technical support or sales lines.
 
Use mobile phone for making/receiving calls. Use landline for internet basically. Sometimes people call us on it. Mostly not. It's been this way for at least 8 years. If we didn't need a landline for broadband, we would just disconnect it.
 
Land line person here but it's more for my elderly mother's benefit as we get free unlimited local phone calls as part of my broadband package with AOL/Talk Talk/Carphone Warehouse or whatever it is supposed to be these days.
I get to have the internet and mother can natter away on the land line to her hearts content and it doesn't cost a penny more or a penny less (it also includes the monthly line rental).
As for using the mobile, I had topped up my Nokia N8 with £10 of PAYG credit back in in March, I still have £4.51 sitting in there. I hate text messaging and cannot hear on the mobile what with me being hard of hearing.

PS: Just to add, we very rarely get those nuisance spam phone calls, funnily enough.
 
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Cobra said:
Its about bloody time,
But they still haven't gone far enough IMO

This law does not apply to value-added services, such as technical support or sales lines.
Click to expand...

I agree they could have gone further, but in a different way, the new law doesn't cover financial services yet, the "value added services" lines would probably disappear without premium numbers, these are more "how do I connect my Epson Printer to my Acer laptop" type calls than "my printer doesn't work".

Sales lines have been 0800 or geographic for a long time as they need to encourage people to call those.
 
Cobra said:
Its about bloody time,
But they still haven't gone far enough IMO

This law does not apply to value-added services, such as technical support or sales lines.
Click to expand...


Just checked their website and found that the 0845 Customer Service number painted on their vans is now an 0345 number, which I presume is cheaper? Maybe I should complain and ask for my money back .........
 
Peter B said:
Just checked their website and found that the 0845 Customer Service number painted on their vans is now an 0345 number, which I presume is cheaper? Maybe I should complain and ask for my money back .........
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I belive they are standard rate non-geographic numbers.

And yes that's a good plan :D
 
Cobra said:
I belive they are standard rate non-geographic numbers.

And yes that's a good plan :D
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03 is billed the same as 01 and 02 from any phone, including mobiles.

0345 was a direct replacement for companies with 0845 customer service, so if you had 0845 123321 you were entitled to get 0345 123321 to replace it under the OFCOM rules.
 
Dave1 said:
03 is billed the same as 01 and 02 from any phone, including mobiles.

0345 was a direct replacement for companies with 0845 customer service, so if you had 0845 123321 you were entitled to get 0345 123321 to replace it under the OFCOM rules.
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Thanks for that :)

Mind you as above, I've not dialled an 0845 number in many years,
I found this quite useful, ever since it was pointed out to me :)
http://www.saynoto0870.com/
 
Tigger.ufo said:
How do fecking City-Link get away with only having an 0844 4 no. then?

...and if I had realised that Park Cameras use them I would have ordered elsewhere! :runaway:
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If you had read my post properly, Heather.
FYI, how many 01 / 02 city link numbers do you need ?

There are dozens if you follow the link above ;)
 
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As for park camera's
0845 050 2266= 01444 237070
 
You beat me to it, never knew Park Cameras had an 0845 number, but then I always go to the shop anyway, it's not that far
 
4wd said:
- what used up most of the £150m of Government funding is what I want to know, because precious little has been achieved.
.
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Consultants would be my guess - the kind that charge several grand and hour to state the blindingly obvious

(you only have to look at the word - you take Con , you take Insult and put them together and what have you go bippity boppity bankruptcy )
 
I use land lines at work - but I think landline is a bit of a misnomener as all our phones are VOIP based
 
Like most people, we only have a landline because of broadband really.
But yes I do use it if I'm home, only for the fact that we have free calls to UK mobiles and landlines and I'd rather use that than eat into the free minutes on my mobile (although I never quite seem to use all of those either!)

Strangely I still remember the telephone number for the first phone we ever had.
My mother made me memorise it along with the address and postcode when I was four (right before starting school) in case I got lost or there was some other emergency . . .

. . . although I kind of hope that if I did get lost at that age they'd be out looking for me, not sat by the phone thinking "Oh it's OK. She'll call us in a minute!" :(
 
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big soft moose said:
now if only you could say no to 0898 :LOL:
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After a quick Google I discovered the meaning of that.
The answer is simple, you must stop pushing the buttons in that sequence :p
 
SarahLee said:
. . . although I kind of hope that if I did get lost at that age they'd be out looking for me, not sat by the phone thinking "Oh it's OK. She'll call us in a minute!" :(
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LOL fair point well presented :D
 
Cobra said:
After a quick Google I discovered the meaning of that.
The answer is simple, you must stop pushing the buttons in that sequence :p
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:plus1: no idea here either

big soft moose said:
now if only you could say no to 0898 :LOL:
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Wel lI am surprised that you need them, you keep telling us you are happily married and being chased by loads of women :thinking:
That should make saying no 0898 numbers easy
 
SarahLee said:
Bear in mind that these are the same parents who wrapped my baby walker in tinfoil, stuck a sieve on my head and taught me to wheel around saying "EXTERMINAAAATTTE!!!"
(Sorry for the off-topic tangent, but that may actually explain a lot! :LOL:)
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& indeed it does Sarah, indeed it does.
:D
 
Cobra said:
If you had read my post properly, Heather.
FYI, how many 01 / 02 city link numbers do you need ?

There are dozens if you follow the link above ;)
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...and just try phoning them Chris!

"This number is not recognised. Please check the number and try again"

I have used Say No to 0870 for years but no joy with City-Link who to collect from their depot would involve me driving past Park Cameras to do so!
 
Dave1 said:
Park Cameras have a normal number on their home page (no sign of an 0845).
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, I had no problem with Park Cameras phone no. just their crappy choice of useless delivery company!
 
Tigger.ufo said:
...and just try phoning them Chris!

"This number is not recognised. Please check the number and try again"

I have used Say No to 0870 for years but no joy with City-Link who to collect from their depot would involve me driving past Park Cameras to do so!
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Thats a bugger!
All I can say is never had a failure with that site
As to whether I have to phone city link in the past I really can't remember
 
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