Cable and Wireless Watch
Free calls to end in June 1998?
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| You've probably come to this site because you've heard rumours that free local calls are ending for Videotron subscribers. I've had three still unverified reports, from different sources, that the guillotine falls in June 1998. Hence the screamer! After that excitement here is the news, although not from the BBC (No Java? Read it here): |
| What motivated this Web page? Until early July this year Videotron were attracting Internet users to their cable telephone service with leaflets stating: |
| Off peak local calls to other Videotron customers come absolutely FREE. This means that between the hours of 7pm and 7am weekdays, or any time at weekends or UK public holidays, you can talk to your friends and family for as long as you like and, provided they are connected to our service, your calls won't cost you a penny. There's no catch or gimmick and it's not a short-term offer - it's just one of the permanent benefits of being part of the Videotron Telephone Network. What's more, if you are connected to an Internet Service Provider who has the Videotron Telephone Service you can surf all night or throughout the weekend with no call charges. |
| Before the takeover of Bell Cablemedia, Mercury, Nynex and Videotron by CWC on 1 June Videotron gave the Consumer's Association the following assurance: |
| This was sent by the Consumer's Association to a Bogomip subscriber. | Many apologies for the delay in replying to your e-mail regarding Videotron.
Your message has been with one of our experts. Videotron gave us a 100% assurance that EXISTING Videotron customers would continue to have free internet access if their ISP had a Videotron line. They stated that the tariff change to only 100 free minutes per month would only affect new customers. If it is the case that Videotron are not offering free calls to customers who had signed up before the change in tariff then this is something we would definitely look into. It would be great if you could forward copies of any correspondence with Videotron in the meantime. I look forward to hearing from you again soon. Regards, Hannah Sheffield |
| Clear! What CWC did after they gave this assurance muddied the waters, as the following correspondence shows: |
| This is a form email sent to all former Videotron customers. | Thank you for your email received on .... May I firstly apologise for the delay in responding to you.
I can confirm that whilst we have decided to cease offering Free Local Calls to new customers, existing customers will remain on their current tariffs. They will have the option to migrate or change their services to one of our packages that suit their requirements. However this decision will not be forced on them. There is a definite intention to migrate all customers to our new packages eventually, but on the basis that they will receive higher value as a result of moving and will do so voluntarily. The reason why Free Local Calls are not part of the new packages is because for many potential CWC customers, it is not possible to replicate the mechanics of the Videotron offering and priority has been given to offering a single proposition to the new CWC target market. I hope this explanation helps to clarify your concerns. If you have any further concerns regarding this issue, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Department on 0181 244 1111. Yours sincerely Caroline D'Monte |
| Further to your letter dated ..., addressed to Miss Day, please accept my apologies for any confusion that you may have experienced regarding our future pricing policy.
I can confirm that all existing Videotron telephone customers will, for the foreseeable future, continue to be able to make use of the free calls offering. The new pricing will apply to customers signing up for services on or after 30 June 1997. At the present time we intend only to transfer those customers who specifically request the new packaging. I trust that this clarifies your query and again apologise for any confusion caused. Yours sincerely, Debbie Annand |
This was posted on The Direct Connection's internal newsgroups. |
| This rather robust email was sent to a customer of The Direct Connection. | I have considered the points raised in your email dated ... and can advise that you have still retained the free local calls and they have not been taken away from existing customers. With regard to your comment about 'the sands shifting', I would point out that any commercial operation must reserve the right to adjust its products and prices over time, and telephone companies are no different. I am sure you will agree that it would not be reasonable to expect otherwise.
I regret that we do not agree with your views that suggest that we are guilty of condescension in our dealings with the Internet users. We value their custom highly and have offered them the best deal available in the marketplace. It is our intentions, within commercially reasonable parameters, to continue to do that. We hope that anything you decide to publicise on this matter will reflect the facts of this situation. Whilst you are free to withdraw your custom and return to BT, we would suggest however, that you evaluate this option rationally and make your decision based on the most favourable terms. We are confident that our product/price combination continues to offer the best available value. In the event that you are able to demonstrate otherwise, we would be interested in the analysis with a view to ensuring that our competitiveness in the marketplace is maintained. Kind regards Caroline D'Monte |
| Thank you for your recent comments regarding our new services. I hope I will be able to answer your queries to your satisfaction.
As we acknowledged earlier it is due to system constraints that existing Videotron customers have not been moved onto the new Cable & Wireless Communications packages. Therefore you will retain your free off-peak local calls when calling other Videotron telephony subscribers, and your current line rental for the foreseeable future. When it is technically possible to move all Videotron customers onto the new packages we will review the free calls situation, though this does not necessarily mean that they will be withdrawn. The Cable & Wireless Communications packages have been designed to meet the needs of the individual caller by offering a choice of local, national and international focus. This innovative approach has been based on large-scale analysis of the calling patterns of our customers, and will benefit the majority of existing Videotron customers. The new packages offer substantial savings over the present Videotron package on many calls. For example: A 10 minute Local Evening call with Videotron would currently cost you 14.6p, with LocalCall it would be just 9.8p, a saving of 32%. A 5 minute National Evening call with Videotron would cost 17.65p, but only 15.5p with UK-Call, a saving of 12%. For a 5 minute Evening call to France with Videotron you would pay 116.35p but with SmartCall it would be 92.8p saving you 20%. As a Videotron customer you can choose to move onto the new Cable & Wireless Communications packages if you wish to do so. These packages all automatically give you 100 free Local Evening minutes each month, so that you can make free local evening calls to anyone in your local area irrespective of which telephone service that person has. This allows you the freedom to call whoever you choose locally with our compliments. You can also earn up to a maximum of 520 free minutes according to how much you spend on a monthly basis. Being an internet user you will almost certainly make some long local calls. Compare the price with our LocalCall package for a local evening call of one hour against previous Videotron prices and BT's basic rate. BT basic rate 98.7p inc VAT Videotron 87.6p inc VAT LocalCall 58.6p inc VAT We appreciate that if you are currently getting free access to your internet service provider that the removal of free calls would be very disappointing. However we hope when you weigh this against all the other benefits of LocalCall relative to the existing Videotron package (i.e the reductions in the cost of many calls and introduction of Free Minutes) and BT, you will still be better off with Cable & Wireless Communications. Cable & Wireless Communications is the only other choice for many customers across the UK. We have therefore positioned this package so that customers are offered savings against our main national competitor, namely BT. With our line rental 13% cheaper and savings targeted on the calls you make most frequently we aim to offer you cheaper bills than you would receive with BT and we back that up with our Price Pledge. I hope that you are reassured of Cable & Wireless Communications' continuing commitment to all of our customers be they Videotron, Mercury, Nynex or Bell CableMedia. Jessica Salmon |
This was posted on CIX and forwarded to me. |
| This is a transcription of a letter sent to me. | Further to your letter dated ..., I would firstly like to take this opportunity to apologise for the delay in responding to you.
As of 30 June 1997 new pricing and packaging came into effect which standardised charges across the merged companies. The free calls have been removed from the new packages, however we are not changing our existing Videotron customers tariffs at present. Until such time as they are removed you will still enjoy free calls to your Internet provider. The new company provides Internet services and more information can be obtained by calling 0500 200 980. If you were to change to this provider you would not receive free calls. We are presently testing the possibility of cable modems, and when these are available for trial you will be notified accordingly. I would like to thank you for taking the time to write to me, and assure you that any changes that are made that will effect you, will be notified to you in advance. If you have any further concerns or queries please do not hesitate to contact Donna Bowie on 0171 967 2317. Yours sincerely |
| On your last comment, regarding Videotron and Cable and Wireless, we have expressed our dissatisfaction in the strongest terms to senior management at Videotron about the way that the price changes have been handled. | From a letter to me by Ben Knox, Managing Director of The Direct Connection. |
| From Wired, September 1997. | Although the infrastructure is impressive, with more high bandwidth optical cable than the US, other elements of British telecom seem relatively backward. There is no flat-rate service, for instance, so every minute counts - even for local calls. |
| The letter below is, at the moment, the final word, and is something less than a "100% assurance": it was sent to Keith Hill MP by CWC: |
| Further to your letter addressed to the Chief Executive I have been asked to reply on behalf of the marketing department.
I can confirm that CWC are not abolishing the free calls currently offered to Videotron customers. I can also confirm that we have no immediate plans to do so. Due to system constraints we have not been able to automatically give our new Cable and Wireless packages to all existing Videotron customers. When we are able to automatically offer all Videotron customers our new packages we will review the free calls situation. Should we decide to alter the telephone packages for Videotron customers will, of course, ensure that the changes are subject to the customers' contract and that we also inform our customers of the changes. Should you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact me. Yours sincerely |
Letter resulting from my complaint as a constituent. |
| It's worth mentioning that on 1 September 1997 Bell Cablemedia, Nynex, Mercury and Videotron ceased to exist even in name; their Web sites are redirected to CWC's, and bills now show only the Cable and Wireless logo. If what you've read so far hasn't reassured you - and what is effectively the Government view will reassure you even less - there are plenty of Web sites to visit and people to write to: |
| Get writing! | Get browsing! | Get battling! |
| Your local newspaper Your constituency MP Watchdog (BBC TV) Advertising Standards Authority The Consumer's Association Office of Fair Trading Oftel |
CWC Bell CableMedia Mercury Nynex Videotron (UK) Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée (Canada) Vidéotron Résidentiel (Canada) The Cable Website |
The Cable Community The Nynex Lies Site alt.videotron.general |
| If you're an ex-Videotron subscriber and are spending money to connect to the Internet there are ISPs to which you can connect with your free local calls. If you know of any others please say. |
(so you can connect if you've still got free local calls) |
| Bogomip Comenet Dolphin Internet Exnet Internet Discovery |
Metronet Neuronet PC Users Group The Direct Connection Zoo Internet |
| The fax number of Graham Wallace, CWC Chief Executive, is 0171 528 2120: his address is Cable and Wireless Communications, 26 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4HQ. A more appropriate contact is Guy Hancox, CWC Consumer Pricing Manager. His direct phone number is 0171 528 2253; his direct fax number is 0171 528 3531; same address as above. |
| Java applet by Modern Minds: this site is maintained by Alastair Scott and was last updated on 5 November 1997. |