http://www.webcalldirect.com/en/index.php

Basically you type in your number and destination number, then you get a ring and it autidials to the other number. 30 countries are free inc. USA so looks impressive.

Is it possible that when I pick it up I will get charged?

Looks like they're part of the same group that does VoIPcheap, etc (which I use) and so not a scam.

The free calls work fine, but you do get cut off randomly every now and then.

B

Okay I tried to make calls to USA (NYC and Chicago), Switzerland and Italy.

No luck, maybe I don't have any credit and there is a 5ct connection fee?

Maybe, but with VoIPcheap, you download a bit of software, and register. You don't have to put any credit in, and you can make free calls straight away.

Its not a bad service, but if you use it regularly, they start randomly disconnecting you. Was fine for the first couple of weeks, but think they want me to credit the account to continue the free calls.

These people seem well dodgy.

They hide a lot of information from you.

I wanted to find out how much credit you need to buy to get your 90 days calls, but first it wanted me to register, then it still won't tell me until I download software and run it.

Even if they are legit they're going to put any intelligent customers off by looking as if they're on a phishing trip!

They seem like the kind of company that exists for a while, then suddenly disappears. Having said that, think it was on this forum that someone said they've been with one of these for over a year.

If i end up using them, i'll only put a few pounds in so if they go belly up, haven't lost much. I wouldn't solely rely on them as my VoIP provider thats for sure!

This company are fine, they are part of a massive european company who are (i think) the biggest SIP providers in Europe

Loads of people have used them on here and they are fine, and it did work for me, you need to put the country code in for YOUR number as well as the destination so 00442082002345 or whatever.

So why it their website designed to keep the most important information from you?

Obviously you want to know, with an outfit like this, how much credit you need to put in to get your 90 days of 'free' calls.

It's pretty fundamental to the whole business.

So you search the site and the information is not there.

Then you find what looks like a promising link and it won't tell you unless you 'register'.

So, you think, 'no harm there' and register so that you can find the cost.

Once that's done can you get the info you require?

Can you ****! They now want you to download software in order that you can be 'validated'.

Quite honestly, only a complete muppet would would do that. Anyone downloading software from a source like this who are obviously deliberately hiding information from you deserves to get a machine full of viruses and ad-ware.

Whether they are malicious or just unbelievably incompetent I don't know, but with all due respect it will take more than just some bloke on a forum saying they're OK to make me trust the,

Been using this group of companies for several years, never had any issues with them whatsoever.

I tried them and they were useless. Unreliable and calls were routinely disconnected even though I was in credit. Quality was often abysmal.

A friend who used them had big problems trying to get them to correct a double billing error.

AVOID

The VoIP services we use from this group have no problems at all, people don\'t even know we aren\'t using a proper phone line.

I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot barge pole.

What I wonder is, though, why would anyone even begin to trust a company that deiberately designs its website in such a way that you can't see what the cost of the product is?

It very much makes it look as if they're trying to hide something.

And then having to download a program???

I would have thought that for anyone who takes the slightest notice of all the warnings about web crooks, that would be a definite no-no.

That would cut down their potential customer base so why design the site like that if they're above board.

It would take a great deal to convince me that these people are anything but well dodgy!

I have used the service for some time and never had any problems.
Last edited by blazor : 20-02-2007 at 01:57

My mother signed up, put €10 in (they charged €11.90, cheeky!) and made a few, supposedly free calls to Canada. Problem is that they've charged her a 3.5c connection fee for each call! Sent and e-mail off to them but no response as yet, and by the sounds of it, not expecting one either.

Think I'll be sticking to the free calls with disconnections every couple of mins for now, or just use another carrier for longer calls.

B

I agree. The hidden connection fee was annoying as was the VAT appearing.

The trouble it that their website seems deliberately designed to mislead customers and potential customers. I wouldn't hold your breath about getting any joy on the connection charge. I expect it's burried away at the bottom of a page somewhere, although I've never seen it. That's if they even bother to reply.

I feel that they are basically very dishonest. They make a big noise about free calls, but how can a call be free if you have to pay 10e every few weeks and they charge 3.5c for it anyway?

I'm very surprised to see someone say that the call quality is good. Perhaps they have a bad exchange or landine to compare as when I used them the call quality was always inferior to normal landlines and often really quite bad.

I'd still very much go with what I said before, this outfit are one to AVOID.

I use Voipcheap.com, and it does what it says on the tin, place 10 euro into account adding VAT makes it more, hence the 11.70 ish figure that is charged, after that calls to the countries that are on the home page as being free are really free, no connection fee, there is a limit to 300 minutes a week, after that the calls become chargeable, at rates that are shown on their call rates page.

The 10 euros gives you these 300 minutes a week to the free destinations, for 90 days, however you don not loose the 10 euro, it would just mean that if you didn't top up your account after 90 days, the calls would no longer be free.

I use my 10 euros on calls to mobiles and to 0845 and 0870 numbers, as it also helps keep the home phone bill down.

It works a bit like a mobile phone, place credit, get free minutes, and you get to keep your credit to spend on non-free calls, with the limit being 90 days between credit needing to be placed to continue getting free calls.

I did try Voip Buster Pro, this was 365 freedays, for the 10 euro with a bonus 5 euro of calling credit, however i didn't think this was all that great, as they took the 10 euros as a charge for the freedays, and also started to charge 3.9c connection fee, that they were taking from the 5 euro free credit, so ineffect, this way, you end up paying twice for the call, at least with the Voipcheap option, you don't get charged for the free calls, nor is their a connection fee, and you are using the money on calls that aren't free, using the Voipbuster service, they took the 10 euro for the free calls, and also charged a connection fee.

So, i got stung with the Voipbuster Pro, i went back to using VoipCheap.com, both these are run by the same company, and i also think that their websites can be very confusing, if i knew that Voipbuster would take the 10 euro and also charge a connection fee, then they would never of got my cash, and this was after using a sister service, that i do think gives much better value for money, the annoying thing is both sites have nearly identical information in the FAQ sections!

VoIPDiscount and VoIPStunt offer free calling for 120 days on the €10 top-up.

It was 16% VAT until Germany increased the VAT rates on 1 Jan 2007 to 19%

VoIP Buster Pro, do state they have the 3.9c connection charge.

And that makes them pretty non competative.

You see this is where they seem to be a bunch of con-artists.

If you look at their 'rates' web page it is carefully designed to give the impression that the 300 mins per week is for 'registered users' (no mention of credit) and that if you want more free time you can get it by buying credit.

They talk about 'Free Days' which seems to be a completely meaningless concept with their pricing scheme.

The whole layout of the site seems to be deliberately designed to confuse the potential customer into believing that they are going to get more than they do. But it's well enough designed that if anyone complains they can hold up their hands and say :"ah, but if you look very carefully it doesn't actually say that".

This just isn't the way a reputable company does business. I certainly think they are well worth giving a miss.
Last edited by qpw3141 : 20-02-2007 at 22:23

I\'m more than happy with the VoIP service I receive from this group of companies.

Certainly not one to be avoided.

You've said exactly that already.

But with all due respect, you are a poster who only joined after this thread was started and who seems to be very keen to praise of these cowboys.

Given their dodgy website and less than honest pricing information, plus the problems more established posters have reported, I'm afraid your posts have little credibility.

Look leave him alone, I've used services from this company too and they are fine, if you join you will see their pricing.

I don't see the issue, they are a massive company that owns many voip sites voipcheap, voipstunt, webcalldirect etc and have customers worldwide. There's nothing dodgy about them at all, you are just too arrogant to listen to other peoples information. You should be welcoming new members not putting them off digitalspy with your rudeness.

Here's others talking about voip sites run by this company, they all use the service:

http://digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=482129
http://digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=446938
http://digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=382536

Lots of DS users have used them.

They operate the UK calling services 18866 and 1899

They run:
* http://www.internetcalls.com
* http://www.netappel.com
* http://www.poivy.com
* http://www.sparvoip.de
* http://www.voipbuster.com
* http://www.voipcheap.com
* http://www.voipcheap.co.uk
* http://www.voipdiscount.com
* http://www.voipstunt.com
* http://www.freecall.com

Austria

* http://www.1031telekom.at
* http://www.telediscount.at
* http://www.billignet.at
* http://www.wertauf.at

Belgium

* http://www.callcheap.be
* http://www.directbellen.be
http://www.belkraker.be
http://www.briseprix.be

Czech Republic

* http://www.telediscount.cz

Eire (Republic of Ireland)

* http://www.call13434.ie
* http://www.telestunt.ie
* http://www.telediscount.ie

Finland

* http://www.teleale.com

France

* http://www.telesoldes.com
http://www.telesoldes.fr
* http://www.telerabais.com
http://www.telerabais.fr
http://www.coucoutel.fr
* http://www.remisetel.fr

Germany

* http://www.01071telecom.de
http://www.telestunt.de
http://www.telestunt.com
http://www.telebillig.de
http://www.surprisetelecom.de
http://www.juniortelecom.de
http://www.teledump.de
* http://www.telediscount.de
http://www.easytelecom.de
* http://www.maestrotelecom.de

Hong Kong

* http://www.hongkongcall.com

Italy

* http://www.tel10090.it
* http://www.telesconto.it
* http://www.liberochiamate.it
* http://www.telediscount.it

Netherlands

* http://www.bel1649.nl,
http://www.bel1601.nl
* http://www.telediscount.nl,
http://www.telestunt.nl,
http://www.spaartelecom.nl,
http://www.belpiraat.nl,
http://www.teledump.nl
* http://www.1609bellen.nl
* http://www.bel1643.nl
* http://www.belgigant.nl

Norway

* http://www.telespare.com

Poland

* http://www.telediscount.pl

Sweden

* http://www.ring9533.com
* http://www.rabattpriser.com
* http://www.sveritel.com

Switzerland

* http://www.10787.ch
http://www.10881.ch
* http://www.teleswiss.ch
http://www.helvatel.ch
http://www.raptel.ch
* http://www.schweiztel.ch

United Kingdom

* http://www.1899.com
http://www.call18866.co.uk
http://www.call18185.co.uk
* http://www.bestminutes.co.uk
http://www.budgetcom.co.uk
http://www.cheapestcalls.co.uk
http://www.dialaround.co.uk
http://www.discountdial.co.uk
http://www.telesavers.co.uk
http://www.telestunt.co.uk
* http://www.topupdiscount.co.uk
http://www.topupnow.co.uk
http://www.teletop.co.uk
* http://www.0844calls.co.uk
* http://www.phonecheap.co.uk
Last edited by intheknow : 21-02-2007 at 15:48

Why would you assume that someone who calls itself 'sexykitten' is male? Seems a very odd assumption. Do you know this new poster personally?


Their website is a perfect example of the sort of company who rely on confusing users to try and get them to take up their services.

If they are completely above board, why do they not plainly state how much you will have to pay and how the credit / free hours thing works.

You say "if you join you will see their pricing", that really is the mark of a con artist.

You go on to say "you are just too arrogant to listen to other peoples information", but people have reported problems with them, so why does that not make you too arrogant to listen?".

It's not my fault that there website appears to be designed to con users.

It's not my fault that users report frequent disconnections.

It's not my fault that users report billing problems.

Anyway, I doubt that anyone will take much notice of what you, I or the newly popped up 'sexykitten' say. If they have any sense they'll take one look at the obfuscating web page and move on.

I don\'t personally know anyone on here.

I\'ve been using this group of companies for many years, started off with 18866, then 1899 move to their VoIP offerings and also 18185.

I know many people personally who use this group of companies and also have done so for some time, I also know people on the telecom and telecom.voip newsgroups who are more than happy with their service and also people over on the MSE forum.

They do explain openly the credit and free hours on their website, without the need of signing up.

Just remember you were a new member on here once.

Maybe you work for their competition and want to do all you can to put people of a perfectly decent service.