P.O.T.S. (Plain-old telephone service) options other than Bell or Rogers

[crowTrobot]

Hello, My contract with Bell is finishing up soon (home/TV/internet) so I am switching the internet to Teksavvy, unfortunately I realized I have to pay 10 a month for dry loop and since I need to get a new home phone anway I might as well look for other POTS resellers in my area. Teksavvy unfortunately does not offer home phone in my area (except for VOIP) so I have to look for other POTS service that is hopefully around the same price range or cheaper. I just need basic POTS since I dial an access number for long distance anyway. Bell and Rogers are $30-35+ for basic service while Teksavvy is $21 for basic. VOIP is considerably cheaper but I need POTS for work (plus paying 10 bucks on top of VOIP equalls the same price anyway).

What other options do I have in terms of POTS resellers in the Scarborough area?

Thanks in advance.

[Ottomaddox]

Shouldn't Bell be $21.25 + 911 charge a month?

[ckhw]

How about TekSavvy cable Internet service?

[win-star]

What about magicjack?

I've been using it for almost 2 years now and not have a problem yet ... only when the power outage or internet is down

edit: NVM you said no voip ... I am not sure if magic jack can dial access numbers

edit 2: If access numbers are 1-800 numbers, then magis jack would word but if not NVM

[Jucius Maximus]

Shouldn't Bell be $21.25 + 911 charge a month?

Ahahahaa hahah ahhahahahahahaaa hahhaaaaa :lol: :lol: :lol: :facepalm:

Expect to pay $40-50 per month for POTS with Bell after they hit you with all of their surprise fees and stuff.


How about TekSavvy cable Internet service?

+1
Unfortunately the OP cannot get Teksavvy due to regional issues.

I've had TekSavvy home phone since 2009 and it's been 100% problem-free.

[crowTrobot]

yep, Bell hidden fees are ridiculous! They didn't even honor the first month bundle they promised me and when I asked them they said "what offer?" (they only gave me one free month of TMN, offer was 3 free months, they never honored the bundled discount they promised but gave me a 10 dollar rebate the next month instead, i signed up for basic phone but they they signed me up for premium with contract, it took three months of calling them to waive the contract (but still charged me for premium for those 3 months), after that they also signed me up for other extra features I didn't sign up for in basic which also took a few months to fix. With internet, I asked if this was a Wireless N router they were providing and sales person said yes (even the technician who was installing it). I have also yet to see the promised speeds that I am paying for. I am too busy to waste time talking to them all the time and I have to admit I have missed a lot of charges in the monthly bills that were questionable and only now have I started to check on it. That is just some of the BS they pulled on me and I am just tired of it now that TekSavvy DSL is finally available in my area again.

I tried magicjack but has problems connecting to a specific US number I need to dial to for work. :(

[bylo]

My contract with Bell is finishing up soon (home/TV/internet) so I am switching the internet to Teksavvy, unfortunately I realized I have to pay 10 a month for dry loop and since I need to get a new home phone anway I might as well look for other POTS resellers in my area. Teksavvy unfortunately does not offer home phone in my area (except for VOIP) so I have to look for other POTS service that is hopefully around the same price range or cheaper.How could you have got POTS and DSL through Bhell and now can get DSL from Teksavvy but not POTS? Are you/TSI sure about that?



What other options do I have in terms of POTS resellers in the Scarborough area? Perhaps Yak or Primus but I'm not sure they offer POTS.

[brunes]

"VOIP is considerably cheaper but I need POTS for work"

Er... why? This makes no sense to me. Do you mean you need a landline for work? Landline != POTS.

I have had Vonage for almost 10 years now and never had an issue. Their pricing seems to be a tad higher than some other fly-by-night VOIP providers, but in my experience talking with some other people who use VOIP, you seem to get what you pay for. My landline is important (to my wife mainly), and I have NEVER had an outage, and NEVER had an issue with call quality. Also Vonage is the only carrier which offers a local NB area code, which is a large factor. I may someday get a different VOIP provider, but I would never go back to POTS service.

[Ottomaddox]

Ahahahaa hahah ahhahahahahahaaa hahhaaaaa :lol: :lol: :lol: :facepalm:

Expect to pay $40-50 per month for POTS with Bell after they hit you with all of their surprise fees and stuff.




I must be a genius. I'm paying $21.25 + 911 fee + $2.80 for touch tone = $24.22 before taxes.

No contracts, no other Bell services.

[hightech]

You can get a basic phone like for $14.95 including taxes, 911, etc.

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-home-phone-sure-you-not-legacy-plans-no-more-touchtone-charge-1132112/

[hightech]

I must be a genius. I'm paying $21.25 + 911 fee + $2.80 for touch tone = $24.22 before taxes.

No contracts, no other Bell services.

You no genius.. you are paying about $10 too much:

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-home-phone-sure-you-not-legacy-plans-no-more-touchtone-charge-1132112/

[Ottomaddox]

You no genius.. you are paying about $10 too much:

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-home-phone-sure-you-not-legacy-plans-no-more-touchtone-charge-1132112/

Another way to look at it is that I'm paying an extra $10 a month to stay out of Bhell's effed up billing system.
I don't trust any "deal" Bell gives me, and I need my phone line and other services associated with it to stay unmolested.

[sillysimms]

Hopefully some of the posts in the thread help you find something cheaper OP.

Although you aren't going with Rogers, I just wanted to point out that their phone service is not POTS, and if you had it, it is not compatible with DSL and you'd still need dry loop.

[northfur1]

Hello, My contract with Bell is finishing up soon (home/TV/internet) so I am switching the internet to Teksavvy, unfortunately I realized I have to pay 10 a month for dry loop and since I need to get a new home phone anway I might as well look for other POTS resellers in my area. Teksavvy unfortunately does not offer home phone in my area (except for VOIP) so I have to look for other POTS service that is hopefully around the same price range or cheaper. I just need basic POTS since I dial an access number for long distance anyway. Bell and Rogers are $30-35+ for basic service while Teksavvy is $21 for basic. VOIP is considerably cheaper but I need POTS for work (plus paying 10 bucks on top of VOIP equalls the same price anyway).

What other options do I have in terms of POTS resellers in the Scarborough area?

Thanks in advance.

Eh?

I'm in Scarborough near Warden and Lawrence East in Wexford. I have POTS with teksavvy. Great rates and super cheap North America 2.9c /min long distance.

Where the heck are you in Scarberia to not be able to be covered by tekksavvy? Was it their website that said no POTS for your location or was it a customer service rep?

[Kasakato]

Another way to look at it is that I'm paying an extra $10 a month to stay out of Bhell's effed up billing system.
I don't trust any "deal" Bell gives me, and I need my phone line and other services associated with it to stay unmolested.

Throwing $135 a year out the window = not so genius.

[iamnotamerican.com]

I must be a genius. I'm paying $21.25 + 911 fee + $2.80 for touch tone = $24.22 before taxes.


You pay an extra fee for a standard service now? Why does anyone pay for touch-tone service these days? There's no justification at all for that fee.

[Kasakato]

You pay an extra fee for a standard service now? Why does anyone pay for touch-tone service these days? There's no justification at all for that fee.

You know,


Another way to look at it is that I'm paying an extra $10 a month to stay out of Bhell's effed up billing system.
I don't trust any "deal" Bell gives me, and I need my phone line and other services associated with it to stay unmolested.

:lol:

[bylo]

You pay an extra fee for a standard service now? Why does anyone pay for touch-tone service these days? There's no justification at all for that fee.
It's a decades-long standing issue with Bhell, e.g. Time to scrap Bell's $2.80 touch-tone fee (http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1159374--roseman-let-s-dial-down-bell-s-2-80-touch-tone-fee)

Bhell grandfathers lines that never had touchtone. Mine is one of them. I "inherited" my parents' phone number and line when I bought their house after they moved to a retirement home. That's one reason why it makes no sense for me to switch to Teksavvy for POTS. That would increase the monthly cost because then I'd be paying for touchtone. (The other reason is that $25 or $50 switching fee.)

I'm hoping to eventually be the last Bhell customer without touchtone ;)

[Manatus]

Throwing $135 a year out the window = not so genius.

If I had to stay with Bell for some reason (thankfully I don't), I'd let them keep the extra $135/year too. The amount of hassle and screwups you would have to deal with would far exceed that amount. I can totally see someone asking to switch to the cheap plan and the Bell rep processing it as a disconnection and reconnection including waiting a few days with no service for a technician to go out, fees for disconnecting and a new connection etc. And then when you had a problem with that, prepare to spend another few days on the phone. If I had a home business or something else where I really needed to have perfect service all day every day, I'd do my very best to never contact Bell at all, even if that meant paying more than I technically had to.

[Kasakato]

If I had to stay with Bell for some reason (thankfully I don't), I'd let them keep the extra $135/year too. The amount of hassle and screwups you would have to deal with would far exceed that amount. I can totally see someone asking to switch to the cheap plan and the Bell rep processing it as a disconnection and reconnection including waiting a few days with no service for a technician to go out, fees for disconnecting and a new connection etc. And then when you had a problem with that, prepare to spend another few days on the phone. If I had a home business or something else where I really needed to have perfect service all day every day, I'd do my very best to never contact Bell at all, even if that meant paying more than I technically had to.

Sure, tell that to the 24 pages of people who have successfully switched: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bell-home-phone-sure-you-not-legacy-plans-no-more-touchtone-charge-1132112/. Myself, I have changed three lines without incident - the line items reflect exactly what was promised within the billing cycle. All calls took less than 15 minutes, wait time included, with no follow up. Bell's system is bad, just not that bad. Unless you're making $540/hour, it pays to call.

[Pauly Boy]

huh, I did not know this was an actual acronym for oldschool landlines, lol... Good work RFD, I learned something today.

[bylo]

I did not know this was an actual acronym for oldschool landlines, lol.

Plain old telephone service (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_old_telephone_service)

POTS is a retronym (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym), something else you probably learned today :D