View Full Version : Free Calls?
dodgey memory
17-02-2005, 13:45
I've noticed that many of the villas have free local/national calls. Are there any restrictions on this, like only if you phone between midnight and 6 am! Sounds almost too good to be true. Teresa
Nostromo
17-02-2005, 14:40
The villa we stayed in Orange Tree offered free local calls on Clermont's 352 code but calls to Orlando's 407 code and elsewhere were charged. I thought that was the norm everywhere.
caroline
17-02-2005, 14:48
We have free local/long distance and International calls at our villa. It is a special package that villa owners can pay for which means that guests can phone over 100 countries as well as long distance and locally, completely free of charge 24/7 you can even call mobiles.
There are quite a few villas now offering this service to guests.
Nostromo
17-02-2005, 15:49
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by caroline
We have free local/long distance and International calls at our villa. It is a special package that villa owners can pay for which means that guests can phone over 100 countries as well as long distance and locally, completely free of charge 24/7 you can even call mobiles.
There are quite a few villas now offering this service to guests.
[/quote]
Wow! That's very generous. But will it work out for the owners? I mean, even long distance calls within the USA can be quite expensive sometimes and given the sort of licence on offer, people might misuse it and call all and sundry.
It's a brilliant service, for a flat monthly fee, that doesn't vary, no matter where the guests or owners call to. That's one of the reasons why we can offer it Nostromo, because we know exactly what it will cost us each month. Let's face it guests don't go to Florida to sit on the phone, but with this service when they need to make a local, long distance or international call they can do so, at any time of day or night, without worrying.
I particularly like it because you can also call mobile/cell phones, and when I am staying in my home, that is just about the only way that I can get hold of my kids because they are hardly ever in to answer the landline!!! It used to cost me a fortune in Phone Cards, and now I don't even have to give it a thought.[msnsmile2][msnsmile2]
markandpam
17-02-2005, 16:11
I think its a great idea, certainly something to attract someone to your villa. The cost is $35 a month and apparently its easy to set up. I just have to get around to doing it :)
Pam.
lgordon6041
17-02-2005, 16:28
It is very easy to set up. We enquired about it and it was up an running within a few days. Like Carla said, people don't go to Florida to sit on a phone but if the facility is there it will get used. The guests that have been in since the service was introduced loved it and certainly utilised its flexibility!
Also a good selling feature in my opinion.
Where I think it really scores, as well as offering a guest free calls to almost anywhere in the world, is that it's easy to use. Whoever is in the villa just picks up the phone and dials. Done. Simple.
Some of the other rental phone packages require you to first dial a voice-prompted operator and key in some credit card details. I think that's a big turn-off for a guest as it's lots of faff and hassle that you just don't want when on holiday.
Calling cards are the other way to go, and to be honest you can probably provide a good phone service for a bit less than the free calls package if you wanted to; but again, I see this as somewhat of a faff for a guest when they have to start working out a long string of numbers to dial.
Nostromo
17-02-2005, 20:05
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by markandpam
I think its a great idea, certainly something to attract someone to your villa. The cost is $35 a month and apparently its easy to set up. I just have to get around to doing it :)
Pam.
[/quote]
Well, it will certainly attract us. None of us 'sit' on the phone, but the handy convenience of being able to make calls when needed without constantly reminding oneself of the spiralling bill is a relief.
Ray&Sarah
17-02-2005, 20:12
We offer it to our guests too, we used to use phone cards all the time which got quite costly and it was a pain keep having to enter the numbers on the cards into the phone. Much simpler with the package we now have and good to offer to the guests.[msnsmile2]
heathercobbett
18-02-2005, 11:56
The only restriction to our free service is that it seemed to cut you off after an hour.However,you could redial and get connected straight away
If you are wondering why I was on the phone for so long,we installed a computer and being a muppet,I had to ring my son to help me install the various features
Being an expert,he had me doing probably unnecassary things,which I was mucking up
I would not normally waste the Florida sun in January!
Heather I thought it was after two hours -or has it changed lately?
dodgey memory
18-02-2005, 14:05
Thanks for your replies although this wasn't the deciding factor in our choice of villas it did help in weighing one up against another. I don't expect we will use it much but it will be good to make that we got here ok phone call to the parents!
heathercobbett
18-02-2005, 19:20
Jan, maybe I was on even longer than I thought
I have just had a computer trauma today.The darn thing was making a gloop gloop noise,so one of my boys went through it with me ,I let him go and my internet went slow and then disappeared.He then went through various possibilities with me and it is restored
Thank goodness we have a one charge covers all at home too! I think we know when we are out next,just waiting on confirmation and I will let you know
Is the angel spreading to all aspects of your life? I think I need a muppet!
heathercobbett
19-02-2005, 10:00
The gloop gloop noise that we spent hours yesterday trying to sort out,turned out to be a Sponge Bob screensaver,that my daughters ex had insyalled!!!
markandpam
19-02-2005, 11:36
Oh dear after all that work on your pc Heather! I have to admit my mum had exactly the same problems a couple of years ago. She called to say her pc was making strange noises, after quite a while trying to sort it out I realised she had some sort of "fish" screensaver, and it was this that was making an underwater noise like bubbles being released!
Pam.
heathercobbett
19-02-2005, 15:29
Made the family laugh,Pam Heather
Ray&Sarah
19-02-2005, 19:12
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by heathercobbett
The gloop gloop noise that we spent hours yesterday trying to sort out,turned out to be a Sponge Bob screensaver,that my daughters ex had insyalled!!!
[/quote]
Now thats just the sort of thing that our younger son does, adds things to the home computer without telling us or moves things about and you can't then find what you are looking for. The amount of times he was reset our home page to something different is unbelieveable.[msneek][msnsmile]
Glad you got it sorted Heather and yes I am angelic throughout as well you know
heathercobbett
20-02-2005, 00:34
There are too many people using our computer,Jan and I am easy to blame if something goes wrong,since I dont know enough to defend myself.
Can we hav e written reference from John to support your claim to being Angelic in life, deed and thought?
pieman790
31-03-2005, 20:21
We have this service in our Villa and after 1 hour it cuts off but you are free to redial the same number again 24 hours a day. You can call mobiles but not premium rate number like 0870 or 118. Im sure you can use 0845 if you need to call the bank to check you spending balance.
We also use it for connections to the internet which are free if you use one of the free to use site to connect.
which is the best company to use for these free calls packages:)
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by shenon
which is the best company to use for these free calls packages:)[/quote]If you have a search you'll find lots of info in the Owners' area about this.
tezz7628
02-04-2005, 16:55
<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by markandpam
I think its a great idea, certainly something to attract someone to your villa. The cost is <span style="color:red">$35 a month </span id="red"> and apparently its easy to set up. I just have to get around to doing it :)
Pam.
[/quote]
whats our service over here about £25, that excludes international and mobile
do we have a service that includes these? [msnmad]