Card transactions by proxy

[Jon Ribbens]

On Fri, Apr 08, 2011 at 03:18:34PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
> Your meaning needed to be unpicked from an assumption that you were
> expressing a personal grudge.

That's your assumption.

> >Sorry, yes, I should have specified contract not PAYG. Interestingly,
> >I just checked the Virgin Mobile website and they seem to consider it
> >a secret what types of calls are included in their "minutes"; not even
> >the detailed T&Cs give any indication what "airtimes minutes" includes.
> 
> I didn't have any trouble finding it.
> 
> eg "Calls to landlines" means:

That doesn't answer the question I asked, which was "what's included
in the airtime minutes" and not "what's a landline".

> You need to look at the *overall* flow of money from you to the mobile
> operator. All those 20p's per minute currently charged for 0800 calls is
> revenue lost to the "telco ecosystem", and has to be made up somehow.

Why does it have to be "made up somehow"? Companies don't have a
god-given right to vast profits.

> To address the specific issue, the money flowing at the moment from 0800
> callcentre operators backwards to your mobile provider is much less than
> the 20p/min you are currently paying forwards.

Yes, because the mobile operators are currently gouging their
customers due to their knowledge that many customers feel they are
forced to call these numbers regardless of the cost, and Ofcom's lack
of regulation.