Are you getting what you pay for? Call rounding and minimum call costs

The general consensus on selling telecommunications services is that the supplier should sell on service, but not on cost. As communications is paramount for any business I am sure that any customer would agree that they would not mind paying slightly more if they get the service they require.

On the other hand all business’s need to keep costs as low as possible and focus on getting the best deal. A common feature is that customers are being offered good call rates which look appealing at face value. If call costs are extremely low then there generally are hidden charges. Call rounding, where you are charged to the nearest minute. i.e you only make a 30 second call, but you are then charged for the full minutes call. The supplier always wins..

We offered to review an existing maintenance customer’s telephone bill. They were sure that they were getting a good deal, but as part of our service we completed the review. We saw that our customer was incurring minimum call costs and call rounding. This was greatly increasing their monthly bill. We won this particular customers business as we only charge the customer for what they use. If you make a 5 second call you pay for a 5 second call.

Call Rounding and Minimum Call Costs – Are you getting what you pay for?

Recently MF Communications offered to review the telephone bill of an existing maintenance customer. This customer was sure they were getting a good deal, but we noticed that they were actually paying more than they needed to each month. This was due to minimum call costs and call rounding.

Minimum call costs are incurred when in order to call a certain destination you are charged a minimum fee, for example it may cost you minimum 10 pence per call to a local number for 20 seconds, which actually only costs 1 pence per minute.

Call rounding is when calls are charged to the nearest minute, for example if you make a 30 second call, it will be rounded up to 1 minute and charged accordingly.

In both these cases the supplier always wins.

Understandably businesses look to keep costs to a minimum and in so doing they may sometimes wrongly assume that the cheapest option is the best deal.

MF Communications has always strived to provide the highest level of service to its customers. Our customers believe, like us, that communication is vital to a business’s operation and that it is important to get the best service and highest level of operation. We do not believe in selling underhand and on cost, but our customers know that we only charge them for what they use. There are no hidden costs or extras, so if you make a 5 second call you only pay for a 5 second call. It’s as simple as that.

Minimum call costs and call rounding are features used by companies to make the face value of a call contract look appealing. We recommend customers check their bill to see if they are over paying. Why pay for something that you are not using?