Fastvoip redux

A while back someone mentioned Fastvoip.com, as an alternative
non-Betamax provider. They were offering 0800 access and pretty cheap
rates.

I reported here at the time that initially the system was completely broken
- no answer on the 0800, SIP calls rarely went through, lots of
congestion/garbled voice. I'm calling fairly 'extreme' destinations (where
the telephone infrastructure is pretty bad anyway).

So a followup post... 0800 was withdrawn, which left SIP or geographic
dialthrough. The service has settled down a bit but not completely...
sometimes I can get good audio quality, and at other times it's too garbled
to be audible. It's taken this long to use up my initial 10 pounds. IMO
Betamax is more reliable.

For where I call it's a bit cheaper than Betamax, but they've stopped taking
credit cards... it's Paysafe Card, Direct ebanking.com, WebMoney,
moneybookers.com, cashu.com, necard, ukash, or topup voucher (4 online
stores) only. They also take BACS (to an account at Barclays, London, in
GBP). They say it takes 2-3 days, which isn't very helpful if you want to
make a call right now. I don't know if Faster Payments will help.

So it's not as bad as it was previously, but I won't be buying another
credit...

Theo

In article <K+f*J1vRt@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> They also take BACS (to an account at Barclays, London, in
> GBP). They say it takes 2-3 days, which isn't very helpful if you want to
> make a call right now. I don't know if Faster Payments will help.

Barclays does faster payments, and has done right since they started.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Andrew Gabriel <andrew@cucumber.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <K+f*J1vRt@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>,
> Theo Markettos <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:
> > They also take BACS (to an account at Barclays, London, in
> > GBP). They say it takes 2-3 days, which isn't very helpful if you want to
> > make a call right now. I don't know if Faster Payments will help.
>
> Barclays does faster payments, and has done right since they started.

Yes, but when will Fastvoip credit your account after receiving a Faster
Payment?

Their control panel is still claiming I have money in my account, despite
using it all up yesterday and being unable to make calls or texts. So I
wouldn't hold your breath.

Theo