How much is my flextel number costing my lad?

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Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:50 am

I've set up a Flextel number

http://www.flextel.com/

in the UK and have redirected it to my mobile. I have a lad who keeps calling me. I think its fair to say he is hooked. I know he is calling from Nigeria, as Flextel gives me most of the digits of his phone number, which starts 00234706...

I've got no idea how much this is costing him. He rang a few times tonight and got cut off a couple of times. I asked him what was wrong with his phone and he told me he is using a public telephone box.

A friend pointed out he is probably fiddling the phone in some way, so perhaps its not costing him anything. But I guess someone in Nigeria must be picking up the cost of this, but I've no idea how much it is costing them.

I'm not about to jump on a plane to Nigeria and phone my own number, just to find out what it costs me!

He is also supposed to be faxing me an 11 page document which I've set up with Flextel's fax service. He phoned me to say he sent the FAX, but the FAX has not arrived, so he said he is going to send it again. I'm not sure how easy it is for him to use the FAX service of Flextel unless he has his own FAX machine, which he says he does not have.

I'm basically stringing him along that in order for our club to purchase something he needs to fill in this 11 page form, which it looks like he is trying to do.

This is my first bait, and it seems to be going OK, but I'd love to know what I'm costing him!

wasname.

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:58 am

What is the area code for your flextel number? +4420, +447058, etc - these will be big pointers in the cost question.

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:40 am

manbiteslion wrote:

What is the area code for your flextel number? +4420, +447058, etc - these will be big pointers in the cost question.

In the UK the number is 070100....

so I guess it would be +44 70100

wasname

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:04 am

Lads hate calling those numbers because it does cost them plenty.

I've had numerous lads complain about ringing my 070 number because "I always run out of credits on my phone" Smile

My tip is when your lad calls you, drop the call after a minute or so, he has to call you back again and whilst he's navigating the introductory "press1 to send a fax, 2 to leave a message," nonsense once more that's costing him money.

All the phone credits he's spending on you he's not spending on calling a real victim.

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:54 am

Well landline calls to it from within the UK are about 35ppm, so somewhat more than calling a mobile! Luckily your lad is able to call it, but it may well be true about him calling from a payphone as many mobile operators in West Africa just dont have the tariffs available to be able to rebill 35ppm + international routing. I can't see it costing him under 50ppm, realistically - and any lad who can afford to call you at that rate can never plead how he can't afford to feed his family etc., he should be spending his cash on that, not on hassling you!

Remember to speak slowly and ask him to repeat things Smile

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:07 pm

manbiteslion wrote:

I can't see it costing him under 50ppm, realistically - and any lad who can afford to call you at that rate can never plead how he can't afford to feed his family etc., he should be spending his cash on that, not on hassling you!

I'm disappointed, I hoped it was going to be more, but I guess 50p/min is not bad.

manbiteslion wrote:

Remember to speak slowly and ask him to repeat things Smile

Nice tip. I never thought of that. I had quite a long conversation with him tonight (well 4 minutes, which is quite long). Normally the calls are lasting 1 minute or less.

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:42 pm

It may well be a fair bit more, but the upside is certainly is costing him a lot of cash if you go slow, blaming it on a bad line, he sounds quiet, can he repeat? Can he spell things out for you, etc.

Upside is that he can connect, many +4470's never connect at all for being too expensive, so now it is down to you slowing things down Smile

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:50 pm

manbiteslion wrote:

It may well be a fair bit more, but the upside is certainly is costing him a lot of cash if you go slow, blaming it on a bad line, he sounds quiet, can he repeat? Can he spell things out for you, etc.

Upside is that he can connect, many +4470's never connect at all for being too expensive, so now it is down to you slowing things down Smile

Cheers,

He dialed again tonight, and I slowed it down a bit. I will work on slowing it down even more.

He often seems to cut off in mid-sentence. I asked him what the weather was like where he was, but the phone went dead again. He never stays on the line that long.

Do you know if he dials the number, but I do not answer, if that costs him anything? Today he dialed about 4 times, as my phone shows 4 missed calls. I did not intentionally not answer the phone, but did not hear it ring. I'm wondering if that costs him money too.

wasname

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 3:47 pm

Another good delay tactic while on the phone is to pretend someone else is speaking to you...

"What's that, dear?"

10 second pause

"Yes, I'll take care of that tomorrow"

20 second pause

"No, I don't know where the goat cheese is"

15 second pause

"Can we talk about this later? I'm on the phone."

Rinse and repeat... Razz

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2011 12:32 am

Quote:

Remember to speak slowly

I also do this on my voice mail so when the lads want to leave a message they have to wait until I articulate my message SLOWLY and then I repeat it again very SLOWLY.

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Posts: 1301

If you give out MTCNs on the phone always make sure there are numerous double or triple numbers. That confuses the lad no end and he always wants you to repeat - just take your time and be ambiguous with how many triples or doubles there are.

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