My parents - both in their late 80s - have their 'landline' service through VM. They used to have TV & broadband as well, but no longer use the Internet and don't watch enough TV to warrant the extortionate subscription fees.
A few weeks/months ago they were sent a new 'gizmo' box with little/no explanation about what it was or why they needed it...!
Ever since then they have had intermittent problems with 'dialling out' calls on the landline - permanently engaged numbers, all numbers dialled being diverted to a VM Customer Services number, etc!
Today, my father - who is seriously hearing-impaired - has spent much of the morning trying to speak to 'anyone' at VM... Eventually, he got through to someone on a very poor line, with a 'foreign accent', who 'just happened to mention' that they now have to dial the full telephone number with STD 'Area code' for ALL calls, including those on the same STD code!
Nice one, VM - thanks for telling customers about such a monumental change!!!
[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]
