Door-to-door salesmen from Deutsche Telekom

This week I've gotten two calls from Deutsche Telekom wanting to tell me about new and improved tariffs, and just now a guy rang my doorbell and wanted to discuss their new rate structure with me. I said I didn't have time as was in the process of trying to get my 2-year old down for her nap, and he said "oh, it usually only takes a minute". Ok, then tell me. "how much do you usually pay for phone service? Do you have your telephone bill handy?". That's it, I am not digging out a phone bill to show some strange guy at my door, so I told him, look, I'm satisfied with my phone rates.

I make all long-distance calls using third-party call-by-call providers. These are so ridiculously cheap if you monitor Teltarif and use the cheapest service that I feel sure there is no was Telekom can match their prices for me. Currently I pay around 1.4 cents/minute to call the US. Is Telekom trying to research how to get people to stop using call-by-calls services or something??

Careful...
I think they are trying to market the new "Call and Surf Basic" package and higher options which has a minimum contract time of 12 months. My colleague was tricked to the new offer to find later that the price structure shown was not including tax. He now pays almost the same rates as earlier and has a 1 year contract.

I had a cold caller from Deutsche Telekom show up at our door asking to see a phone bill. After checking his id, I showed him the bill and he reckoned he could save us about 30€/month. Still being suspicious, I asked him to come back when my husband was here - which he did.

To cut a long story short, we changed tariff, upgraded our internet service and we now pay between 30 - 40€/month less than we did before. I guess it works for some people but not all and there are probably even cheaper tariffs out there.

I think we pay 1,2 cents/minute for calls to the US, (though I'd have to double check), which is around what you're paying now anway.

Edit: Yeah, I s'pose the catch was a one year contract but the guy did point this out and we're not planning on leaving in the foreseeable ...

I put the number "01086" in front of all my dialled numbers and for the UK I pay 1.48 cents per minute which is not to bad. My bills come from DT and are tiny to compared to my bills whilst in the UK.

It isn't bad but you should check the tarifs here now and again, you could be phoning for 1,1 cents a minute

I also got a call from the Telekom people. It was very weird because the guy had to ask me for my Deutsche Telekom account number. I got very suspicious and asked a thousand questions and got his name. In the end, it was legitimate, but still very weird. Don't they have a screen with my account number and address before they call me? I also changed tariffs in the end. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just send me a flier outlining the deal?

I've said it before (dozens of times) and I'll say it again - Telekom do NOT have any direct (door-to-door or telephone) sales people. The ONLY sales people who work for Telekom are in the Tpunkts or on the end of a phone that you call. All these people are Telekom-Vermittlers - independent agents (anyone can be one) who earn commission from sales of Telekom products. Right now there is a big push on Call-and-Surf products and commissions paid are high so there is a lot of incentive.
Ask yourself why any of these people who call/visit seems to have no information on you beside your number and address and it all becomes clear.

I sit corrected!

I must be one of the lucky ones (who had a really shite contract to begin with).

One of those guys rang at my door a few weeks ago. He asked me if I have TDSL with Deutsche Telekom, because then he can offer me something better (If Deutsche Telekom sends out those guys, wouldn't they KNOW if I have a contract with them? Never mind, guess their IT is a total mess...). I said "No, I have a contract with 1&1 Internet". To which he responded: "OK, in that case, we needn't talk further. Bye!" Which leads me to assume that 1&1 Internet still offers a better deal than Deutsche Telekom...

actually, its much much cheaper now. I have always been a Telekom customer, and Tonline, and now with the new rates, (from a door to door sales guy) I pay about 30 Euro a month less than what I was paying before. I still use a prefix number for overseas long distance, but my monthly phone bills now are much less, and I am happy with the service.