Say No to 0870!

Catherine Lewis:

Ok I agree that maybe the naming of the 0870 should be changed but not too premium rate, possible bussiness calls? This is where a lot of people get my back up by calling 0870 anbd 0845 premium rate numbers, yes they charge a little more but lets not get them confused with PRS numbers.

As far as my comment "if you dont want to call them then dont use them" if you think about it logically it must stand as a valid comment. You state what about benefits. Well no disrespect to those that do have benefits and I am sure there are many that ligitmatly have to claim, but what you are saying is that although you want some money for nothing, you begrudge that few pence on a call?

Maybe if the consumer/public started to me realistic (i.e. not expect so much service/goods so cheap or in your senario did not make false claims etc) then companies and bodies would not try to make extra revenue from calls.

Also have you ever seen the q in a benefits office? Why should someone calling in get seen to quicker than a single parent who has been sat around for an hour? In the benefits office situation they actually use the number for routing purposes and stats. From the 0845 they can get better stats so they know what staff they need. So really the extra you are paying for the call allows you to

a) Not have to go in and wait for hours
b) Gives you the ability to get queries sorted quicker.

Like I say maybe they should be renamed (but not premium) and as with people on here complaining about calling them its simple:

1) Before making a complaint do you have the right to complain or have you got a luxury service (i.e. Sky, a mobile etc) or have you purchased goods (i am sure if goods you shoppped around for the cheapest).

2) Again if you dont want to call them then dont.

Look at fast food, this is the 1 industry that is not really effected by consumer demands for lower prices. Yes they still make over 100% mark up. Now I myself have never come across a fast food outlet or deleivery that uses an non-geographical number. So if companies can continue to make a profit they dont use the numbers.

Unlike a mobile network for instance. You buy a phone from them. They have not made the phone they just provide the service behind it. And I can confirm that they make very little profit on the handsets themselves. But when the handset has a fault who do 99.9% of people call? The network, why they never made the phone Nokia etc did. But the network will

a) answer the call
b) deal with the problem
c) arrange replacements and repairs etc

Now why should they pay that out of the very little profit they make on handsets etc? (just an example but sure you understand).

The bottom line is the more we want cheap and good service the more companies will have to replace that loss of revenue that they have providing the call centre agents etc.

A exaple I also gave earlier still stands about the guy with SKY. If you are such a penny pincher (that is not a bad label as most of us are) why have sky? Can you watch all them channels at once? Is there not a set of 5 channels on normal tv?

My overall point is people are making too much of a big fuss over this kind of thing, when more important issues are ignored or taken for granted.

After all these posts and those on the last thread. I bet none of you have even thought about making these companies and others pay to call you?

I do it, when I give any company my details they get either an 0870 or an 0871 as my contact. Turn the tables on them.

I even did a test once and connected an 0871 number to my house phone and then signed up for loads of surveys etc online and ticked the box to allow my details get passed around to other companies. Sure I got a few extra letters a week, and certainly got a lot more telemarketing and telesales calls. SO much in fact that in 2 months my 0871 had earned enough to pay for:

1 month mobile phone bill
1 month Petrol for car

You see my view has and always be that as consumers who want the service we will not be able (in 90% of cases) change anything about the service providers so if we cant beat them join them.

I was once calling NTL, they took 19 minutes to answer to rectify a fault there service was having. I asked them to call me back on a personal number (0702 when revenue was allowed for the end user) and again was on the phone for an eternity and after the call I was better off by:

1) Fault repaired
2) Half price service for a month
3) £15 revenue for the call they made back to me.

Criminal Records Bureau


I think that we have established that 0870 numbers cost more than geographic ones, and the company answering the call makes money on this differential.
Would one of the protagonists of this system care to justify the following?

I wish to be on an "approved" list to babysit at a local holiday park. This will be a casual arrangement, and not terribly profitable, but fits with my other commitments.
In order to do this I have to obtain enhanced disclosure from the criminal records bureau. This information is not "sold" by anyone else, hence no competion, and costs £33.
The only way to get this disclosure from this government agency (ie funded by our taxes) seems to be an 0870 number. They will therefore be getting a top-up fee from my call, which is not disclosed on their website under fees at all. Then, once I start to do the work, they will also have a slice of the tax.
If the CRB were in a competitive market, as mentioned previously, their sales line would probably be 0800 to draw in the customers. As they have a captive market, it is 0870.
SHOCKING!!!

Hopping Mad Cash Cow

Grrrrr..bet you didn't know that cows could growl!!

???
Surely this is just using the 0870 premium as a fee to connect you to foreign networks- quite legit, I think. Not really addressing the rip-off status of national 0870 charging?

...or am I missing something?? ???