00800 numbers can you help?

Is a 00800 number a freephone number from a UK landline? Belkin computer accessory company provide one and I have been charged the following cost:
call duration call cost
38:29 £14.13
34:39 £12.73
05:56 £2.18
05:56 £2.18
05:36 £2.06
05:30 £2.02
The last four calls did not even have a person pick up due to my frustration at being held on hold.
Well, you can imagine my horror when the bill came in? A total of £35.30 :eek: Is being charged for this number correct? Please advise?
Thank you in advance.

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Comments

  • headcovers
    headcovers Posts: 705 Forumite
    Not much help I know but the only time I have encountered this 00800 prefix was for an IT company and they were based in Ireland.
  • headcovers
    headcovers Posts: 705 Forumite
    Ok - I have had a trawl of the 'net and I came up with this description on the saynoto870 website
    This is an International FreePhone number. That is one that is free to call from almost anywhere in the world provided you call on a domestic home landline. Of course mobile phone providers will almost certainly charge you at their 0800 Freephone rate which is not free and usually excluded from bundled minutes. This number also ought to be free to call from any BT Payphone too although the fact that it doesn't require you to put money in would confirm this.

    In general 00 800 Freephone numbers have the same characteristics as 0800 to call except you can also call them free from another country too and not just within the UK. The actual call centre could be located anywhere in the world since as far as the international call routing country code system is required the 800 is a country code for the country called Freephone that can in fact be anywhere in the world. As there aren't that many 00 800 numbers they only need the one code to serve them all

    So from that I would take it that if you called this 00800 number from a landline you should not have been charged. Was it a landline or a mobile?
  • Heinz
    Heinz Posts: 11,191 Forumite
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker Car Insurance Carver!
    As there's been no response, I reckon thegameplayer was calling from a mobile and hasn't found the "Doh!" button yet.
    Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.
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