The SayNoTo0870 Article Discussion Area

pbyford

hi - i've just take the time to create a yubnub command for saynoto0870.For those who don't know yubnub yet - get across to this link and you won't look back. For those that do know yubnub - its just a basic command which passes a search term direct to the database for look-up, and includes a switch to alternate between a company search or a number search. http://yubnub.org/kernel/man?args=saynoto0870

Please let me know what you think.

Paul

theloft

pbyford wrote: »

hi - i've just take the time to create a yubnub command for saynoto0870.For those who don't know yubnub yet - get across to this link and you won't look back. Please let me know what you think.
Paul

Sorry Paul, didn't work for me - I entered a couple of names, the second one preceded by 0845 and all I get is a Google page search !!

pbyford

theloft wrote: »

Sorry Paul, didn't work for me - I entered a couple of names, the second one preceded by 0845 and all I get is a Google page search !!

Loft - This should work. Please checkout the examples at the link above. I've pastes them below also. In summary the steps are;

1. Go to https://www.yubnub.org

2. In the box type the whole line shown below
saynoto0870 0870 908 0800 -searchType number

3. Click enter

4. This should jump you straight out to the saynoto0870 web site and return the company search page results for this number.

Here is the full list of examples...
saynoto0870 Dell
Search the https://www.saynoto0870.com database for 'Dell' using the default search type
This command will return a list of geographical telephone numbers for Dell

saynoto0870 Dell -searchType company
Search the https://www.saynoto0870.com database for 'Dell' using the searchType 'company'
This command will return a list of geographical telephone numbers for Dell

saynoto0870 0870 908 0800 -searchType number
Search the https://www.saynoto0870.com database for '0870 908 0800' using the searchType 'number'
This command will return a list of geographical telephone numbers for the non-geographical number '0870 908 0800' - the Dell UK technical support number.Let me know if this works....
Paul

Newbold

I'm probably being obtuse here, but what's the big advantage of this over using the site in the normal way? Isn't it just doing a Google-type search of the site?

I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure. Can you elaborate please?

Thanks for the help - and apologies for being slow here.

pbyford

Newbold wrote: »

I'm probably being obtuse here, but what's the big advantage of this over using the site in the normal way? Isn't it just doing a Google-type search of the site?

I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure. Can you elaborate please?

Thanks for the help - and apologies for being slow here.

Newbold - The advantage of yubnub is speed -albeit marginal if you don't use yubnub much and use the mouse as your primary means of navigation and keyboard as your primary means of input!

The most benefits are gained by those with a web usage pattern of using yubnub a lot, and using saynoto0870 occasionally. yubnub also most favours those who prefer a textual interface, and are fast with the keyboard. Essentially yubnub facilitates you to more efficently use the keyboard as both your primary means of navigation, and your primary means of input. you save time by not having to continually switch between medium for navigation and input.

you can benefit from these advantages at multiple websites.

If for example

• you often search saynoto0870, google, ebay, amazon

you could use yubnub by;

• setting yubnub as your home page
• use the saynoto0870 command to search saynoto0870
• use the ebayuk command to search ebay.co.uk
• use the g command to search google
• use the amazonuk command to search amazon.co.uk
• because yubnub is on you home page, you launch everything from there without having to navigate to each individual site separately

yubnub doesn't run a static google search of the site. yubnub emulates you taking the steps of going to the site itself and runs active queries each time against the site.

paul

Mercenary

Well, after all that rainfall last Friday, many VirginMedia customers lost their TV and Internet (some even lost telephone service!) for 2 days...including us :eek:.

We still had our phoneline (thank goodness) but it didn't help much with trying to phone VirginMedia's helpline to find out the status of everything.

After listening to all the waffle and pressing button 1, 2 or whatever several times throughout the black-out I was starting to get pretty fed up. No I can't look at your website, you idiots, that's why I'm phoning.

The information was hard to find, none of the options are for more than one problem and they keep trying to direct you to the 25p per minute number for anything other than the most basic of info .....like the fact that they are there, but you have to pay through the nose to get anywhere! :mad:.

At one point the message said there were no real problems, then there were some television problems. :huh: Yeah, right.
Then I suppose, finally, they realised that not enough suckers are phoning the Lotsamoney number, so they put the info about total loss of service over a wide area onto the message machine. At last!

At one point, I did actually (somehow...just by not hanging up ?) break through and talked to someone....who was obviously not service personnel...as they didn't know any procedure and also told me that they understood "how lonely you must be without your television and that the clouds must be having an effect on the signal" :rotfl:
What? With Cable TV?
I gave up then as I realised he was either a loony or the janitor :rolleyes: .

We now have our services restored as of Sunday morning.....:D....

BUT I'm not impressed with the new phone 'help' that we already pay for with our contracts. Why do we have to pay through the nose for simple answers on their new number?:mad:

nick_phonesavings

Because of people complaining about 0845 and 0870 numbers and because of the saynoto0870 numbers site. Companies are migrating to 0871 numbers which are more expensive than the current 8.5p per minute peak rate for calling 0870 numbers. Calls to 0871 numbers cost 10p per minute plus a 3p connection charge on BT lines, a lot more on mobiles and other networks and 0871 is not and will never be included in mobile inclusive minutes,Virgin Media's residential or business Talk anywhere plans and Cable and Wireless's business smart talk plans.

Whatsmore, companies which use 084 and 087 numbers are becoming aware of the saynoto0870 site and are blocking access to the standard 01 and 02 numbers which they have meaning that everyone is going to have to put up with 0871 numbers.

And when ofcom makes companies reduce 0871 costs, the next step would be 090 numbers.

Businesses will always demand revenue share of incomming calls and everyone has to come to terms with it sooner or later.

So its goodbye 0870 and hello 0871 and the world of 'real 09 premium numbers'

billsavings

nick_phonesavings wrote: »

Because of people complaining about 0845 and 0870 numbers and because of the saynoto0870 numbers site. Companies are migrating to 0871 numbers which are more expensive than the current 8.5p per minute peak rate for calling 0870 numbers. Calls to 0871 numbers cost 10p per minute plus a 3p connection charge on BT lines, a lot more on mobiles and other networks and 0871 is not and will never be included in mobile inclusive minutes,Virgin Media's residential or business Talk anywhere plans and Cable and Wireless's business smart talk plans.

Whatsmore, companies which use 084 and 087 numbers are becoming aware of the saynoto0870 site and are blocking access to the standard 01 and 02 numbers which they have meaning that everyone is going to have to put up with 0871 numbers.

And when ofcom makes companies reduce 0871 costs, the next step would be 090 numbers.

Businesses will always demand revenue share of incomming calls and everyone has to come to terms with it sooner or later.

So its goodbye 0870 and hello 0871 and the world of 'real 09 premium numbers'

The reason they are changing up to 0871 can be summed up in one word " Greed"

0871 calls range from 6p to 10p a minute on BT plus connection charge.

0870 calls are 6p a minute peak from 1/8/2007 plus connection charge.

bunking_off

billsavings wrote: »

The reason they are changing up to 0871 can be summed up in one word " Greed"

0871 calls range from 6p to 10p a minute on BT plus connection charge.

0870 calls are 6p a minute peak from 1/8/2007 plus connection charge.

Actually, the reason they're changing is because they've little choice in the matter. Ofcom have mandated changes to the 0870 pricing structure to lock it to 01/02 retail rates, which in reality means the companies with 0870 numbers will have to pay to receive calls from early next year.

This means they've got 3 choices;

- stay on 0870, pay to receive the calls, and find this cost (plus the cost of running their callcentres) from other sources, e.g. hike prices of their products. (or accept reduced profits, but shareholders don't like that).

- move to e.g. 0844, face the costs of doing the migration then get a lower revenue share so similar to the above make up the shortfall from other sources.

- move to 0871, get broadly similar revenues (ok slightly more) and maintain their existing business models. The move costs money (advertising, changed number announcements etc) so it'll take a year's worth of that extra revenue to cover these costs.

Greed? Possibly. I tend to avoid companies using 087 numbers, but can entirely understand the business logic.

Newbold

bunking_off wrote: »

Greed? Possibly. I tend to avoid companies using 087 numbers, but can entirely understand the business logic.

Greed it certainly is, bearing in mind that before the advent of call cost sharing these companies were quite happy to provide customer service without expecting to profit from it.

More and more consumers (partly thanks to the fine work done by the creator of https://www.saynoto0870.com) are getting the very clear message:

Companies that really value their customers use 0800 numbers
Companies that are indifferent to their customers use 0845
Companies that really despise their customers use 0870 and 0871

If you have a choice of company for your needs, avoid the ones that use 0870/0871 like the plague - they hate their customers.