Say no to Sky's 0844 numbers campaign

theloft

DonnyDave wrote: »

Thank you for posting that 0808 101 4437. I have removed this number from the SAYNOTO0870.COM listings and whilst looking in there I found another number which lead me to 0800 046 6433 which would appear to work. This number is now listed.

I sent an email to one of the people listed on another thread (sorry, you will have to look, in a rush!) and received a phone call from them. This resolved my problem. First time an email has worked for me !!!!

NDK

When I called Sky to complain about removing local or 0870 numbers and only retaining 0844 number, I get their standard reply, that if we dont keep this chargeable number, we would have to increase our subscription. I dont know who falls for such a line. Sky makes loads of money due to their monopoly in showing Premier league matches.

I think the only way such a company learns is by losing market share.

DonnyDave

NDK wrote: »

When I called Sky to complain about removing local or 0870 numbers and only retaining 0844 number, I get their standard reply, that if we dont keep this chargeable number, we would have to increase our subscription. I dont know who falls for such a line. Sky makes loads of money due to their monopoly in showing Premier league matches.

I think the only way such a company learns is by losing market share.

A monopoly is a sole provider in a market. Thus, it cannot loose a share in a market and can only loose customers.

theloft

DonnyDave wrote: »

A monopoly is a sole provider in a market. Thus, it cannot loose a share in a market and can only loose customers.

Are we trying to score points here ? We all know that SKY does not have a complete monopoly, but it does show the majority of permier league games and in other sports it does have a monopoly. I my self subscribe to Sky for sport, but agree that for Sky to use 0844 numbers is a cheap and nasty way to make more revenue.
We should be aiming our discontent at Oftel, who stopped overcharging on 0870/0845 numbers but then allowed exactly the same thing on 0844/0871. Why Martin Lewis does not highlight this unfair policy and show it up I do not know as he has championed many other areas of unfair trading. Come on Martin, get behind a campaign against these awful charges. In the USA which is a very competitive market place, any company worthy of the name has freephone numbers for all of its customers.

DonnyDave

theloft wrote: »

…We should be aiming our discontent at Oftel, who stopped overcharging on 0870/0845 numbers but then allowed exactly the same thing on 0844/0871. Why Martin Lewis does not highlight this unfair policy and show it up I do not know as he has championed many other areas of unfair trading. Come on Martin, get behind a campaign against these awful charges. In the USA which is a very competitive market place, any company worthy of the name has freephone numbers for all of its customers.

The Ofcom consultation on the future of 084, 087 and other non-geographic numbers has recently closed. It proposed a much clearer way of pricing where the amount taken by the company being called (the Service Charge) is unbundled from that of the caller's telephone company (the Access Charge). I wholeheartedly support this and believe that they should never have been bundled together in the first place.

I feel that telephone call providers should naturally reflect the higher costs they incur in connecting 084x and 087x (excluding 0870) calls in their retail prices. This is why I support the removal of the regulation on BT which currently prevents it from doing so, and which many 08 number users use to their advantage by claiming that it is the norm with respect to charging.

daggy

Inactive wrote: »

So do I, I am convinced that Sky actually tell call centre staff to drag out phone calls in order to increase revenue.

I used to work at SKY and the Target was 7 minute call time. They actually prefer you to handle the calls quicker and if a customer asks you to call them back, you would do.

Novuss

Current best landline number for Sky customer services:- 0207 126 7020 (Good for mobile phone users).

Oh and thanks DonnyDave for an excellent website. Say no to 0870 is fantastic and has saved me a fortune.

Craigc

Try calling this number instead, it is sky customer service 020712670203,
I was using a 0800 number for ages but they have now closed it, so I decided to end my service and go to BT Vision, best move I have ever done, cheaper and just as good plus they use 0800 numbers that are free.
I will not ever phone 0844 numbers or entertain these companies that use them because they are just greedy rip off companies that want more profit of the not so wealthy, if we all stop calling 0844 numbers they will have to change them back.

theloft

Craigc wrote: »

Try calling this number instead, it is sky customer service 020712670203,
I was using a 0800 number for ages but they have now closed it, so I decided to end my service and go to BT Vision, best move I have ever done, cheaper and just as good plus they use 0800 numbers that are free.
I will not ever phone 0844 numbers or entertain these companies that use them because they are just greedy rip off companies that want more profit of the not so wealthy, if we all stop calling 0844 numbers they will have to change them back.

I couldn't agree more !!! The other thing to beware of is if you are looking up a telephone number on Google. I tried to find Morrisons Customer Service number and a big swebsite came up with "the number they try to hide"
which of course was an 0900 number, even worse than 0844. But on Morrisons own site, there was a standard geographical number for Customer Services (who dealt efficiently with my problem by the way).