18185 - Website lies

malc_b

Summary: 18185 website lies - calls to USA are 0.5p/min for fixed or mobile, but you can be charged more. I've reported this but the web site has not been corrected. Moral - Listen to the cost message. If you don't hear it or miss what it says, ring off and call again. Don't assume the web site tells the truth.

To be fair I've used 18185 for ages and not noticed a problem before, but then I haven't looked. The other day I called a manufacturer's helpline in the USA a 001 800 number. The 18185 website says 0.5p/min for fixed or mobile, so that everything right?. When the call connected I didn't quite catch the cost message, was that three point five or nought point five? I must have misheard I thought since the web site says 0.5 for any USA. Anyway when the call appears on the invoice it isn't 0.5p/min so I raise this with them. What rubbish service.

Basically 18185's reply is that the automated message tells you the cost. The website doesn't have to be accurate then. This was a toll free number and so was charged more than fixed or mobile (right, so toll free means what then?).

Moral is to listen well to the cost message and redial if you miss it. Don't believe the numbers on the web site. They may be correct, incorrect or incomplete. 18185 will not stand by the charges on their web site.

Heinz

Unless they are 00800 (international freephone) numbers, calls to freephone (toll-free) numbers are normally only free if called from the same country.

In many cases, calls from other countries to 'foreign' toll-free numbers are not possible at all but, if they are possible, calls providers charge whatever rate they wish (most charge standard landline rates in my experience).

In the case of US 1-800 numbers, calls are possible via 18185 - their standard US landline rate (as on the website) of 4p connection + ½p*/minute applied when I last called one in 2007 (*1p/minute if calling via their 0808 170 3703 or 020 8180 2828 gateway numbers).

serendipitydawg

Free as in totally absolutely free calls to USA 1800 numbers are easily attainable via VOIP

malc_b

Heinz wrote: »

Unless they are 00800 (international freephone) numbers, calls to freephone (toll-free) numbers are normally only free if called from the same country.

In many cases, calls from other countries to 'foreign' toll-free numbers are not possible at all but, if they are possible, calls providers charge whatever rate they wish (most charge standard landline rates in my experience).

In the case of US 1-800 numbers, calls are possible via 18185 - their standard US landline rate (as on the website) of 4p connection + ½p*/minute applies (*1p/minute if calling via their 0808 170 3703 or 020 8180 2828 gateway numbers).

I wasn't expecting the call to be free, otherwise I wouldn't have used 18185. I just wasn't expecting a toll free number to be 7x the cost of fixed or mobile. I was expecting the same cost, 0.5p/min.

Your figures are incorrect. I dialled from a BT line 18185 001800... The call lasted 8:20, cost of 31p. That would seem to be 3p/min + 4p. This was a USA 1-800 number. I wonder should I have dialled 0011800 ? It connected though.

Obviously it's not the extra 20p that bothers me. It's the fact that I should be able to trust the figures on the website. It might have been a far longer call.

scooby32

I use 18185 a lot to call USA. When the call charge is mentioned at the start it is 1/2p per min fixed line and a non geographical number is more ,cant remember if its 2 or 3 p per min. Basically its a bit like calling an 0845 or 0800 from a mobile. I always ignore the us freephone numbers and use a landline state located number and if thats not available get someone to transfer me, ie switchboard. Bit like say no to 0870.

Heinz

scooby32 wrote: »

I always ignore the us freephone numbers and use a landline state located number and if thats not available get someone to transfer me, ie switchboard. Bit like say no to 0870.

And, unlike in this country, they never say they cannot do so or that you must call their revenue-sharing number instead.