Say No to 0870!

sergeant121

Victors_Bruvver wrote:

Dear kazd, this has now been "outlawed" by the Department of Health". They are in the process of instructing all health pratices, with the exception of dentists and Opticians, to return there original local number. What's more is that each practice can claim up to £500 (I think) to offste the cost of switching the number back from the 0870 one!

Unfortunately, that is NOT exactly what is happening.

NEG, the firm which supplied over 300 GPs' surgeries with these 0870 (7.51p/minute from a BT line daytime) systems has been told to change them to 0844 (5p/minute from a BT line daytime) numbers by the end of April.

From a BT residential landline, calls will still be at least 66% more expensive (5p/minute as opposed to 3p/minute) than a call to a geographical (01 or 02) number.

From a telephone box, those calls will be just as or more expensive than calls to 0870 numbers.

It's another New Labour stealth tax.

Victors_Bruvver

Whoops - its a case of don't believe all you read in the papers!
Many thanks sergeant121 for highlighting this bit of "flim flam". I have taken another look at the site where I first saw this, bbc.co.uk/news, and it certainly confirms what you say in the small print.
Perhaps you may like to see the official statement by Mr John Hutton MP and reply to him personally to say that it is a sham, or did I mean shame?
http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/PressReleases/PressReleasesNotices/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4104023&chk=JdW4bw
I will pointto him in an email to say that he has got it all wrong, but not holding my breath.

andy88_2

sergeant121 wrote:

It's another New Labour stealth tax.

The firm NEG is a private enterprise.

Your political opinions are your property.

For many years, it has been policy of all governments to shift the cost of certain functions from the taxpayer to the user. There is a political debate to be made, but not on this thread.

The Tories want to avoid 'waste' by farming out other public sector functions to private contractors; perhaps this is an example of how popular that is, when taken too far.

If we want to criticise the half-baked, woolly thinking in government circles that has led to this situation, it would be a good idea to avoid similar over-simplification for partisan reasons.

Miroslav

I was sent in the post, a scratchcard by an online bookies. If i matched 3 amounts, i could claim as a free bet........it won....naturally......£10

To claim I had to call an 0870 number, so I would lose part of that £10 bet, or at least the chance of a winning £10 bet.

So I e-mailed them and they put the £10 in my account that way - result!

Anyway, I had to bet the £10, so I did. And won £19.20 - Result 2!

Say No to 0870

FJSRiDER

Not quite 0870 - but my local council has recently changed its access number to an 0845! I find this astonishing and not a little annoying.

Is this a common occurrence? I thought I paid enough council tax not to also pay a premium to call the lazy buggers.... :mad:

colin_tomlinson

I used to live in Exeter and in 1996 the POLICE changed their number to 0870!


When I complained/enquired (since it was now a national rate call but only ringing locally (prices were different then)), I was told it was so that they could benefit from the logic of the system and not revenue generation - ie dial the number and connected to the nearest OPEN cop shop, calls handled by HQ overnight.

Yet the same logic is available on 0845: or what about 0800, paid by the savings of no longer staffing stations overnight? Naturally, no response.

fertler1

Sorry if someone has already mentioned this. When ever i ring a 0870 number alternative obtained and they refuse to put me through i state that i have no touch tone phone and can not ring it as i cant choose an option. This most recently worked with tiscali free phone number. They rang the correct department for me and asked them to call me back ... which they did prompt. might not work for all but i hope it helps ... nicola :j

andy88_2

I hesitate to put this here, as it is about use from mobiles, but it is about 0870 and 0845 as well.

I noticed that the service of Simply-Fone from mobiles now includes access to 0870 and 0845. From an email about this last night -

enquiry: I just used your 07744974333 to call 0870 and 0845 numbers; it worked. I thought I tried this before and it didn't. Has this been recently introduced; is it only available at certain times; or is my memory defective?

Thank you for your feedback and past & continued custom.

The calls you mention to 0870 & 0845 are now available at any time & your memory is not defective !

Calls are free from included cross-network minutes on O2, Orange, and T-mobile; Vodafone and 3 charge, though some Vodafone customers have had charges refunded. For further discussion look on the Mobiles Board.

It is also possible to use the service of Pre-dial for 0845 numbers, and apparently accrue credits towards 0870 calls, via their 'Save as you go' Orange number

http://www.simply-fone.com/mobile.html
http://www.pre-dial.com

Of course, Saynoto0870 is the best method, but sometimes you can't discover all the geographic numbers you want

H2SO4

Buried deep, deep inside NTL's tariffs page (http://www.ntl.com/home/telephone/pdf/TelcoTariff.pdf) is this:
0870: 8.10p 4.30p 2.75p

If you look a bit closer, almost all the prices are more expensive than even BT.

For those wondering why I did not just use Uswitch, it suggests I am outside NTL areas for TV, Phone & Net, despite having all 3 with them! :eek: :mad:
Anyway, I think that it's sometimes more rewarding to compare products oneself.

Edit: The reason I haven't switched from NTL is because the costs of switching are so massive that it would take 4-7yrs to make up

the_devil_made_me_do_it

ermm anyone know if the saynoto0870 website has been taken off? Tried to visit there today, and it said page unavailable ect.... Also, tried a La Redoute free fone number, and that now belongs to a charity. I think these 0870 lovers have cottoned on :pale: