Say No to 0870!

megsykins

On a similar tack, this week my landline phone socket stopped working. To get a technican, I had to ring ntl on an 0800 number, from my mobile (cos no landline) at 10p per min. They then kept me on hold for nearly 30 mins.
(the technician then didnt fix it properly and I had to ring again the next day for another 1/2 hr :mad:, but that's beside the point)
Can they do this? I asked the woman about a refund of the cost but she said it's not their policy to do that asit's freephone. I pointed out that it's not freephone cos I rang off my mobile, she informed me I should've rang off a landline. This is after I'd just explained to her that my landline wasn't working!! :mad:
Annoying thing is if it had been a normal landline number, I could've used my free minutes!

Ooops... if i'd looked on saynoto0870 i could've found a landline no But it's still infuriating that they do this.

DonnyDave

megsykins wrote:

On a similar tack, this week my landline phone socket stopped working. To get a technican, I had to ring ntl on an 0800 number, from my mobile (cos no landline) at 10p per min. They then kept me on hold for nearly 30 mins. ...

Oops, pressed the Thanks button instead of the Reply one!

Could you not have called from a phone box or a friend's house?

It would seem sensible that in such circumstances they give out a geographical number, as they will be paying the normal rate to make the call free anyway. It is your mobile provider is who is committing daylight robbery.

theloft

megyskins. I agree with DonnyDave. We have all become so reliant on our mobiles, that we use them irrespective of the cost and then moan about it afterwards. If I was going to phone a freephone number, I would have used a friend, neigbour or a good old call box! You should be pleased they offered a freephone number and not 0870 !!!

megsykins

Originally I thought they could give me advice over the phone to fix it so I'd need to be near the phone - showing my naivety!!
I'm at Uni so couldn't have used families' and friends are all in halls so have PAYG landlines which don't allow free calls. And I didn't want to stand in phone box for 1/2hr plus in this weather (and the nearest one is about 20 mins walk away!)

I understand what you mean about the mobile providers being the ones ripping us off though!

mobilegossip

Get yourself a free o2 payg sim. Choose the 100 minute any time any network option.Top up by £10 every month and they allow you to call NGN 0800/0808/0844/0845/0870 out of your x-net minutes,and you get to keep the £10 to use as well as 100 minutes.

Also they will give you a free bolt on of 50 x-net miutes for 3 months.

JohalaReewi

I see they have an 0870 helpline number for the oil depot blast

markdavey

JohalaReewi wrote:

I see they have an 0870 helpline number for the oil depot blast

Yes,I see that as well: -

BBC wrote:

Oil firm Total, which operates the depot, has set up a helpline - on 0870 400 0499 - for those whose properties have been damaged.

That's nice for the people that have had their properties damaged by The Total depot's fire..."Sorry we busted up your house but if you pay us some money we'll tell you what we are going to do about it!"

At least the Herts police casualty line was an 0800 number!

JohalaReewi

Surfing the web as I do, I came across this company selling 0870 and 0845 numbers to business. Lots of misleading info here like using vat inclusive or exclusive rates but not saying which are which; giving BT landline rates and saying they are the maximum anyone will pay.

"How much do your customers pay to call an 0870 number?"
http://www.planet-numbers.co.uk/category.jsp?categoryid=8

0845 - "Your customers pay a maximum of just 3p a minute."
http://www.planet-numbers.co.uk/category.jsp?categoryid=7

"0871 International"
"Callers pay 8.5p per minute, regardless of where your office is located."

0844 - "Your customers pay a maximum of just 5p a minute."
http://www.planet-numbers.co.uk/category.jsp?categoryid=23

And they don't even offer the business that buys the 0870 number any revenue!! They keep it all themselves.

Savememoney

Has anyone noticed when calling an 0870 number or any other number where you diligantly follow the instructions, 'press the number on your keypad to get to the relevant person you need to speak to'. Only for the operative to ask how they can help. They are none the wiser for all the button pressing you have done to get through to them, this was confirmed last week when I had to phone 'Comet & Tesco'. Not sure which one it was now but I asked if they were aware of my reason for calling based on my button pressing,they said they weren't!!! Extra phonecall time/cost for no reason? (Tesco wasn't an 0870)

Nikiya

Yes, I have noticed all the "multiple choice" rubbish is a waste of time. As with FAQS, you never find the option you need, and many times you get to a dead end, or end up in the same "option" twice... I believe it is also part of the lack of coherence in big companies, particularly when the customer is paying the price.

I also wanted to report that when phoning the alternative normal tel Nº for IKEA Croydon (as found in "Saynoto...") I got a recorded message redirecting me to a 0845 number. I had to phone (and wait) to find out information that should have been in their website and was not....

About a year ago, every time I tried to go to the "say no" site, my browser would be hijacked by a "say yes to 0870" site, where such a money making device was advertised as being a "no cost" option.... outrageous!!