084 and 087 numbers now banned for customer service lines

Roger1

Thanks, NFH.

Any thoughts on supplying only 0844 contact phone and fax numbers with no indication of cost or the lack of an 'international' (+44) number for contact from abroad, as I was last week?

Thanks for your insight.

NFH

Roger1 wrote: »

Any thoughts on supplying only 0844 contact phone and fax numbers with no indication of cost or the lack of an 'international' (+44) number for contact from abroad, as I was last week?

No business is obliged to publish a telephone number. They could choose to communicate exclusively online if their business model was based on this. If they do offer a telephone number for post-sales enquiries, and the contract type is not excluded, then it must not be a surcharged number.

One could argue that, even if the contract type is excluded, then if they publish a telephone number, it would reasonably have to be capable of being dialled from outside the UK in the case of a travel product. However, it would be up to you to determine the dialling codes from wherever you happen to be.

Roger1

Thanks again. That was quick!

When I have seen other companies offering 0845/0844/0870/0871 numbers, there has been an indication of cost when using a BT line. But not in this case.

AIUI some 0845 numbers can be used from outside the UK, using +44 845 ... . However, 0844 numbers - using +44 844 ... - are a no go, presumably because of potentially different rates accruing to 0844 numbers.

NFH

Roger1 wrote: »

AIUI some 0845 numbers can be used from outside the UK, using +44 845 ... . However, 0844 numbers - using +44 844 ... - are a no go, presumably because of potentially different rates accruing to 0844 numbers.

It's because many telephone companies will set only two rates for calling each country - one for fixed lines and another for mobiles. Most non-UK telephone companies don't want to spend the time and effort on setting rates for calling obscure revenue-sharing prefixes in every country around the world, so it's easier for them simply not to offer the ability to call such numbers.