MSE News: 'Just been charged £183 for one call via 118 118' – that's more than a sex

Judith_D

I used 118 118 Directory Enquiries earlier this month, but never again. When I downloaded my latest TalkTalk phone bill I was horrified to find I'd been charged £8.96 for my 2-minute call, and to make matters worse 118 118 COULDN'T FIND THE NUMBER I WAS ASKING FOR (it was a B&B)!! I belatedly thought of Googling it and there it was, with the number displayed on the B&B's website (so why couldn't 118 118 find it?). I'm usually a lot more savvy than that, so I can only blame it on having a senior moment.

Caparn

The biggest laugh is the people who have the 118 business and created the adverts for it are seen as some of the UKs best entrepreneurs when they are really little more than rip-off merchants.:rotfl:

cepheus

118118 was fined by the watchdog for not being transparent in its advertising.

However, it's still unclear to me if they stated the charge rate prior to the call. Surely they wouldn't be surprised if they had done this?

When I use 18185 they do state the pence per minute prior to the call which is useful. Of course because it's so cheap they are keen to advertise that fact.

Tropi

Phones are close to an essential utility, not quite essential for life, but near enough in this day and age. Essential utilities should NEVER allow companies or anyone else to get rich by ruthlessly ripping off the dependent population. Using a phone is most definitely one of those things that SHOULD be simple enough for simpletons to use!
Denationalisation and "competition" were supposed to be good for consumers. They were anything BUT!
The scandalous reality is that it has positively enabled and encouraged massive, appalling confusion and rip offs all round.

1. There should be NO PREMIUM RATE NUMBERS OF ANY KIND. Absolutely no exceptions should be permitted. NO essential utility should ever be exploitable in this way.
2. So-called "Connection Fees" are an abomination. They too should be banished totally, with no exceptions whatsoever.
3. "Line Rental" has become a scandalous cash cow. The physical phone lines are there whether anyone uses them or not. Yet we are compelled to pay exorbitant monthly charges, even when we make no calls. A one-off connection fee is reasonable but perpetual line rental should be abolished.
4. The telephone numbering system is an utterly shambolic mess that hardly anyone understands.and its idiotic inconsistencies and complications are exploited unmercifully by innumerable bloodsucking parasites. Companies deliberately bamboozle punters to the point that, a good deal of the time, they have absolutely no idea what a call is actually going to cost them.
5. Directory enquiries should be free or possibly at a very low fixed UNIVERSAL charge. It used to be free and it should be again. Put those robbing b******s out of business, quickly and forever!

How was this disreputable mess ever allowed to happen to our national telephone system? Yet another incompetent unprincipled shambles that makes the DIS-United Kingdom a laughing stock in the eyes of most of the world.

bap98189

I had no idea they charged that much. I thought it was about 50p a time or something like that.

To those criticising people for using it instead of Google, remember 16% of households still have no internet connection.

cepheus

Tropi wrote: »

Phones are close to an essential utility, not quite essential for life, but near enough in this day and age. Essential utilities should NEVER allow companies or anyone else to get rich by ruthlessly ripping off the dependent population. Using a phone is most definitely one of those things that SHOULD be simple enough for simpletons to use!
Denationalisation and "competition" were supposed to be good for consumers. They were anything BUT!
The scandalous reality is that it has positively enabled and encouraged massive, appalling confusion and rip offs all round.

1. There should be NO PREMIUM RATE NUMBERS OF ANY KIND. Absolutely no exceptions should be permitted. NO essential utility should ever be exploitable in this way.
2. So-called "Connection Fees" are an abomination. They too should be banished totally, with no exceptions whatsoever.
3. "Line Rental" has become a scandalous cash cow. The physical phone lines are there whether anyone uses them or not. Yet we are compelled to pay exorbitant monthly charges, even when we make no calls. A one-off connection fee is reasonable but perpetual line rental should be abolished.
4. The telephone numbering system is an utterly shambolic mess that hardly anyone understands.and its idiotic inconsistencies and complications are exploited unmercifully by innumerable bloodsucking parasites. Companies deliberately bamboozle punters to the point that, a good deal of the time, they have absolutely no idea what a call is actually going to cost them.
5. Directory enquiries should be free or possibly at a very low fixed UNIVERSAL charge. It used to be free and it should be again. Put those robbing b******s out of business, quickly and forever!

How was this disreputable mess ever allowed to happen to our national telephone system? Yet another incompetent unprincipled shambles that makes the DIS-United Kingdom a laughing stock in the eyes of most of the world.

The world is ruled by shareholders who expect an unearned income, and business owners, proponents of the free market. Their victims are mainly the lazy and disinterested, but some will be vulnerable such as the old, young, and those with learning difficulties. Here lies the route to 'legal scamming' under the pretence of 'free choice'.

118118 seems extortionately expensive in relation to alternatives at a fraction of the price, so the money must be going somewhere. My guess it is in marketing and advertising. Despite our best attempts who can forget the moustache men, with their idiotic dialogues.

This raises a slightly different issue. Once a media channel is made available, it has to be financed usually via advertising. Companies are to some extent forced to fill this void in the airwaves to avoid losing market share to competitors. Hence these channels are not free since these costs have to be added onto the products we buy. Ah, but not if we are savvy and avoid the 118s I hear you say! However, it's almost impossible to avoid all adverts, remember some are supermarkets and big stores. Moreover, most people aren't savvy, they will just pay, and convince themselves commercial TV is free, unlike those horrid public broadcasting people who force us to pay a licence fee for programmes which force us to think. Here lies the problem, it's understanding that nothing is free and costs just get cleverly hidden, often to the detriment of the many. In this case we get rip of Directory service and naff TV interspaced with brain draining adverts.

ameliajo

IDeamOfFairies wrote: »

why do people not read the T&C's on how much a service will cost before you use it - then moan on a social network site when they have been billed for using the service at the said rate ?

Not every one is quite so savvy. There are many older people, who don't have computer access, need a phone number, remember the no from catchy TV ads and are more than likely to accept the kind offer to be put through. Directory enquiries used to be a free service, and it's hard for many to even consider that it might be more that 50p or so.

As for reading terms and conditions, please! get a grip. Even I got caught out by this, needed the no for the hospital my friend was taken to, my computer was out of commission, no time or means to look up T&Cs and not committed to memory a variety of 118 numbers, the fist number they gave me was wrong and in total it cost me over £18 for just over 2 mins to find a number to check he was OK.


So please don't be so sanctimonious. The whole thing is scandalous and it is time for ofcom to look at it again.

You can't get into any site without clicking "I agree" and few of us have time or inclination to read the deliberately protracted and over complicated legalese small print prior to getting on with what we are trying to do.

There are many people who have never used a computer and don't even know what an on-line forum is, it's up to the rest of us to raise awareness of these exploitative scams.

Igotothefootofourstairs

I have used the 18185 service and have misdialled and got a 118 number before now... and this I know has happened to other people too. Now BT allocates the numbers to 18185 and 18866 people and also the 118 companies.


Just coincidence!




Somehow I think not.

Igotothefootofourstairs

And we should have the option to bar 118 or such other premium rate calls if we want and not be told that our phone company does not consider it premium.

AnnoyedGran

I phoned 11118 in the dark (literally) as I had a power cut and wanted to contact the Electricity company - with no wifi I couldn't use the internet as I usually would and I no longer keep paper directories. Due to their TV advertising 118118 was the only directory enquiries number I knew. I was on the phone for 1.51 minutes and have been charged £8.96. Luckily I knew not to say yes when the operator asked if she could connect the call - she didn't advise of the cost if I had agreed. I disagree with other posts 118118 is a rip off. Directory enquiries should be renationalised.