Cost of calls....

McKneff

For me, under my old telephone bundle Saynoto0870 was majorly relevant.
Any 08 numbers were chargeable,apart fro 0800 however, If I used the above then I could very often get a Freephone number or a generic number which I could use when my freecall time came around. Often my bill was 0 and never more that 50p a month




Even now, my bundle with sky is pay as you go so try not to use it at all but its important for me to
get a generic or Freephone number to use up free minutes on me mobile.

Undervalued

Ian011 wrote: »

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 were published by BIS on 13 December 2013 and came into force on 13 June 2014. These regulations are nothing to do with Ofcom.

Regulation 41 requires retailers, traders and passenger transport companies to use 01, 02, 03 or 080 numbers for post-sales helplines.

Is a hotel one of those?

Sadly these rules don't apply to financial and insurance companies (as far as I know) so they are presumably not "traders"?

Ian011

bris wrote: »

A consumer also has to mitigate any losses to keep it to a minimum in this case using a mobile is not keeping to a minimum and was a choice they made. In this case it could very well be argued that the retailer is only liable for the cost of a landline call as there are still plenty public phones available.

In the cases covered by this regulation, the caller should not incur any losses other than whatever they normally pay for a call to an 01, 02 or 03 number. It is for the caller to secure the best deal for calling those numbers and most choose to do so as part of an inclusive allowance on their landline or on their mobile. More than 55% of calls are made from mobiles.

The caller does not have to pay any regard for how much their provider charges for calls to premium rate numbers starting 084, 087 or 09 because traders should not be asking them to call such numbers.

bris wrote: »

Your link does not say anything about mobile phones, I may have missed it so clarification will help for the next time.

The regulations make no distinction between callers using landlines, mobiles or payphones. Where a trader offers a telephone number for contact, callers are bound to pay no more than the 'basic rate'. Basic rate is whatever the caller pays their provider for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers. If the trader does not comply with the regulations, callers must be refunded. In this case, the trader is liable for the difference between what the caller paid and what the caller would have paid for a call to an 01, 02 or 03 number.

A simple example. A trader offers an 084 number with a 7p per minute Service Charge for customer services in breach of Regulation 41.

Someone calls using an EE mobile phone on a contract. A call to an 01, 02 or 03 number would have incurred no incremental call cost. The call to the 084 number will incur 44p per minute Access Charge plus the 7p per minute Service Charge. The caller will be entitled to a refund of 51p per minute from the trader.

Someone calls using a Three pay-as-you-go mobile phone. A call to an 01, 02 or 03 number would have cost 3p per minute. The call to the 084 number will incur 45p per minute Access Charge plus the 7p per minute Service Charge. The caller will be entitled to a refund of 49p per minute from the trader.

The trader may offer other methods of contact such as email, a presence on the high street, or a postal address. These have no bearing on the type of telephone number that a trader can use for post-sales customer contact.

The government could have introduced regulations that allowed premium rate numbers to be used for customer services, just as long as an email or postal address was also offered - but they didn't. Instead the regulations require that where a telephone number is offered for a post-sales helpline that callers must not be bound to pay more than the cost of a call to an 01, 02 or 03 number. By their nature, calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers almost invariably cost more to call than 01, 02 and 03 numbers. Callers never pay less but there are a few rare circumstances where some callers pay the same for both.

bris wrote: »

Similar situation is return postage, whilst we like to send our goods back tracked the trader is only liable for basic postage to minimise the loss.

In the case of postage, the trader's losses are limited to the cost of basic postage, any excess (for a more secure form of transit) is borne by the customer.

In the case of telephone calls to the trader, the callers losses are limited to whatever the caller pays for normal calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers. Any excess (incurred by the caller because the trader advertises a premium rate number) is eventually borne by the trader because the caller has the right to a refund from the trader of any excess call costs incurred.

Ian011

Undervalued wrote: »

Is a hotel one of those?

Sadly these rules don't apply to financial and insurance companies (as far as I know) so they are presumably not "traders"?

Hotels are 'traders'. Hotels are not on the list of exemptions.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/regulation/6/made


Although these particular regulations do not cover financial services, in July 2015 the FCA published regulations which do. These came into force on 26 October 2015 and require financial services companies to use 01, 02, 03 or 080 numbers for contact by existing customers.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/ps15-19-improving-complaints-handling
https://www.fca.org.uk/your-fca/documents/policy-statements/ps15-19

Almost all banks and insurance companies have complied. Most have swapped their 0845 lines over to the matching 0345 number.


Other sectors will be covered by additional regulation if it is deemed necessary.

Most vending machines that I have seen in recent times already have 03 contact numbers detailed for complaints. Estate agents seem to favour using local numbers. Dairy Crest, the largest company with roundsmen on a regular delivery route, already uses 03 numbers. The EU Package Travel Directive is in the works.

The Gambling Commission may need to take action within their sector. A number of betting firms still use 084 and 087 numbers for customer services and the National Lottery operator Camelot has recently changed their 0845 lines over to 0844 numbers.