0844 numbers

trisha

I pay line rental to BT I am on option 1
but I am registered with 18866 for phone calls
My doctor now has a 0844 call centre number which I can't use with 18866 , as I am often on hold in a queue the charges are mounting up on BT
Any other options available ?

notbritishgas

trisha wrote: »

I pay line rental to BT I am on option 1
but I am registered with 18866 for phone calls
My doctor now has a 0844 call centre number which I can't use with 18866 , as I am often on hold in a queue the charges are mounting up on BT
Any other options available ?

Welcome to the club, the doctors rip off club that is. More and more surgeries are using these because they get a percentage of the call charges and often use these to offset their telephone system costs.
As far as I know there is no way to avoid these charges as none of the cheap call providers provide access to them so you have to use your mainstream provider eg BT. I think they all use a number that costs 5p per minute plus setup fee.

Mr_Kenneth

Hello!

I have to attend a clinic within a large hospital on a regular basis. No longer can u go via the switchboard but u have to call an 0844 number. Trying to rearrange an appointment recently I held for 8 minutes as various extension rang out with no reply. I have now made a formal complaint to the PCT and will let u know the response I get.

Mr K

notbritishgas

To add to my earlier post. To really rub it in of course unlike a geographical number (what they used to use) you do not get engaged tone when they are unable to deal with you, oh no, you join a queue as Mr Kenneth states and start paying whilst you wait. They say customers prefer this as they do not have to keep on redialling, who are they kidding?

utilitybroker

Nice long ongoing thread on this very subject over on saynoto0870
see: http://www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1182262183

DonnyDave

AFAIK, most landline providers charge the same for different 0844 numbers. This is probably due to the way the call charges are split between the telephone companies, which means that they cannot reduce them. So it is likely that the lowest price you will pay is 5p/min from all providers to call your doctors.

The only suggestion is that the surgery will probably have been given a block of numbers. Eg 01234 987500 to 520 with a different number for different extension.

There has been one report of someone finding out the new 01/02 number for their surgery's reception by finding a piece of paper with a number for a member of staff. Changing the last few digits to 00 or 0 is likely to be reception.

Obviously you cannot ask, just keep your eyes open. Eg Dr Whoever is 01234 987668. Try 01234 987660 or 50.

The point is that the reception is probably the first number in the sequence of numbers for the practice which will probably end 0.