Saynoto0845 has anyone used it ?

tali

I'm very dubious about Saynoto0845 has anyone used it ?, i tried 2 non 0845 numbers given here some time back and was given the 0845 number by the call handlers on both occasions !!!!
I went to their site and got some royal mail customer non 0845 service numbers-there were 4 of them -what did i get on all of them? "sorry this number is not valid you will be dosconnected"
So far i have a 100% failiure rate with Saynoto0845:mad: anyone had better luck with it?

billsavings

If your talking about www.saynoto0870.com then yes lots of members use it,and it has saved people a fair few quid in its time. In fact its sponsored by this site.

The number base on it is only as good as the info given by members. Drop their admin a line to say numbers no longer work so they can amend it.

What you have to bear in mind its like a game of cat and mouse.Alternative number is found and published. The user find,s out and changes/ceases number.

Heinz

And what are really needed are 'insiders' to provide the necessary information - particularly in the government sector which, disgracefully, is one of the worst 0845/0870 abusers.

tali

billsavings wrote: »

If your talking about www.saynoto0870.com then yes lots of members use it,and it has saved people a fair few quid in its time. In fact its sponsored by this site.

The number base on it is only as good as the info given by members. Drop their admin a line to say numbers no longer work so they can amend it.

What you have to bear in mind its like a game of cat and mouse.Alternative number is found and published. The user find,s out and changes/ceases number.

Yes i've checked forum and my exact prob has been reported there previously - although no fix afaik

zzzLazyDaisy

I have used 'Say No' site successfully on a few occasions. Once a very confused lady said 'this is bringing you up as calling from Belgium...' but she still dealt with my call.

But equally I have called numbers given on the site only to find they are no longer in use, or worse to get a grumpy call centre person telling me that I must re-dial an 0845/0870 number.

Still, its worth a shot!

macinton

To be honest I didn't even realise there were additional costs involved when using these before I started using this site!
Today I was looking for a new product that might save us postage costs and one of the companies had an 0870 number. I tried to find them on the saynoto0870 site, but I suspect they are not big enough for there, and Yell.com only came up with the 0870 number against their business. So, tought luck to them, I am now wise to it, so I emailed them on their contact us link and said:
"[FONT=&quot]I was dismayed to see that your company is yet another that has gone down the route of charging your customers, and more importantly, your potential customes, exorbitant telephone rates by the use of an 0870 telephone number. I for one will not be calling you. I suggest you might review this as more and more people become aware that calling this type of number costs them more than even a normal geographic number does, let alone the free call numbers that businesses used to use to try and actually attract customers. You do yourself no favours by using these numbers."
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Perhaps if they all got a lot more of these messages, they might review their policies.
[/FONT]

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Heinz wrote: »

Welcome to the MSE forums John. That certainly is a refreshing attitude and your action will have saved those using mobile phones money when they call your company. Perhaps you'd now like to update your own website to show the alternative 023 9234 7768 number too!

Unfortunately, most companies take the completely opposite view and just regard callers (their customers) as 'cash cows' - going to great lengths to hide (or change) the geographic alternatives to their revenue-sharing disguised premium rate 0843, 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 0872 and 0873 numbers. This is ably demonstrated by the number of companies migrating to 5p/minute 0844 numbers when Ofcom threatened (and then did nothing) to end revenue sharing on 0870 numbers.

There is a flipside to this as well though. I purchased the use of an 0845 number for my own small business. I paid money because I wanted an easy to remember number and they can cost. I did this because I was intending to move in the next couple of years (but the changing economics have probably prevented that now). I advertise my business a fair bit and it would have been quite a headache informing all the customers of the change, not to mention no longer having an up to date phone number in Yellow Pages (Yell's a bit better as it's easier to change).
I was less money conscious when I changed to 0845 so I pay 2.5p per minute to receive a call. The caller pays 3.5p per minute (if using a BT landline) - hardly prohibitive considering most calls are under 5 minutes. Also, I'm happy to provide my geographical number if a customer wants it.
However, I have been subjected to quite a few nuisance calls at times direct to my (advertised) mobile number. If I had been giving out my geographical number, I would probably have got these at home too (some of them were pretty unsavoury). I think what prevented the nuisance calls coming via my landline was the 0845 number (i.e. not a potential freebie for the nuisance caller). Although it's not perfect, I do feel justified, given my individual circumstances, that providing an 0845 number AND a mobile number is sufficient - especially as quite a few people could phone me by mobile on an inclusive minutes package. Also bear in mind that much of my advertising carries an email address and some of my enquiries come by that route. Not everyone who uses 0845s for business is on the make and there are sometimes very good reasons for using them. For most customers, the only times they need to phone me are for making the initial arrangement to supply a quotation and, possibly, a quick call to accept the quotation. Window cleaning isn't a telephone intensive operation.