Is it not a little incongruous that this site, which I assumed was all about publicising the iniquity of 0870 numbers, actually advertises (and thus encourages?) the sale of non-geographic numbers in not 0ne, but Two boxes on the page?There may be more, these are just the ones I've noticed.  
Or is it Poacher turned gamekeeper??

A very good point, and I can see your point precisely.

However, the ads for these companies are not run by this site.  Google adwords run them.  Google carefully choose the words, based on the words that appear on each webpage.

Since each topic is about 0870 numbers, then google pick up on it and automatically run those adverts.

These adverts may appear to be against the spirit of this site, but just clicking on them just shows how they market their 0870 and 0845 numbers, by encouraging businesses to sign up saying "0870 numbers can earn you money and make your business look big!!"

Also, each time someone clicks on the adverts, the advertisers pay per click.  Many sites have a quota of clicks per day/week/month, therefore if we use up their quota on looking at what they have to offer, then google share the revenue with this site, and the companies have to pay google for clicks that don't gain sales!!

Look at it as getting some of the money back, that we spend on non geographic calls.

Another angle to look at is, perhaps residential customers should start getting 0870/0871 numbers, and giving them to their banks/insurance companies, and other businesses, and get some cashback every few months, so looking at these ads is a good place to start, to get a good deal!!

By encouraging individuals to get 0870 and 0871 numbers to give to their insurance companies, you assume that they will sit back and watch profits slide as costs increase.

Wrong again.

They'll simply increase premiums across the board, which will affect those of us who don't see the logic of your arguments.

Accept it. Businesses are in business to make money. Given the costs of customer acquisition for insurance companies and banks (consider the millions they spend on TV and national press advertising), they're not going to risk losing customers by infuriating them in telephone queues just for the call rebates they earn. It would be commercial suicide.

The call queues are a function of inefficiency maybe, but I simply don't accept they're out to make money from 0870 numbers. It's nonsense.

wrote on Mar 4^th, 2005 at 7:07pm:

By encouraging individuals to get 0870 and 0871 numbers to give to their insurance companies, you assume that they will sit back and watch profits slide as costs increase.

I doubt that they will have that much of an effect. The costs of businesses having to ring their suppliers and other companies on 0870 is more likely to have an effect.

The point is that the regulator is allowing this and that the more parties which give out 084/087 numbers, the less competition within the UK telecoms market, as the benefits of 'inclusive' and 'discount' packages are negated.

I think that the queuing aspect is not at the forefront of the campaign.

wrote on Mar 4^th, 2005 at 7:07pm:

Accept it. Businesses are in business to make money. ............ The call queues are a function of inefficiency maybe, but I simply don't accept they're out to make money from 0870 numbers. It's nonsense.

Sadly it is not nonsense as all the advertisemsnts and invitations (and telecoms operator panic and vitriol) indicate and demonstrate.

Dave, although queuing is not at the front of the campaign I believe it ought to have much more emphasis and promenence since it is queuing and the extra revenue made from queuing tricks which is at the heart of the NGN scam. This is because queuing is specifically prohibited with 09 NGNs.

Do you really not see the commercial absurdity of what you're saying?

That is the whole point of the scam.

If you dial any 0870 or 084x number you are connected to a machine, after the regulation five rings, the machine starts talking to you, "Thank you for calling.................. we will now tell you what the weather is doing in Guatemala etc., thank you for listening etc., now what can we do for you, why did you call this number?

And now press one if you can remember, press two if you can't and would like some advice in trying ................

All the way through to press five if you would like to speak to an operator.

Five minutes later...... We are sorry but all our operators are helping callers with their enquiries, please call later.

That is where they make the money on 95% of all NGN calls made in the UK.

Sorry, but anybody who thinks otherwise is a liitle naive

juby

Yep that's my proven view too Juby, and I am actually extremely commercially aware, despite what Jonathanscary says.

And since the operators are keen to emphasise the revenue available, either to themselves or to their customers, it is an important area...

I notice on this site today that there was Google Advertiser www.numbers4free.com

Amongst other things they say on there site,they come out with this load of old kibosh about 0870 numbers.I quote

1.Your callers pay the National BT Rate for all calls.

2.There is actually no difference at all in the cost of a  call.

I think that these ads for NGNs are very enlightening indeed. Before reading them and seeing what is offered whoever realised the really massive rip off that we are subjected to. Being told about it is one things but actualy seeing it for oneself .....

Absolutely shocking that these ads are listed on this site.  Are Google having a laugh with you guys??  ???

The way google works, is by looking at the keywords on the text on a webpage, and using those keywords to run adverts.

If I were to go completely off topic, and discuss how well the Formula One race went on Sunday, and mention how well Raikkonen did, in Japan.  If I make enough Formula One terms - Murray Walker - Michael Schumacher - Damon Hill - Silverstone - Fernando Alonso

That might be enough to change the ads to Formula One adverts now.

Anyway, welcome to the site Loopy!!  And don't worry, I can be loopy at times as well, so you're in good company.

wrote on Oct 10^th, 2005 at 7:28pm:

That might be enough to change the ads to Formula One adverts now.

That's not enough. The first advert is entitled (I kid you not) 'Beat the Adwords System' and the last 3 are 0870 ones.

Also, adverts change every time a user views the page, even if there is no change in the wording.

It all depends on companies budgets, and sometimes they decide only to have a certain number of clicks per day/week/month.  Once their quota is done, they no longer advertise, and other companies fill their shoes.

Also adverts get rotated, so that other companies get a chance to advertise and pay google for advertising.  I've been on pages on this site (and others that take google) and although there's no new content, the adverts change, even minutes afterwards.

And as google want to maximise revenue, they might want a user who visited recently, but never clicked on any adverts, to view a different set of adverts to increase the chances of clicking.

Hello All,

This is a very good website helping good honest people to save money from stop using the 0870 etc numbers.
Can`t quite understand or indeed agree as to why when I log on to the main SayNO website homepage that I see adverts for these very same numbers we are all trying to avoid. We don`t have to accept these do we?

Thanks

Mike