Searched the whole site and couldn't see any posting of this request, so here goes with a slightliy reduced amount of worry from an avalanche of hate-posts....

The purpose and content of this site is so good (and as a bonus of doing a bit of surfing, actually saves you money without having to buy anything) that unless you can use hindsight and know which numbers in the future your're going to need, is there a document that could be made available for download that would contain the most recent database of money saving numbers? Just in case you can ever be away from internet access for more than a few minutes!

So far, you've enabled me to do a Search on my whole list of names and addresses in 'Microsift Contacts' {sorry to swear] and cherry pick the 0870's/0845 numbers to replace via copy'n'paste (or ctrl 'C' & 'V' for you hot keyboard shortcut fiends; I like F11 for toggling FullScreen in explorer), then syncd with my PDA to have them with me all the time.... which is going to save me a lot of money; thank you.

But apart from looking at the categories and doing a whole 'select all' & copy & paste into a blank text document for future reference, can Admin make a downloadable version then add an alert option to inform you when an update's available?

I've noted a few numbers down that I've not even got an Premium number version for and I know I'm going to need in the future, but do you think a 'favourites' list could be generated that could show the average MOTP which numbers they'll start saving money on straight away from? (Speaking Clock, PAYT enquiries, DVLA, TV Licensing etc)

I'm going to add a link to this site on my homepage, it'll go snuggly alongside Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert link!

(PS If your Password email new members receive after joining included an instruction that they need to allow cookies, it would save them from having to work it out; I read the Post about Cookies too and still spent a few giggling minutes getting bounced out all the time and not taking advantage of the helpful 'New' indicator)

Cheers for your ears & I'll be a regular searcher now; can't seeing it being very long before I quote your website address to a mate or email it out on a hefty distribution list; maybe you could have a competition to see who's told the most people about this invaluable resource!.

And if people in the Land of Oz started delivering your mail..... smaller post(ies) to come.

I'll second that.  It sounds like a good idea if the list could be downloadable either in word or .pdf format (or another well known format) based on the database list at the time of compilation.  If we then needed an upto date list we can simply visit the site and click on the link.

If the list could be as compact as possible (I'm not sure just how many entries you have on your database) but would that not ease traffic congestion to the site (except for when downloading the database.

Keep up the good work and thank for such a very useful site.

Cheers bbb_uk, even txt would be good to reduce the required bandwidth if we all downloaded it all of a sudden, but even then, there are web hosters that allow you to put a file on their server that you can request a download from; and that's free too.
A 'numbers added' list somewhere in the body of the text to see how it's growing, 'numbers removed' if like Dabs they've stopped taking incoming calls altogether would be handy.
There's a company that offers a free service for emailing you when a website's content has changed; but we'd all look forward to the updates being emailed out and we've all submitted a valid email address so the distribution list is simple enough.
Having said that (Henman!) with a volunteer crew, there's always that inertia that we can forgive them for because it's THEM who've got to give themselves the job that they're short of hours in the day as it is.....

But the whole caboodle in one portable hit (PDA needs feeding with useful info) would be smashing.
;)

I'm on NTL and hate having to see extra costs for ringing non-mobile numbers on the bill when I'm (Me'n'my girl!) are paying upfront for inclusive calls 24/7  >:(

Not anymore though --- Thank you 'SayNoTo0870'; cracking mantra - merchandising's an option, stickers for phones - other people's obviously; better than the 118 companies; what a mess, and I used to work for one of them.

TTFN - keep saving money.

Could a Mod or someone else in Admin give their views on the chances of this happening please?

I've spread the word to friends and family, put a link on my website but some people that aren't on the internet I was thinking of printing the list off for them - but with there being 16 sub-categories, it would put me off. A 1 hit caboodle wud b gud.

See Numbers Download.

Sorry one & all but the method described in the Numbers Download posting no longer works since we played with the search criteria.

The only method now is to select List all companies beginning with and a letter, & then download it for each letter. The only ones I know it doesn't work with are the names beginning with Numbers. eg. 1&1 Internet, 247 Electrical & 106 Century FM to mention a few of the 14 that don't show. I will mention that shortcoming to Daniel to fix when he has chance.

:-/

Sorry Daves, bit frowning how I missed that post  :-[; will the 'fix' be to make a complete list available or the companies beginning with a a number problem? Is there a technical reason stopping a text or xls download?

Sorry but the fix I mentioned would be to allow display of companies beginning with a number.

The Other fix may not be so easy as it was applied for copyright reasons to stop searches bleeding out onto the web. Originally (as my previous post on this mentioned) you could download the complete list in a format that could be saved directly to a spreadsheet, CSV, Delimited Text, etc. Now I'm afraid it will take you a bit of fiddling but you can do it the same way, but only by the Letter/Numeric groups. Then you could save it to separate pages of a spreadsheet !  :-/

wrote on Jul 15^th, 2005 at 1:26am:

The Other fix may not be so easy as it was applied for copyright reasons to stop searches bleeding out onto the web. Originally (as my previous post on this mentioned) you could download the complete list in a format that could be saved directly to a spreadsheet, CSV, Delimited Text, etc. Now I'm afraid it will take you a bit of fiddling but you can do it the same way, but only by the Letter/Numeric groups. Then you could save it to separate pages of a spreadsheet !  :-/

The copyright argument really is pointless in my opinion. This is a list of telephone numbers, not a work of literature or anything else of artistic merit. The nature of an 0870 campaign is to ensure that the geographic alternative numbers are given as wide a coverage as possible. The number list should be available as a download in text, xls, csv, pdf, doc and in fact as many formats as possible. The obsession with 'ownership' and copyright is only detrimental to the campaign.

Exactly, I'd just like a portable copy on my PDA and one to print off for my parents who aren't online but will find it very helpful to save some money that they feel aggrieved to be spending extra cash on calls they know (because I've told them!!) they shouldn't be.

I understand the way of individually accessing the separate alphabetically grouped lists and stitching them together; but that'll be time consuming and you'd see how popular an aggregated single list will be by the thousand of downloads you'll get. (email alert when it's updated)

I'd guess the companies that provide these numbers will benefit from a disparate list as it hinders distribution and awareness to as many people as possible - what a great email to send to a friend; here you are, a simple text document that could potentially save you hundreds of pounds a year.

Do businesses have to ring these numbers too? Easy cost cutting initiative presentation for someone.

wrote on Jul 15^th, 2005 at 1:26am:

The Other fix may not be so easy as it was applied for copyright reasons to stop searches bleeding out onto the web.

What exactly is supposed to be the problem with this? It is a list of telephone numbers and that is it. Not a work of art, a list of numbers. It should have the widest possible exposure. Why is there such a big 'hang-up' with this aspect? There are plenty of people who are not on-line who could put to good use a printed list, but the site owner(s) seem obsessed with copyright issues. What nonsense. Get the list published!

The problem I have with making the full list available is that once this is done, there is no way to correct numbers that change. - Multiple lists could be passed around with old numbers on.

That maybe OK if it just becomes dead, but if the number starts being used for another purpose, it could generate a lot of calls to a completely wrong number.

As it is now, incorrect numbers can be amended or removed as and when, and anyone doing a search is always getting the most up-to-date information currently available.

I am looking into the possibility of creating a standalone application that people can use on their PC's that would automatically update itself once connected to the internet, but this would have to include features to prevent the same problem mentioned above.

Thanks
Daniel

That makes sense.

About the standalone programme - would that have facilities to print off and/or save?

What I'm thinking of is to prevent this problem then you could simply programme the software to not allow anymore viewings, etc until an update had been downloaded from your site.  You could set it at say a month and after that a download of list would have to be completed otherwise you weren't allowed to view via the software.

If on the otherhand it couldn't be printed off/saved then I cant think of why the additional software would be necessary as viewing this website would have the same results.

If the extra software would allow it to be printed / saved then you come back to the problem you mentioned but you could have a "Last Updated: xx/xx/xx" as a footer/header which would give an indication as to how old the printout is.

It's no easy answer from what I can see but I do think that if a geographical number does become obsolete it is more likely to be dead or "please ring our 0870 number" automated voice than the line being used by another company. I'm not sure but I'd say that BT normally wouldn't re-use a number unless it hadn't been in use within a set period (I'm guessing a year or so) but maybe someone has more of an idea?

Other than that - can anyone else think of something?

wrote on Jul 15^th, 2005 at 6:46pm:

The problem I have with making the full list available is that once this is done, there is no way to correct numbers that change. - Multiple lists could be passed around with old numbers on. That maybe OK if it just becomes dead, but if the number starts being used for another purpose, it could generate a lot of calls to a completely wrong number.

Agreed, however you will *never* have a guaranteed accurate list. Never. Even if you had full-time employees constantly testing each and every number, the nature of the resource makes it impossible to guarantee absolute accuracy.

There has to be some method where people can generate lists without laboriously searching on each letter of the alphabet. Additionally, some listings will not be in the list where people perceive them to be.

The whole search mechanism on this site is unwieldy and unfriendly. Whilst many of us here can extract more or less what we want, there are people who are not so familiar with computers and search techniques; the ones we need to get on board to stop this scam, and it is these that should be catered for as a priority. There has to be a better way of displaying and generating information. All in my opinion of course.

Although discussed at length elsewhere, the inclusion of ads for scam numbers makes the resource look, in my opinion, somewhat unprofessional. Recognizing that the ads, which may well be out of the site's control, probably generate much needed revenue has to be balanced with the ridicule that this site sometimes gets on other media for including promotions for something that the site is campaigning against. I am aware of the arguments for including ads for NGNs, however when I see an ad for 0870 numbers on here, it looks to me to be just plain bonkers.

wrote on Jul 15^th, 2005 at 6:46pm:

The problem I have with making the full list available is that once this is done, there is no way to correct numbers that change. - Multiple lists could be passed around with old numbers on.

So what.   Doesn't everyone know that printouts from live databases are immediately out-of-date.   That doesn't stop BT from Printing Phone Books.

Lists lying around, out-of-date or not,  would only help spread the word, to the computer illiterate masses who probably suffer more from these numbers than the rest of us.

What's this big list,
Lying by the phone,
Why thats all the numbers,
For calling from home,

Didn't you know
They're so expensive to call,
Why No, 'cause I haven't
A Computer an' all.

Surely it is easy enough to provide a link that runs a script and does a dump of the database to CSV ?

I think your request has been answered completely in the previous posts of this thread.

The database access is AS IS and not likely to change for the reasons already stated.   ::)

I would like to store these alternative numbers on my PDA, perhaps in a spreadsheet. At the moment it is not possible to grab a complete list of numbers from the website.

Can a function be added to the search facility to return all numbers - I can then copy and paste them into a spreadsheet for my PDA at regular intervals.

Cheers

Tried to access the database by clicking then pressing space bar and also clicking and pressing search but it just wont happen for me. Anyone know why - is it because I'm on AOL?

Since the above was posted, the search engine has been changed so that you have to enter two or more characters. So entering a space or just one letter will come back with no results.

Used this site many times (successfully) in the past, but not for a while.  Used to enter “0870” in the “Enter Number Here” field, which would then display all the available 0870 numbers.  The site does not appear to function like this now- any reason why?

This feature was disabled because (perhaps understandably) the owners of the site guard the information collected here quite jealously, and don't want people downloading the whole lot.

I don't really see what's to be gained from viewing the whole list, which is now quite large, unless it's to use the superior search function of browsers such as Firefox.

Having said that, I don't like obfuscation, so I've just discovered that it's still possible to get it to display the entire list if you really want it to. I'm not going to give the solution, just keep trying a few more things and I'm sure you will get there.  ;)

So is there a way to get all numbers or there isnt?

I just have a cool idea for a web service, i mean admins must be really do this and expand their network, as this site is the original,
no one has got a chance of stealing their idea.

however it would be great if other folks could simply link to the API and create their own version of this site,
this would really expand this to a whole new level!

In the mean time is there a way that i can get a list of all numbers in a database?