Another article by David Derbyshire:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/06/nphone06.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/06/ixhome.html

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Advertisers were told yesterday to stop describing lucrative 0870 and 0845 numbers as "national" and "local" rate telephone lines.

The Committee of Advertising Practice said that newspaper, magazine and poster advertisements should make clear the real cost of dialling the numbers.

An 0870 number costs 8p a minute from a British Telecom line during the day - more than twice the cost of a call to an 01 or 02 geographic number. An 0845 number costs about 4p a minute. Calling the numbers from a mobile phone costs up to 40p a minute. [...]
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wrote on Aug 6^th, 2005 at 1:54am:

The Committee of Advertising Practice said that newspaper, magazine and poster advertisements should make clear the real cost of dialling the numbers.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP - http://www.cap.org.uk/cap/about/ ) seems to be another self-regulation type body. I suspect it has about as much clout as ICSTIS has, that is virtually none.

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Admired around the world for its creativity, the UK advertising industry sets the standard in successful self-regulation.  Our system is based around the simple truth that good advertising is good for business.  Our industry is governed by codes of practice that are designed to make sure all advertising, wherever it appears, is honest and decent.  As well as protect consumers, these codes of practice create a level playing field for all advertisers.
The advertising codes are the responsibiilty of two industry Committees of Advertising Practice - CAP (Broadcast) and CAP (Non-broadcast) and are independently administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
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People in the Advertising World do tend to follow ASA advice. See the following which gives the ASA full views on this matter.
http://www.asa.org.uk/cap/news_events/news/2005/hanging+on+the+telephone+on+and+on+and+on.htm

There is also a complaint that was upheld by The ASA ,about a small business in Crawley describing  0870 as a national rate call in a newspaper ad. Suitable advice was given and the business owner stopped using 0870 i believe. I cant find the link to this at the mo.

There is a complaint form on the ASA site that can be utilised.

I know nothing about the advertising industry but the obvious 'work around' for such 'advice' has already been mentioned elsewhere - just don't mention the cost at all!

The CAP executive no longer allows advertisers to be silent about the price of a call!!!

wrote on Aug 6^th, 2005 at 7:40pm:

The CAP executive no longer allows advertisers to be silent about the price of a call!!!

All evidence to the contrary, I'm afraid (see my post above about the 2 quarter-page adverts in today's Daily Telegraph).

wrote on Aug 6^th, 2005 at 8:12pm:

All evidence to the contrary, I'm afraid (see my post above about the 2 quarter-page adverts in today's Daily Telegraph).

According to the DT article interested parties were only told yesterday the 5/8/05,so you have got to give it a chance for the decision to to trickle through. Then i guess we could start complaining.

It is good to see that a advertiser like the AA is heeding there advice partially by giving the price of calls,but unfortunately still talking about local/national calls.See
www.theaa.com/aboutaa/contact.html

But how does this differ from Ofcom's proposals of giving pricing information? Does it just cover a different area?

What I mean is, we haven't had a response from Ofcom on its NTS Options for the Future consultation.

None the less, this is good news. I just hope companies who don't follow the rules will be delt with accordingly.

wrote on Aug 6^th, 2005 at 11:25pm:

According to the DT article interested parties were only told yesterday the 5/8/05,so you have got to give it a chance for the decision to to trickle through.

Pardon me but this advice has been on the CAP part of the ASA's website for 2 to 3 months at least.  It seems that Mr Derbyshire has an altered understanding of reality in more ways than one.  He still seems to think BT Option 1 is the cheapest way to make a phone call in this country.  He doesn't know about voipcheap or voipbuster or TalkTalk Talk3 etc, etc.  His only yardstick is whether the thing costs more than what the laziest and most stupid BT customer may pay.  But surely he is writing in the Daily Telegraph and not The Sun or the Daily Mail.

Also the CAP advice is only codifying the 2003 advice of Leicester City Council to Ofcom that anyone suggesting that 0845 was local rate or 0870 was national rate was guilty of a Criminal Offence under Part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1987.   And that was before BT abolished its local rate for 99% of its customers.

I am looking forward to next week's article in Surrey Adveriser group newspapers accusing Surrey Police of breaking the law by repeatedly getting call centre staff to assure customers that 0845 was "only the BT local rate sir".  This despite repeated letters and communications to Surrey Police by myself telling them they are not.  I even asked the chief cosntable a question about their misuse of 0845 numbers at the annual surrey police authority press conference but Surrey Police still continue to think that they are above the law.

wrote on Aug 7^th, 2005 at 7:53pm:

But how does this differ from Ofcom's proposals of giving pricing information? Does it just cover a different area?

It doesn't except that OfCOM haven't enforced their recommendations yet but the ASA have gone ahead anyhow.  Its a shame the ASA specifically only cover adverts.

Quote:

What I mean is, we haven't had a response from Ofcom on its NTS Options for the Future consultation

I think that because ASA/CAP have gone ahead with this does mean that NGN's are here to stay as they must surely know what OfCOM are going to recommend or at least have an idea. The remaining question is what else (if anything) is OfCOM going to do?

I suspect we all know the answer to that one and that is nothing except clearer descriptions.

The official CAP statement is now available:

http://www.cap.org.uk/cap/news_events/news/2005/Stop+the+call+confusion.htm

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Advertisers quoting 084 or 087 telephone numbers that suggest a ‘local’ or ‘national’ call rate have been told that they need to make the cost of calls to those numbers much clearer to consumers.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) – the body responsible for writing and enforcing the advertising rules for non-broadcast media - has told advertisers who quote 084 and 087 (or non-geographic numbers) in their non-broadcast advertisements that they must:

not describe calls to those numbers as being charged at ‘local’ or ‘national’ rate.
state the maximum cost of calls to BT customers and indicate that call costs using non-BT phone lines may vary.

On their introduction, calls to 084 numbers were charged at the BT standard local rate and those to 087 numbers were charged at BT standard national rate. Calls made from other phone companies were often more expensive.

BT has abolished its standard rate for the majority of its customers, making the description of calls being charged at local or national rate meaningless for them. As a result most consumers dialling 084 or 087 numbers have no idea what the cost of those calls will be.

CAP Secretary, Roger Wisbey said “Advertisers might think that by including non-geographic numbers in their ads, they are being more customer-friendly by enabling consumers to call them at a local or national rate from wherever they are based in the UK. In fact, those calls might cost consumers far more than anticipated. The new requirements should help to ensure that consumers are more aware of the charge for making calls to 084 and 087 numbers.”
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Also..

http://www.cap.org.uk/cap/advice_online/ad_alerts/Advertising+0845+and+087+numbers.htm

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Advertising 0845 and 087 numbers

The ASA has recently adjudicated on complaints about the advertising of 084 and 087 numbers.  CAP is aware that the cost of calling non-geographic numbers starting with 084 and 087 numbers is variable for non-BT customers and that calls to those numbers are unlikely to be charged at the traditional ‘local’ or ‘national’ rates that previously applied. To avoid misleading consumers, marketers should not describe calls to those numbers as ‘local’ or ‘national’ respectively.

Marketers should include pricing information in their advertisements, stating the maximum cost of a call or the maximum price per minute (ppm) to BT customers. They should also make clear that the price of calls on non-BT phone lines will vary and, if space allows, state that callers can check the cost with their phone company.

Marketers who feature several 084 or 087 numbers in their advertisements should not mislead customers if the cost of calling the numbers differs. They should state a maximum cost, either per minute or total call, to BT customers.

Please consult the CAP Copy Advice team if you are in any doubt about how ads should refer to the cost of 084 or 087 numbers or about the requirements of the CAP Code.
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Is there any fundamental difference between either of these prononoucements by the CAP of the ASA and:-

http://www.asa.org.uk/cap/news_events/news/2005/Hanging+on+the+telephone+on+and+on+and+on.htm

The latter was published several months ago.

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 12:42pm:

Is there any fundamental difference between either of these prononoucements by the CAP of the ASA and:- http://www.asa.org.uk/cap/news_events/news/2005/Hanging+on+the+telephone+on+and+on+and+on.htm

Not really other than the earlier article is more 'wooly' - use of 'should' rather than 'must' and seemed to be more advisory rather than mandatory. I suspect CAP is about as scary to scammers as Ofcom is, so I doubt this will make much difference. Hope I'm wrong though!

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 12:46pm:

I suspect CAP is about as scary to scammers as Ofcom is, so I doubt this will make much difference. Hope I'm wrong though!

One would hope that this ruling is at least a little scary to two of the principal local scammers here in Surrey, namely the Surrey Police and Surrey County Council.  Especially as they are both public bodies and not private businesses.

My crystal ball tells me they are both about to receive very unfavourable publicity about their scamming in the local press.

A visit to http://www.surrey.police.uk/ will show you that they currently describe their 0845 as a "Lo-Call" number and the staff on the line say "its only a local rate call" if challenged on the price.  Staff at Surrey County Council also misleadingly claim that calls to their 0845 main contact centre number are "local call rate".

The ASA compliance pages

see http://www.asa.org.uk/cap/compliance   indicate what they can do in non broadcast cases.?

Does CAP cover companies' websites and letterheads?

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 2:04pm:

Does CAP cover companies' websites and letterheads?

Is Surrey Police's website even covered by the CAP rules?

I suspect that they are in fact instead covered by the COI guidance?

The revised part of the COI  guidance document does say amongst other things

You should always clearly communicate the cost of a call to customers on publicity materials,and this should not use any misleading terms such as local,national rate etc.

So Surrey Police should? comply whoever of the two bodies is reponsible  for there advertising.

The ASA compliance pages indicate that websites and direct mailings are covered,in cases dealt with by them.

Also the Helplines Organisation have asked there members to comply.

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 2:26pm:

So Surrey Police should? comply whoever of the two bodies is reponsible  for there advertising.

I assume Surrey Police are a government contact centre given that their funding comes directly from the Council Tax.

The COI guidance was often mentioned in the context of the 0870 scam line for the Met Police Casualty Bureau.

But the MPS is different (it's the only force which hasn't adopted the national uniform for example).

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 4:59pm:

But the MPS are different (they're the only ones who have not adopted the national uniform for example).

Whats that? Shoot first then ask questions?

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 2:04pm:

Does CAP cover companies' websites and letterheads?

Not sure.  I know ASA don't cover websites and letterheads as they are not advertisments as such and therefore assume CAP also don't.  I thought CAP is used by companies to ensure they are advertising within the guidelines of the ASA advertising rules, etc but its the ASA that enforce and rule whether such companies have stuck within CAP/ASA guidelines.  Basically, CAP is used for guidance/queries/clarification of ASA rules.

I once queried with ASA whether a website comes under their remit and they answered no unless it was an advert on the web.  It was suggested to take the matter further with Trading Standards, etc.

wrote on Aug 10^th, 2005 at 6:42pm:

I once queried with ASA whether a website comes under their remit and they answered no unless it was an advert on the web.  It was suggested to take the matter further with Trading Standards, etc.

Can we all move to Leicester then.

Although you remind me about registering a formal complaint with Surrey Trading Standards about the Surrey Police 0845 phone number.