The consultation is closed, my own MP, & MSP have been bombarded with emails from me  - the MP has shown support, the MSP has ignored me (but he will pay for this!!) - and I still refuse to do any business with companies using 0870.

Whay else can we do now?  Do we just sit and wait for Ofcom to do it's usual fudge and 'kick the matter into touch' for another couple of years?

Any suggestions?

I definately think we need to do something in the meantime. If the previous consultation is anything to go by:

• Will it take as long to either come up with a decision or another consultation? Bearing in mind that there's alot more responses.
  
• Why are the people who worked on the previous consultation no longer at Ofcom? Has this had anything to do with the delay?
  
• Will the responses to both consultations be looked at together, or will each 'team' just work on its own?

Quote:

What else can we do now?

I've been thinking about this too.  One suggestion I had was developing a thread similar to the one encouraging consultation responses, but one called something like
"What YOU can do to challenge the 0870 rip-off"

I'd be grateful of other ideas for its content but so far I've thought this post could gather together links to help with:

* emailing your mp to sign up to the anti-0870 parliamentary motion

* complaining to the company whose 0870 you have to use (including suggested template letters/email that would need to be personalised before sending)

* making freedom of information requests

* encouraging all of these actions from interested others on other forums e.g the home phones board on MSE


Such a thread would be a tool-kit of actions that like-minded people could take and it would take most of the donkey work out of doing it.  

To highlight this, some of us could include a link to it from our signatures.  It would be helpful if akin to the consultation countdown clock, there should be big, bold links to it from the Homepage and from the Search For A Number page.

Obviously the more people we can help in this way, the greater impact we can have, certainly more than the 30 or so forum regulars could achieve by ourselves!   I feel we've got to be more active in encouraging others to be active.

Any feedback appreciated.

Excellent.

Should we use 087/084, rather than merely 0870?
I should not like an excuse to be that we only publicise or criticise 0870. We know of the evils of 0845. 0844 and 0871, but....

Tanllan wrote on Dec 8^th, 2005 at 10:42am:

We know of the evils of 0845. 0844 and 0871, but....

And 070.

Tanllan wrote on Dec 8^th, 2005 at 10:42am:

Should we use 087/084, rather than merely 0870?

I agree completely that the action we should be encouraging equally applies to 084x/087x/07 etc etc.  I could have used Non-Geographic Numbers in the suggested title but I used 0870 to keep it simple and because more people are probably aware of overpriced 0870 numbers than they are the other numbers.

I agree we need to mention all those prefixes. If Ofcom gets its finger out and makes pricing information on adverts compulsory, it might help spur on the notion that 'inclusive' call packages don't include these calls. Although I think they'll be people who'll think that they will be included.

gdh82 wrote on Dec 8^th, 2005 at 9:35am:

I'd be grateful of other ideas for its content but so far I've thought this post could gather together links to  help with: * emailing your mp to sign up to the anti 0870 motion

are you familiar with http://www.writetothem.com/
and its predecessor http://www.faxyourmp.com/index.php3

And, of course, Non-geographic Numbers can be abbreviated to NGN - or Next Generation Networks.
Why do I have this idea that people might (will?) try to slide out of it?

Here's something else you could add to your action list. Ofcom has pointed out that callers tend not to know how much 0870 numbers cost. It's also evident from messages on this forum that call centres don't know either. So perhaps at the end of any 0870 call that you're forced to make, you could conclude by telling the call centre how much more the 0870 number has cost.

Below is a table comparing the cost of an 0870 number, charged at around 8p per minute, with a call to an 01 or 02 number via 1899.com, at a cost of 3p for any duration.

The first column shows the number of minutes the call has lasted. The second column shows how much more expensive  the 0870 call is, in percentage terms compared with an 01 or 02 number.


1       167%
2       433%
3       700%
4       967%
5       1233%
6       1500%
7       1767%
8       2033%
9       2300%
10      2567%
11      2833%
12      3100%
13      3367%
14      3633%
15      3900%
16      4167%
17      4433%
18      4700%
19      4967%
20      5233%

Nice stats, AJR, but my only concern is that by 'disclosing this at the end of your 0870 call', you will also be prolonging the 0870 call and giving even more profit to the scamsters!
This would be the kind of table that should appear in adverts in newspapers - could a fund not be inaugurated where we might take an ad in a newspaper to display the scam?
Anybody know anything about these things?

AJR wrote on Dec 10^th, 2005 at 10:19am:

Here's something else you could add to your action list. Ofcom has pointed out that callers tend not to know how much 0870 numbers cost. It's also evident from messages on this forum that call centres don't know either. So perhaps at the end of any 0870 call that you're forced to make, you could conclude by telling the call centre how much more the 0870 number has cost. Below is a table comparing the cost of an 0870 number, charged at around 8p per minute, with a call to an 01 or 02 number via 1899.com, at a cost of 3p for any duration.

I'm not convinced by the usefulness of comparisons with 1899, however dramatic they may be. Although I am a user of 1899, well at least I pay the bills for my family to call me here in FL, its service is inconsistent and is not widespread. It is unclear how long its current model is viable, although I truly hope that it stays the same, at least ito charging.

Any cost comparisons must, IMO, be made against the baseline of BT Option1, the predominant plan in use within the UK. Whilst many people know about 1899 and similar variants, in comparison with BT, their useage is insignificant.

I do agree however that your table provides a stark indication of just how exploitative these numbers are. Perhaps you're right, use it!

idb wrote on Dec 10^th, 2005 at 12:40pm:

Any cost comparisons must, IMO, be made against the baseline of BT Option1, the predominant plan in use within the UK. Whilst many people know about 1899 and similar variants, in comparison with BT, their useage is insignificant.

Well, I'm sure more people use 1899 than the BT light user scheme which most companies justify 0870, and 0845 by saying that it saves this group of people more money, and many still think 0845 is cheaper than 01/02 numbers.  If they can use a minority group of customers for an argument for keeping the numbers, then we can use a minority group of customers to show what a rip off 0845/0870 numbers are!!