firestop wrote on Dec 8^th, 2005 at 8:44am:

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?

As part of the "What Now? thread, I wanted to begin a new thread specifically focused on this issue of complaining to companies about the use of non-geographic numbers.

I wanted to gather together a collection of example complaint letters that others could easily cut and paste from.  I know its best if letters are personalised so others could use these letters merely as a starting point.  Details relating to someone's personal circumstances/complaint could be added.

I'm sure many people don't complain because its takes some effort to put your grievances into words.  This simple idea is about making complaining as easy as possible by compiling a kind of arsenal of letters.  Some may deal with 0870 numbers, others 0845 numbers, some may threaten to withdraw their custom and others may complain that NGNs are included as part of inclusive call plans (like mine below).  Different arguments might be used in difference circumstances.  

Perhaps the site could do more to not only provide alternative geographic numbers but also to encourage those people seeking alternatives to also complain to the company concerned.  I know this already happens in some cases but obviously the greater the number of complaints, the greater the potential impact.

To get the ball rolling and to provide a example, I've quoted below a recent complaint that I cobbled together:  


Quote:

I write regarding your use of an 0870 number as a contact number for your helpline.  I am otherwise satisfied with the dvd rental service you provide. Like increasing numbers of people, I budget for my telephone call costs by paying extra each month for an inclusive call plan.  Having in effect pre-paid I then can call local or national calls at any time of day for 'free'.  However as you may know calls to so-called non-geographic calls are rarely included in such plans, which I disagree with in principle.   This issue concerns many other companies of course and you may be aware that Ofcom has recently consulted on this issue given the growing dissatisfaction amongst the general public. To see some of the public responses follow this link below: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/responses/ Now I realise that email is an alternative means of contact but email does have its limitations.  It recently took me 3-4 emails over the course of a week to resolve a query concerning a dvd title because there was more than one version of the film in question.   Email is also undesireable when an immediate response is needed.   I therefore ask out of good customer care to consider providing the equivalent geographic number for 0870 240 1637.  I believe this would not create a problem through unnecessary calls for example but rather show how responsive your company can be to individual customer requests. I look forward to hearing from you.

I't'd be really helpful if others could contribute to this thread perhaps part or all of one of their own complaint letters.  I've briefly searched this Forums but haven't been able to find any letters at all?

Thanks in anticipation.

Standard letters, no matter in what number, are likely to be regarded as just that, i.e. another member of "that" campaign doing what he has been told. No matter how badly worded, I think a personal letter, all the more noticable because it is personal and unique and individual, will, when taken in aggregate with all the other letters, do a better job of persuading the reader that that is someone who really should count for one, a whole individual, complete with his own thoughts, added to all the others. Together, the collective force of individually written letters, perhaps precisely because it is harder to put your own thoughts into words, will count for more than an avalanche of the same number of form letters, and by about the same factor as there are individuals complainants.

I don't mean to put you off. A form letter would be nice and certainly better than nothing. But I really think impact depends on individuals willing to think the thing through for themselves and apply their own pen to their own paper.

By the way, as regards the next thing to do, this reminds me of the campaign for unmetered telecommunications a few years ago. A big factor there, believe it or not, was other industry competitors unhappy with metered telecoms a la BT. These competitors included AOL and Microsoft. I kid you not. The times newspaper also got on the bandwagon. Before long, BT were succumbing to both governmental and industry pressure. It seems to me that other industry players together with grass roots consumers' protest groups can be the combination that carries the needed weight to produce change.

Just my thoughts.

LUN.

longusername wrote on Dec 18^th, 2005 at 12:50am:

A form letter would be nice and certainly better than nothing.

Thanks Lun for your response which I agree with to a point.  I'm in no way kidding myself that this idea will have an immediate effect but as you say its certainly better than nothing.

If this thread ended up containing just half a dozen or so examples of letters it would be useful.  Sometimes just reading of the efforts of other like-minded people can help spur you to do the same.

I agree also that just cutting and pasting these letters is least effective and so we should encourage others to use such letters as a starting point.  It doesn't take much to personalise a letter and change certain phrasing once you've got something to work with.

I just feel following the recent consultation on the way forward for NTS, there's probably as much interest as ever on the topic and so now is a good time to try to offer assistance in this way.