Having months ago booked a holiday thru Portland Direct I got my tickets on 4th January 2007 & I tried their 0870 1900 737 number to use their 'Select-a-Seat' option. For all I tried thru the day & the evening I always ended up listening to music for 30 mins or so. I wrote a letter of complaint on 5th Jan & eventually got a phone reply to it on 17th Jan. After expressing my thoughts on spending money on a 0870 number the operator said, quote, "We have got to make a profit, sir" & "did you think of calling off-peak" to which I pointed out that I had. I am now wondering who I complain to about this leaving customers hanging on to a 8 pence per minute line. I have already had a reply from BT who say it is not their fault because BT do not make a profit out of 0870 numbers. I have also wrote a letter of complaint to the Managing director of Portland Direct. ICSTIS does not cover 0870 numbers & OFCOM do not have an online compliant procedure for this. Can anyone help me?

Sadly there is not alot more you can do to pursue this. In future the best thing you can do if you do do business with companies that persist with these expensive numbers is visit this site to see if there is an alternative listed.

Had you spent money on your credit card and not received the service or product that you ordered, you would be due a refund from your credit card provider. This does not happen with 0870 numbers which charge a premium for a service which you have no guarantee of receiving.

Hiswasp, did you try the geographical numbers given in the database for Portland Direct?

they are:

024 762 82930
024 762 82828

Yes I did try the geographical numbers listed on this site but they went unanswered. There was also a 0800 (freephone) number that was, surprise, surprise answered straight away but that was just for Thomson Fly for booking a flight but could not deal with my problem. I understand someone suggesting to avoid such companies in future but most of the holiday companies now use these rip-off numbers. I would not mind paying 8 pence per minute if it was answered straight away by someone who I can talk to but what I don't like is listening to music at 8 pence per minute.

I am told that "The French Minister of Industry announced on 5 January that a bill will be shortly presented to Parliament in order to forbid French operators to charge people phoning on their hotlines during the time they are waiting for someone to answer. This decision has been taken after a 1year-plus stand-by period during which the Government let operators address the issue themselves. As few operators (Alice, Orange...) effectively took steps to solve this major concern for French consumers, it has been decided to trigger a compelling process."

Quote:

Yes I did try the geographical numbers listed on this site but they went unanswered.

I tried the 024 762 82930 number just now and they did answer, at least there was a menu and one of the options was "if you booked a holiday with us press...".

Whether they will deal with your specific query I don't know, but worth giving it a try.

By meaning 'unanswered' I meant that after going thru all the options I was left listening to music as on the 0870 number.

at least you are paying significantly less for listening to the music at the end of which presumably somebody will answer the call.  They are probably unaware that they are not collecting revenue from the call, that is why they keep you waiting.  ;)

Tanllan wrote on Jan 22^nd, 2007 at 9:13am:

I am told that "The French Minister of Industry announced on 5 January that a bill will be shortly presented to Parliament in order to forbid French operators to charge people phoning on their hotlines during the time they are waiting for someone to answer. This decision has been taken after a 1year-plus stand-by period during which the Government let operators address the issue themselves. As few operators (Alice, Orange...) effectively took steps to solve this major concern for French consumers, it has been decided to trigger a compelling process."

Very interesting news Tanllan.

I really think this ought to be brought to the attention of all the MPs who signed the Parliamentary EDM against 0870 numbers.

Its a shame that the ballot for private members bills this year has already happened and that the winners have already put forward their chosen legislation for this Parliamentary Session.

Given that the rogues at Ofcom refuse to act to end this scamming then really getting backbench MPs directly to end the abuse is the only way forward.

Hiswasp wrote on Jan 21^st, 2007 at 1:19pm:

Having months ago booked a holiday thru Portland Direct I got my tickets on 4th January 2007 & I tried their 0870 1900 737 number to use their 'Select-a-Seat' option. For all I tried thru the day & the evening I always ended up listening to music for 30 mins or so.

With the greatest of respect was there no alternative to the 0870 telephone based "Select A Seat" option such as an online "Select A Seat" option or a request a seat by email option?  If not and an 0870 number was used and the call queue was long I would have just hung up after 3 minutes and decided to put up with whatever seat I was given at the airport.  I certainly wouldn't have called back repeatedly time after time and queued for 30 minutes at a time.

I would however have emailed the managing director and board directors of the company and copied it to all board members at Ofcom, members of the Ofcom Consumer Panel and leading travel journalists on major daily and Sunday newspapers.

Succumbing to using an 0870 ripoff service that it is not essential to interact with and that is clearly designed as a ripoff is not something I would have done.  Apart from the con that 0870 is National Rate when it is not the other utterly unbelievable con Ofcom allows is queues lasting up to an hour at up to £6.00 an hour to call 0870 numbers when the caller has no idea at the outset how long they are waiting.

While you are at it tell your MP and MEP how unhappy you are at Ofcom's failure to stop this scam using www.writetothem.com  Ofcom is almost certainly in breach of its duties under EU competition legislation and the misleading advertising directive in failing to stop the 084/7 calls scam.

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 25^th, 2007 at 6:11pm:

I would however have emailed the managing director and board directors of the company and copied it to all board members at Ofcom, members of the Ofcom Consumer Panel and leading travel journalists on major daily and Sunday newspapers.

Have you tried this (and what kind of response did you get)?  

I thought it had to be fairly newsworthy to get in the major newspapers (i.e. booked a seat, couldn't get through, ended up with inappropriate seating, got DVT, flown by helicopter to hospital, "holiday of death!" etc.)

I've had some luck with Consumer Direct, a consumer helpline run by the DTI who help you understand what your rights are in relation to goods & services. If you haven't received the service you should have, or would have expected to receive, they might be able to point you in the right direction? Don't think they'll be interested in the 0870 angle though.

wacs wrote on Jan 29^th, 2007 at 3:23pm:

I thought it had to be fairly newsworthy to get in the major newspapers (i.e. booked a seat, couldn't get through, ended up with inappropriate seating, got DVT, flown by helicopter to hospital, "holiday of death!" etc.)

Actually perhaps I should have suggested you copy in the personal finance or consumer rights journalists of the national newspapers.  They have a lot of column inches to fill and seem increasingly interested in the 084/7 story.

Travel journalists might be more interested in their next Gin and Tonic I fear although there have been stories about Trailfinders and their stand against using 0870 numbers previously.

The story you describe is a front page newspaper story.  Far more mundane stuff gets printed on the inner pages.

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 29^th, 2007 at 3:28pm:

Actually perhaps I should have suggested you copy in the personal finance or consumer rights journalists of the national newspapers.  They have a lot of column inches to fill and seem increasingly interested in the 084/7 story.

This is quite interesting - which publications have you seen this interest in?

Another newsworthy angle to look into might be the companies providing the services (and their profits), because I have a feeling they are driving the agenda.  (I could be wrong)

Yes but that is the same generic issue that is true with all 084/7 numbers.  The Telco gets half or more of the extra call cost and the call recipient gets the other half either as direct revenue share or via free of charge phone systems or reduced cost outgoing calls etc.

lompos wrote on Jan 21^st, 2007 at 9:01pm:

Hiswasp, did you try the geographical numbers given in the database for Portland Direct? they are: 024 762 82930 024 762 82828

Tried these numbers this morning. The first one was not recognised & the second just rang and rang. Seems they do not want us to contact them without paying through the nose.

Hell of a time scale to try the numbers, 7 months  ;D

Derrick, this isn't the same person that reported the numbers before :P.

Pittcity, thanks for the report. Anyone any suggestions how to get hold of them now? Ofcourse, avoiding companies that use non-geos exclusively, or don't have confirmed geographic numbers in the database, is always good advice to follow :).

Another number that I have come across while Googling is this one - 024 7628 3440. It may, or may not, be a direct line to someone called Pete Norwood, affiliates manager at TUI (the people who run Portland Direct, or atleast their customer services it seems). You could try giving that number a go. It also fits in with the numbers we already have for Portland Direct.

Pittcity wrote on Aug 10^th, 2007 at 12:41pm:

Tried these numbers this morning. The first one was not recognised & the second just rang and rang. Seems they do not want us to contact them without paying through the nose.

024 76282930 works and answers as "Credit Control".

jgxenite wrote on Aug 10^th, 2007 at 2:11pm:

Derrick, this isn't the same person that reported the numbers before :P.

I know that,  ::)I was just pointing out the length of time that has gone before anyone appeared to have tried the numbers  ;)

Ah OK. Did you get my PM btw (on a completely unrelated matter :))

jgxenite wrote on Aug 11^th, 2007 at 3:48pm:

Ah OK. Did you get my PM btw (on a completely unrelated matter :))

Yes I did, you have received my reply, as I have in reply to my reply to you, if that makes sense  [smiley=thumbsup.gif]