http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558373&in_page_id=1770

I guess this poor chap called from a cell phone. Don't you just love the lies and obsfucation that comes from the hospital spokeswoman:


Quote:

The outraged patient was charged £2.59 per minute for his calls to the 0844 number. His first call cost him £55 and the second £72. But a spokeswoman for the Mid Essex Hospitals Trust said the line should have been charged at a local rate of about five pence per minute. She said she could not understand why Mr Marshall had been landed with the huge charge. She said: "We have been on the 0844 number for over a year and it is charged at a "lo-call" rate and that is the same from wherever you call in the country.

And then:


Quote:

"We have not had any other comments or complaints since it was introduced. "It is not premium rate, it is just a non-geographic number. I have no idea why this has happened but if he wants to come to us, we will see what we can do.

Dark thoughts of some combination of piano wire, lamposts and mobile-phone company directors come to mind when you read this.......  >:(

No it was from a BT Line. BT have apparently now cancelled bill and are investigateing.See:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/10/nbt110.xml

Mmmm, I bet this guy did not hang his phone up properly when he finished and the call was still running. :-[

The media have so far missed the important point of this story.

The Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust uses many revenue sharing 0844 (call type "g6") numbers, just like the GPs who have us so enraged. Efforts to get contractors to comply with the terms of their contract with the NHS are not helped if NHS organisations are engaged in an identical disregard of the principle of "free at the point of need" by receiving income from patients as they seek to arrange NHS treatment.

Alternative geographic numbers are published for "overseas callers" and are listed on this site.

Quote:

Mmmm, I bet this guy did not hang his phone up properly when he finished and the call was still running.

(With egg on face, since I posted the original!)  :-[  It looks like you might be right. There are a couple of comments under the original Daily Mail story that suggest the calls were some 21 and 28 hours!. Apparently, if the picture accompanying the article is enlarged, the figures can be clearly seen. Ooops!

However, as SCV states, this doesn't detract from the fact that the Mid Essex Hospital Trust is disgracefully continuing to use 0844 numbers, and attempting to justify them as being 'lo-call' from 'anywhere'. This is the point that the media always seem to conveniently overlook. It is rare that we see such an article where it is clearly stated that (a) these calls are ALWAYS charged for, even if you have a 'calls-inclusive' package on a land-line and (b) you will ALWAYS pay a  - inexcusably large - premium for making such a call from a cell phone.

Anything else is almost superfluous.   :(

Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust also provides 0844 numbers for the wards at Broomfield and St John's. See here.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Apr 10^th, 2008 at 9:32am:

Alternative geographic numbers are published for "overseas callers" and are listed on this site.

Although, strangely, the one published on the Mid Essex Hospital Services website for Broomfield Hospital (which is in the 01245 Chelmsford STD code area), is 01908 849 003 (a Milton Keynes number).

mikeinnc wrote on Apr 10^th, 2008 at 1:44pm:

(With egg on face, since I posted the original!)  :-[  It looks like you might be right. There are a couple of comments under the original Daily Mail story that suggest the calls were some 21 and 28 hours!. Apparently, if the picture accompanying the article is enlarged, the figures can be clearly seen. Ooops!:(

Yes but why would an automated call answering system allow a call to continue for 21 and 28 hours respectively.  An automated system like this surely must have safeguards in place precisely to prevent the possibility of something like this happening.  If he eventually reached the front of the queue (having thought he had hung up) and they found there was no one on the line they should have disconnected the call at their end.  This would have then ended his outgoing call minute or so later.  Any automated messaging option he selected should have released the call after the message finished playing again ending his call a minute or so later.

Could you manage to get a call to continue for 21 hours or 28 hours to a real number with a person on it at the other end.  I think not.  So yet another hazard of these automated answering systems where they are badly designed or perhaps designed to scam the customer on purpose. ;)

My current calls and line rental provider - www.yourcalls.net - has an option where I am emailed if any call costs more than a certain amount of money.  As I have an inclusive at all times 01/02 call plan with them and I use 18185 (which they do not block) for mobiles I only expect to make rare 084 or 087 calls with them so I have set the email message limit for any call costing over £1.  If a small company like this can offer such a facility then why can't BT.  Why can't BT customers set a maximum value on call spend both per call or in any one day precisely to prevent something like this happening?  Me thinks only because BT have no incentive to offer such a facility and the regulator is not on the consumer's side.

NGMsGhost wrote on Apr 10^th, 2008 at 7:51pm:

My current calls and line rental provider - www.yourcalls.net - has an option where I am emailed if any call costs more than a certain amount of money.  As I have an inclusive at all times 01/02 call plan with them and I use 18185 (which they do not block) for mobiles I only expect to make rare 084 or 087 calls with them so I have set the email message limit for any call costing over £1.  If a small company like this can offer such a facility then why can't BT.  Why can't BT customers set a maximum value on call spend both per call or in any one day precisely to prevent something like this happening?  Me thinks only because BT have no incentive to offer such a facility and the regulator is not on the consumer's side.

Didn't a mobile network (can't remember which one) offer a facility like this but then it was withdrawn!!

Like you say, it's not in BTs or anyone else's interests really to warn customers how much they're paying for calls

bbb_uk wrote on Apr 14^th, 2008 at 7:10pm:

Like you say, it's not in BTs or anyone else's interests really to warn customers how much they're paying for calls

But it should be the job of the regulator to ensure a situation where consumers always known precisely what they are paying for their calls.

Unfortunately the UK telecoms regulator is OfCoN! :o >:( :'(

Dave wrote on Apr 10^th, 2008 at 3:10pm:

Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust also provides 0844 numbers for the wards at Broomfield and St John's. See here.

The list of wards' direct numbers has been moved:

http://www.meht.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/hospital-visiting-times/

Dave wrote on May 7^th, 2008 at 8:40pm:

Dave wrote on Apr 10th, 2008 at 3:10pm: Mid Essex Hospitals NHS Trust also provides 0844 numbers for the wards at Broomfield and St John's. See here. The list of wards' direct numbers has been moved: http://www.meht.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/hospital-visiting-times/

Surely they should be directed to the excellent example set by their colleagues at Essex Police?