http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/newshome/newsarticle.htm?id=104003&Council=t;

<<08:00, 30 Jun 2008

In Notts? There's only one number to remember.

If you've got questions about council services, get in touch: call us on 08449 80 80 80.

...

The customer service centre is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 12 noon on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays and bank holidays.

Calls to 08449 80 80 80 cost 3p per minute from a BT land line regardless of the location and the time of day the call is made. Call charges from other operators and mobile phones may vary.
>>

No mention of the comparative cost of previous numbers. The hours of service, early evening and weekend when this may be used by many who work during weekdays, would make it seem particularly expensive. At less than 4p per minute, it is likely that the Council (taxpayers) is also paying to receive calls.

(see also Norwich City Council)

Thanks I have now written to my County Councillors as follows and hope som e ass may be kicked:

I have found that Notts CC have now changed their phone numbers to    08449 808080 and no doubt it has cost the Council money to set up this new number.

In the past I was able to ring  the Council on an 0115.. 01623..  01636.. etc number and, because I pay extra for an "all calls" package with my telephone provider it costs me nothing.It also counted toward the inclusive minutes on my mobile.

0844.. numbers, together with all 08xx numbers are excluded from my calling plan - and as far as I am aware, from all calling plans from all providers.

If I now ring Notts CC on a 10 minute call it will now cost me connection charge 6p and call charges of 30p totalling 36p when in the past it cost me nothing!
To ring on my mobile would cost me £1.50. for this call when again it was costing me nothing!
This additional expense is not of my making and I am definitely not happy!

If the County Council had to combine everything under one number why did they not consider the new generation of numbers beginning 03xx which does attract the discounts from caller plans and also costs ordinary payers less because it has reduced prices in the evenings and weekends.

Can you please ask some pertinent questions and find out why this was not done and what the setting up costs and the proposed savings of this are.
Will you please ask whether the Council considered setting up an 03xx. number - (say 0345 980808) and if not why not.

03xx numbers are new, but they have been in the pipeline for some time so the person(s) considering this change ought to have been aware of this scheme and the benefits for taxpayers over 0845 numbers.

Can I refer you to the website www.saynoto0870.com which specialises in these types of call


I have also copied it to District Councillors in case the District had similar plans

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jul 4^th, 2008 at 3:05pm:

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/newshome/newsarticle.htm?id=104003&Council=t; <<08:00, 30 Jun 2008 In Notts? There's only one number to remember. If you've got questions about council services, get in touch: call us on 08449 80 80 80. ... The customer service centre is open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and from 8am to 12 noon on Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays and bank holidays. Calls to 08449 80 80 80 cost 3p per minute from a BT land line regardless of the location and the time of day the call is made. Call charges from other operators and mobile phones may vary. >> No mention of the comparative cost of previous numbers. The hours of service, early evening and weekend when this may be used by many who work during weekdays, would make it seem particularly expensive. At less than 4p per minute, it is likely that the Council (taxpayers) is also paying to receive calls. (see also Norwich City Council)

Hi  Try this number............................0115 982 3823
and notify.

Thank you.

Source: Nottinghamshire County News

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/countynews27page13.pdf

<<
Charge for new number

WE SHOULD all be aware of the higher-charging telephone num-bers 0870, 0871, 0845 and 0844. The recent issue of County News shows 0844 now being in use on numbers that were once 0115. Why, if not to make money?

For a 10-minute call you can pay up to £1 by calling an 0871 or 0870 numbers, 60p for an 0845 number and 50p for an 0844 number. Why have those mentioned in County News their telephone numbers from 0115 to 0844?

Frank E Wood
Via email

Notts Connect’s project manager Sarah Thurlby replies: The County Council has set up a customer serv-ice centre to make it easier for people to get in touch with us.

The centre provides access to all the Authority’s services through a single telephone number — 08449 80 80 80 — and is open from 8am-8pm Monday to Friday and 8am-12 noon on Saturday. We have chosen an 08449 number to make it fair to everyone because under the old system certain pockets of the county were having to make calls at national rates rather than local ones.

Calls to 08449 80 80 80 cost 3p per minute from BT landlines (including VAT) regardless of the time of day or location. Mobiles and other providers costs may vary. I can assure you that the Authority does not earn any income from the use of 08449 80 80 80.
>>

Evidently Nottinghamshire County Council considers the minority who pay more for national calls than local before those pay more on today's tariffs of which 0844 numbers are exactly the same.

The council doesn't earn revenue and it is quite happy to let its telco take it.

Last two of several corresponances between me and Notts CC. There reply is shown first to my email shown after. Note this is after several other emails going back and forth, but i guess you can guess how they went  :)

How on earth did their own Trading Standards not know of a Trading Standards guidleline. I think it will be very effective to point this out to councils who break these guidelines. The Trading Standards document is number 180805.


Dear Sir

Thank you for your email of the 5 August 2008.  I would like to thank you for bringing to my attention the guidance regarding special service numbers.  I have arranged to print a public apology in the autumn edition of County News and will ensure that any future publicity material is amended accordingly.

The Authority has introduced a single telephone number to make it easier for customers to contact the Council.  Calls are directed to the right people, with the rights skills, first time – ensuring they are dealt with more efficiently and answered more quickly.  Customers are able to contact the Council over a period of extended opening hours.

Whilst customers with contracts that provide free calls will not always benefit from the change in number, others will benefit.  Due to the wide range of telephone packages available to people today, it would have been impossible to accommodate the individual requirements of every resident.  

I acknowledge that the 03 number range is included within some call packages but the organisation receiving calls from the 03 number range has to pay a pence per minute charge for each inbound call it receives.  I can assure you that the Authority does not earn any income from the use of 08449 80 80 80.

Once again, I do apologies and thank you for the points you have raised.

If you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, the next step would be to ask for an investigation to be carried out on behalf of the Chief Executive of the County Council.  If you wish to do so, you are invited to contact –

                            ----------------

How on earth can trading standards not know of their own guidelines. Here are some quotes that I have cut and pasted from their own guidelines on Special Services Telephone Numbers. As you can see it is quite clear (in particular I have made bold and underlined the offence you have committed). You are committing a criminal offence by describing your number as such. I have also copied and pasted the potential penalties for doing so from the same trading standards guideline document. Quote:


"You should not use the terms 'local rate' or 'national rate', or any reference to local or national rates. You should also not use words which could imply a local or national rate (e.g. 'Lo-call', 'low rate', 'National call', 'standard rate')."


Also:


"you should not:
• state that callers will be charged local or low rates for 084x numbers;

• state that callers will be charged national or standard rates for 087x numbers;

• state that callers will be charged the same rates regardless of where in the UK they call from (unless you make it clear that this is also the case for ordinary geographic numbers for most callers).


Also:

Under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, it is an offence to give misleading price indications to consumers, and an unlimited fine can be imposed as a penalty. Liability can extend to the business which provided the number, if they gave incorrect pricing information to the advertiser.


I notice you have effectively made this statement again in another announcement, quote:


"We have chosen an 08449 number to make it fair to everyone because under the old system certain pockets of the county were having to make calls at national rates rather than local ones."


This is just untrue (hence the trading standards guidelines). In 2004 the distinction between National and Local Rate calls were removed completely. Since then it has cost the same to call Lands End as it does to call your next door neighbour.

Unless I see a public retraction of these untrue statements it is my intention to make a formal complaint with the intention of bringing about a criminal prosecution. As a public body you should not be making such claim.

It is also worth noting that you completly ignored the fact that 03 numbers are set up to be included in all call packages because unlike 0844 numbers there isn't any revenue sharing) and hence cotrary to what you have stated they will effectively be substantially cheaper (ie free) for nearly all callers.

   

Sorry not a very good first sentence in my last post (me/myself, correspondences, there/their)

Here was their earlier response to me pointing out the Trading Standards issue. When I went into detail and threatened action which would be very embarrassing for a council they agreed and in a positive way


" I have spoken to the Trading Standards Fair Trade Team and have been advised that they are not aware that the phrase "regardless of the location" is banned.  I apologies if you feel that this term is misleading, that is not the intention"

Keith,

Well done on all your efforts so far.

However as they have apparently refused to back down and either provide an official geographic alternative to the 0844 or introduce an 03 replacement number can you not continue your complaint to deadlock with the Chief Executive and then take the complaint on to the Local Government Ombudsman for their adjudication?

Keith wrote on Aug 11^th, 2008 at 9:21am:

Quote: I can assure you that the Authority does not earn any income from the use of 08449 80 80 80.

What then does the telco do with the revenue share that it receives?

Does it retain this instead of imposing a charge on the Council, as it would if denied this income had a 03 number been used?

The charge for receiving calls on 03 numbers is nothing more than a replacement for the revenue share income from 084x numbers. Same advanced facilities, same service benefits; it is just a question of who pays for them.

The Council is not a profit-making body, so the saved cost achieved by use of a 0844 number is no different to income.


Again, well done. Is there a hyperlink to these Trading Standards documents somewhere? Apologies if I have missed it!

Interesting to note that Nottinghamshire County Council's Social Care Services Emergency number is 0300 456 4546

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/home/social_care/ss-main-contactss.htm

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/edt-dec08.pdf

Source: Hucknall Dispatch

Cheaper way to contact council about services

Published on Wednesday 24 October 2012 10:00

HUCKNALL residents are set to benefit from a new, cheaper customer-service telephone number to get in touch with Notts County Council.

Anyone calling the council about any of its 500 services will now be saving money with the new phone line compared to the old service.

The current customer call-centre number of 08449 808080 will be replaced with 0300 5008080 from Monday November 5. The 0300 number has been introduced by OFCOM, the telecoms watchdog, to make it cheaper for customers to contact not-for-profit organisations like the council.