I have just emailed the Daily Telegraph. Their understanding of 0845 numbers seem to be wrong....... ::)


Dear Sirs,

On page 2 of today's Daily Telegraph, you have a paragraph about 'World War 2 Magazine Copies'.

You state that by calling your 0845 number from a BT landline it is  'free'.

This is incorrect. It is only 'free' depending which Option the subscriber is on. If they are on Option 1 it is only 'free' at week ends. Option 2 it is only 'free' at week ends and evenings and it is only 'free' '24/7' if you are on Option 3.

I think what you have written is false information, and if someone was to telephone that number during the day and they were on BT's Option 1 or 2, they would be indeed paying to telephone you.

Yours faithfully

xxxxxxxxxxx

Cheaper than a geographic number, but not free.

Take care when alleging falsehoods, someone could challenge the veracity of the references to numbered options.

Page 4 of today's edition they have got the same paragraph but have replaced the 0845 number with a 0800 number...result :)

However it would have been nice of them to thank me for pointing out their error :(

sherbert wrote on Sep 8^th, 2009 at 6:57am:

Page 4 of today's edition they have got the same paragraph but have replaced the 0845 number with a 0800 number...result :)(

Which of course are not "free", inclusive from a mobile ;)

In fairness they did say 'from a BT landline and call charges from other networks may vary'

Their statement yesterday was wrong and at least they have altered it. :)

sherbert wrote on Sep 8^th, 2009 at 9:59am:

In fairness they did say 'from a BT landline and call charges from other networks may vary'

In this case (with the 0800 number) they should have said "from any landline, calls from mobiles will be charged".

I am campaigning to get the highlighted phrase banned in respect of 0845 and other revenue sharing numbers. See this posting

sherbert wrote on Sep 7^th, 2009 at 7:12am:

If they are on Option 1 it is only 'free' at week ends. Option 2 it is only 'free' at week ends and evenings and it is only 'free' '24/7' if you are on Option 3.

Sorry sherbert but you are considerably out of date with BT's latest forms of confidence trickery.

These days they call them their Unlimited Weekend Plan, Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan and their Unlimited Anytime Plan.   The terms Option 1, Option 2 and Option 3 were made redundant by BT quite some time ago.

Quite how they get away with the use of the word Unlimited for calls restricted to 60 minutes in length individually and with further restrictions on the number of minutes per month of calls you can make to 0845/0870 and a further less draconian limit on the number of minutes to 01/02/03 numbers is somewhat beyond me.  I assume this must therefore be the definition of the word Unlimited used by the ASA and Ofcom rather than the one to be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. :o >:(

NGMsGhost wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2009 at 8:49pm:

[ Sorry sherbert but you are considerably out of date with BT's latest forms of confidence trickery. These days they call them their Unlimited Weekend Plan, Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan and their Unlimited Anytime Plan.   The terms Option 1, Option 2 and Option 3 were made redundant by BT quite some time ago. (

:-[ Whoops, but anyway they (the Daily Telegraph) must have seen the error of their ways.  :-[

They never thanked me for pointing it out  ::)

NGMsGhost wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2009 at 8:49pm:

Quite how they get away with the use of the word Unlimited for ... is somewhat beyond me.

I agree that the word is unsuitable as there are restrictions, however these could be said to only define what is "normal use".

Having a word (even an unsuitable one) to describe this type of package is useful as it distinguishes them from the packages that consist of various defined numbers of bundled minutes. These are obviously thought likely to be exceeded in "normal" usage, especially where there is a larger bundle available. Those are commonly offered by mobile operators, and also by Virgin Media with its "Talk Anywhere" bundles. We can confidently state that no "unlimited" package includes calls to 0844 numbers.

Marketing language is a subset of English, including phrases with special meanings applied to phrases such as "free" and "may vary". Each industry has its own dialect.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Sep 24^th, 2009 at 9:09am:

Marketing language is a subset of English, including phrases with special meanings applied to phrases such as "free" and "may vary". Each industry has its own dialect.

And why should the consumer be expected to understand the new unofficial variant of the English language the marketing men have tried to impose in order to conduct their confidence trickery more successfully ?  With the Finarea telecoms group, who you so frequently and unjustifiably deride as being a serious player, an unlimited length call for 5p means just that and not one that is limited to 60 minutes and also part of a maximum of so many minutes of calls per month.

Perhaps you need to apply for a job at Ofcom or the ASA SCV as it sounds like you would be just the man they need to sign off all of their current industry friendly so called regulatory policies. ;)

NGMsGhost wrote on Sep 24^th, 2009 at 9:18am:

the new unofficial variant of the English language

Some would suggest that deception through language began when Eve asked Adam if he fancied a nibble.