See their take on 0844 numbers here.

http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers

They appear to use the 0844 number range that is 3.06p per minute with set-up cost of 13.1p from a BT Landline.

What is missing from this, and other similar comments that may have been written in the last five years, is an explanation of why the 084 user chooses to impose a service charge on the caller, rather than meeting the full cost of their telephone service by using 03 numbers.

Solicitors claims 0844 calls are local rate no mention of service/access charge.

http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers

bigjohn wrote on Aug 16^th, 2013 at 11:21am:

Solicitors claims 0844 calls are local rate no mention of service/access charge. http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers

So has anyone reported them to the ASA yet for their miselading and incorrect claims?

How can you tell when a solicitor is lying?

His/her lips move.

Heinz wrote on Aug 16^th, 2013 at 1:50pm:

How can you tell when a solicitor is lying? His/her lips move.

By reporting to them the ASA and the Solicitors Regulation Authority and letting them take a final decision on the matter. ::)

NGMsGhost wrote on Aug 16^th, 2013 at 12:27pm:

bigjohn wrote on Aug 16th, 2013 at 11:21am: Solicitors claims 0844 calls are local rate no mention of service/access charge. http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers So has anyone reported them to the ASA yet for their miselading and incorrect claims?

Have just done so, also emailed them to point out the errors of their ways.

Some of their offices have 01 numbers:-

http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/offices

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Heinz wrote on Aug 16^th, 2013 at 1:50pm:

How can you tell when a solicitor is lying? His/her lips move.

Their lips move.

I think NGM missed the hidden, (nearly), answer.

.

I just checked Linder Myers web site and found the following :-

There are some programs you can use should you be calling from a mobile or an international location and require an alternative, local number:

0870 for iPhone app which you can download from the iTunes app store (for a small fee)

Saynoto0870 app for android phones or the Saynoto0870 website at www.saynoto0870.com

Their whole statement can be seen at -

http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers

derrick wrote on Aug 17^th, 2013 at 9:17am:

Have just done so, also emailed them to point out the errors of their ways. Some of their offices have 01 numbers:- http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/offices

Well done derrick for your continued tireless efforts in this regard and for bringing the offenders to book.  I will be interested to hear what the ASA has to say in due course.

Did you get any response from your message to the solicitors or did they simply go stum or suggest they would bill you at £250 per hour +VAT if you wanted a reply? ;) ;D

I now await the usual tripe from SilentCallsVictim to the effect that these poor little solicitors probably had no idea at all that these 0844 numbers would cost their customers loads extra to call and were simply misguided and innocent parties in the whole affair. :o >:( :'(

NGMsGhost wrote on Aug 21^st, 2013 at 8:33am:

derrick wrote on Aug 17th, 2013 at 9:17am: Have just done so, also emailed them to point out the errors of their ways. Some of their offices have 01 numbers:- http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/offices Well done derrick for your continued tireless efforts in this regard and for bringing the offenders to book.  I will be interested to hear what the ASA has to say in due course. Did you get any response from your message to the solicitors or did they simply go stum or suggest they would bill you at £250 per hour +VAT if you wanted a reply? ;) ;D I now await the usual tripe from SilentCallsVictim to the effect that these poor little solicitors probably had no idea at all that these 0844 numbers would cost their customers loads extra to call and were simply misguided and innocent parties in the whole affair. :o >:( :'(

No response from either of them yet, did not expect one from the solicitors, will wait a few more days for the ASA to respond.


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NGMsGhost wrote on Aug 21^st, 2013 at 8:33am:

derrick wrote on Aug 17th, 2013 at 9:17am: Have just done so, also emailed them to point out the errors of their ways. Some of their offices have 01 numbers:- http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/offices Well done derrick for your continued tireless efforts in this regard and for bringing the offenders to book.  I will be interested to hear what the ASA has to say in due course.

Update from ASA: -

"Dear Mr........

YOUR COMPLAINT ABOUT LINDER MYERS LLP

Thank you for contacting the ASA and for your patience while we have assessed your complaint.

After assessing the ad and your complaint, we have decided to refer it on to our Investigations Team for further examination.  They will be in contact with you in due course.  We appreciate your continued patience in the meantime.


Thank you for contacting us.

Yours sincerely

.........

Complaints Executive


Advertising Standards Authority

Mid City Place, 71 High Holborn

London WC1V 6QT

Telephone 020 7492 2222

www.asa.org.uk"



Linder Myers are still calling 0844 local rate on their site.


.

Update from the ASA: -

"Dear Mr ******

Your complaint

We have considered your complaint and we will take it up with the advertisers, Linder Myers LLP.

We intend to deal with your complaint under our formal investigations procedure, which means that we will ask Linder Myers LLP to comment on the complaint [and send evidence to support the claims]. We will then draft a recommendation and refer your complaint to the ASA Council for adjudication. You will have an opportunity to comment on the recommendation before it is considered by the Council. Once the Council has made a decision, the adjudication will be published on our website.

Once the advertiser responds to us we will decide the next steps for the case. In some cases we are able to draft a recommendation following the advertiser's initial response. However, we might require further information from the advertiser, to obtain a view from a third party, or, if the advertiser responds to your complaint by offering to change the advertising in a way that resolves your concerns, we may close the case without referring it to Council or publishing an adjudication. This has the advantage of resolving your complaint more quickly.

Whatever stage the case is at, we will contact you again in three weeks' time with an update on how your case is progressing. Please note that we can, in some cases, grant a short extension to the advertiser for their response. If we do grant an extension, we will let you know when we update you."



In the same envelope there was another letter with the same content addressed to another complainant, I have informed the ASA about this.

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derrick wrote on Sep 20^th, 2013 at 1:09pm:

We intend to deal with your complaint under our formal investigations procedure, which means that we will ask Linder Myers LLP to comment on the complaint [and send evidence to support the claims]. We will then draft a recommendation and refer your complaint to the ASA Council for adjudication. You will have an opportunity to comment on the recommendation before it is considered by the Council. Once the Council has made a decision, the adjudication will be published on our website..

Well done Derrick.

I look forward to reading the next instlament in due course as when and the solicitors have prepared their defence without being able to bill a client for doing so. ;) ;D

Have just received the following from the ASA:

Dear Mr ******
Your complaint about Linder Myers LLP
Further to my letter of 18 September, we have now received a response from Linder Myers LLP, who have removed the page referred to in the complaint from their website. We consider that this resolves the complaint without referring the matter to the ASA Council, and will consequently be closing our file.

Linder Myers LLP have also asked us to pass on their apologies for any confusion caused, and have offered to reimburse you for any financial loss caused by making contact with them. Please contact them directly for further information about this.

In a formal investigation, if the ASA Council decides that an ad is in breach of the Code, the advertisers are told to withdraw or amend it. Because Linder Myers LLP have already withdrawn the advertising you complained about, we consider there is little to be gained from continuing with a formal investigation, which would achieve that same outcome.

Although we will not publish full details of your complaint on our website, www.asa.org.uk, basic information including the advertiser's name and where the ad appeared will appear on Wednesday 9 October.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to raise the matter with us. If you would like more information about what we do and the ads we have found in breach of the Code, please have a look on our website.
Yours sincerely



However I have been onto Linder Myers site and they have not removed the "local rate" references.

I have sent an email to the ASA requesting they do not close the case until all references to "local rate" are removed:-

When you click on the link I first supplied re this matter http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers you get " 404 Page Not Found
Page could not be found
We're sorry but the page you are looking for could not be found.
You could try searching the site for the content or browsing from the home page."

But still, "Call us now 0844 984 6444 Local rates apply "



If you then click on "Contact us" then "our offices", you get this page, http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/offices which also states, "Call us now 0844 984 6000 Local rates apply".



.

Priceless! You couldn't make it up.

I have to say I found a similar level of competence at the ASA when I made a complaint about an insurance company. In my case they never managed to master the sums involved in calculating a no claims discount.

derrick wrote on Oct 1^st, 2013 at 12:42pm:

When you click on the link I first supplied re this matter http://www.lindermyers.co.uk/0844numbers you get " 404 Page Not Found

For information, the Wayback Machine archived that page on 18th March 2013 here.

Further response from the ASA dated 01-10-13: -

"Good afternoon Mr ******,

Many thanks for your further email.  In light of it, we have written again to Linder Myers LLP asking them to completely remove the claim “Local rates apply” from their website.  If they do not provide their assurance that they will do so, we will reopen the case.  I will keep you updated on the progress of the case.

Best regards,"


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derrick wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2013 at 10:46am:

Many thanks for your further email.  In light of it, we have written again to Linder Myers LLP asking them to completely remove the claim “Local rates apply” from their website.  If they do not provide their assurance that they will do so, we will reopen the case.  I will keep you updated on the progress of the case"

So the ASA prove as weak as water once again.  If a solicitor isn't going to be presumed to automatically know the law and thus being especially deserving of a zero tolerance approach towards deliberate price misdescription issues then I don't know who the ASA are ever going to really to take to task in this area. :( :'(

The background of the Linder Myers Twitter page quotes the 0844 number under which it states, yes you've guessed it, "local rate number". ::)

Dave wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2013 at 8:46pm:

The background of the Linder Myers Twitter page quotes the 0844 number under which it states, yes you've guessed it, "local rate number". ::)

As the interest of most solicitors specialising in the civil law in their clients is usually solely financial I suppose it should come as no surprise that they try to stitch them up for another hidden fee even for getting in touch with them to discuss how much their much larger hourly rates will be. :o >:( :'(

Latest update from the ASA, sent to me yesterday but only opened a few minutes ago:-

Good afternoon Mr *****,

As per my email below, I wrote to the advertiser requesting that he removed the remaining “local rates apply” claims.  Having checked today, they appear to have been removed from the website and we will therefore not reopen this case.

Please let me know if you have any further concerns.

Many thanks,

I can now find no reference on the site describing 0844 as "local rate applies", in fact no advise on cost at all! Aren't they supposed to provide cost information on revenue sharing numbers?


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derrick wrote on Oct 4^th, 2013 at 12:04pm:

I can now find no reference on the site describing 0844 as "local rate applies", in fact no advise on cost at all! Aren't they supposed to provide cost information on revenue sharing numbers?

I think they need to provide price information to comply with an ASA guidance on 0844 numbers.  They just aren't caught by the statutory PhonePayPlus rules for 0871 numbers regardless of whether the material is advertising or not.

Have you considered also complaining to the Solicitors Regulation Authority about the misbehaviour of these solicitors in misdescribing the costs of telephoning them?

The Solicitors Regulation Authority appear to have an 0870 number to contact them from "within the UK".  However the do give an 01 number for non UK contact, which one assumes can be dialled from within the UK.

Interestingly they give a link to Ofcom to advise of the call charges.

:-/

CAP have published  this advice for Non Broadcast Advertisers.

http://www.cap.org.uk/Advice-Training-on-the-rules/Advice-Online-Database/Chargeable-08-numbers-General.aspx

A bit out-of-date though - it states "BT’s most popular residential package, Unlimited Weekend Plan" when we know the Anytime plan, or whatever it's now called, is the most popular.

Heinz wrote on Oct 5^th, 2013 at 7:45am:

A bit out-of-date though - it states "BT’s most popular residential package, Unlimited Weekend Plan" when we know the Anytime plan, or whatever it's now called, is the most popular.

For 0844  it  says " CAP understands that BT Anytime is the most popular call plan in the UK. On that basis, we recommend that marcoms should include pricing information that states the cost or price per minute (ppm) of an 0843/0844 call to BT customers on that plan, and explain that mobile and other providers’ charges may vary "

derrick wrote on Oct 4^th, 2013 at 12:04pm:

Aren't they supposed to provide cost information on revenue sharing numbers?

According to the cap advice see above it recommends they do.

It also mentions that whether ads quoting NTS numbers must include pricing information to comply with the Distance Selling Regulations is open to debate: the question has not been tested in court.

bigjohn wrote on Oct 5^th, 2013 at 8:25am:

derrick wrote on Oct 4th, 2013 at 12:04pm: Aren't they supposed to provide cost information on revenue sharing numbers? According to the cap advice see above it recommends they do.

They are only recommendations, plus the use of the word "should", therefore I doubt the ASA or anyone, will be interested as they are not mandatory.

.

derrick wrote on Oct 5^th, 2013 at 11:42am:

They are only recommendations, plus the use of the word "should", therefore I doubt the ASA or anyone, will be interested as they are not mandatory

Solicitors Regulation Authority might care as a solicitor is meant to be above board, legal, decent and honest and complying with Best Practice in all that they do.

If nothing else you might cause this solicitor a lot of embarrassment by complaining and they might well add a call cost price indication to avoid any more hassle and/or to get the SRA to discontinue its investigation.

Come on Derrick I know you have far more resolve than the rest of us to take these telecoms leeches to task.

bigjohn wrote on Oct 5^th, 2013 at 8:16am:

Heinz wrote on Oct 5th, 2013 at 7:45am: A bit out-of-date though - it states "BT’s most popular residential package, Unlimited Weekend Plan" when we know the Anytime plan, or whatever it's now called, is the most popular. For 0844  it  says " CAP understands that BT Anytime is the most popular call plan in the UK. On that basis, we recommend that marcoms should include pricing information that states the cost or price per minute (ppm) of an 0843/0844 call to BT customers on that plan, and explain that mobile and other providers’ charges may vary "

All of the CAP advice should have been updated to refer to "BT Anytime", not "BT Weekends". If they have missed a particular case, please let them know (or send me the specific reference) and I am sure that it will be corrected.

Whilst the CAP advice is not a code of regulation which demands compliance, it forms an important basis for determinations by the ASA, as to whether a particular piece of published information is "legal, decent, honest and truthful". It is therefore reasonable to assume that an explicit failure to follow CAP guidance will prompt appropriate action by the ASA.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Oct 5^th, 2013 at 12:37pm:

Whilst the CAP advice is not a code of regulation which demands compliance, it forms an important basis for determinations by the ASA, as to whether a particular piece of published information is "legal, decent, honest and truthful". It is therefore reasonable to assume that an explicit failure to follow CAP guidance will prompt appropriate action by the ASA.

And of course one would naturally expect any claim made by a Solicitor of all people to be "legal, decent, honest and truthful" ;) ::)

Which reminds me of the old joke which asks how you can tell when a politician estate agent journalist solicitor is lying (his lips move).

Oh dear they have some financial problems.

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/linder-myers-set-for-administration-as-buyer-sought/5039781.article

Poor dears  :'(  no wonder their Clients had to help them pay for their phone system, my heart bleeds for them, not!!

I never yet met a commercial solicitor who could not afford either a very sharp suit or had a car more than a year or two old.  There are criminal solicitors out there representing defendants in magistrates courts who genuinely do the job out of a passion for their profession rather than because it is normally an easy way to make a lot of money (as it nearly always is for solicitors operating only in the civil law area).

Also now these solicitors are LLPs (Limited Liability Partnerships) will they simply wind up this Linder Myers and write off its debts and then start up Linder Myers 2 at the same address with the same staff.......................