Since elsewhere on their site Planetnumbers make this claim:

<Our 0870 and 08700 numbers enable people to call you from anywhere in the UK for the price of a normal national rate call>

..perhaps they should be investigated by Trading Standards (also customers of theirs, apparently!)

Quote:


But 'national rate call' surely means that the call will be charged at the same rate as a call to a national geographic number.  'National Rate' is not the correct terminology for an 0870 number, and if it is used as a price indication to the consumer, it is likely to mislead.  Even if 'national rate' were to have a technical meaning within the industry which is at odds with its ordinary meaning, all the case law shows that an offence is committed where the ordinary consumer (the reasonable person or 'man on the Clapham omnibus') is likely to be misled.

The correct terminology is 'Special Services Higher Rate', and this is not misleading.

Quite right too - it is plainly misleading, and all the more so in this this case since the company in question refers to a "normal" national rate call.

What “planet numbers” actually said on the web is as follows:

“Our 0870 and 08700 numbers enable people to call you from anywhere in the UK for the price of a normal national rate call, giving your business nationwide coverage without the need to invest in a local branch network. Simply choose your number from our range of numbers, and our network will deliver calls to your chosen destination - call centre, sales team or service desk. Callers only pay for a national call (included on their normal bill).”

0845
Callers pay a local rate call charge from anywhere in the UK when calling an 0845 number: 3.36p per minute daytimes, and 1.4ppm at all other times - this is half the price of a national rate call.
By advertising an 0845 number you appear "local" on a nationwide scale, and reduce the barrier customers can put up when dialing a number outside of their local area.

Which, on the face of it, is a clear breach of part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1987.

See reply #4 by jrawle above.

Untrue or misleading statements made on one page are not excused by other statements made on other pages.

I have printed a copy of the web page, and I have contacted my local Trading Standards Office and intend to make a formal complaint to them unless the misleading statements are removed within 7 days.

Your description of 0845 and 0870 numbers as “local rate” and “national rate” numbers respectively; and that 0845 numbers are “half the cost of national rate numbers” is to my mine the most misleading (and untrue) element of the statements made.

The statements give the impression that dialling an 0845 number costs the same as dialling “a local number”.  We no longer have “local rate numbers” just the de facto BT UK New National Rate of 3p/min.  But in many cases subscribers pay a lot less than 3p/min, during the day to dial an 01 or 02 number, those subscribers may well be mislead into believing that 0845 numbers cost no more than their usual calls. 
The statement is untrue and misleading, in that it gives the impression that there is a difference between “Local” and “National calls”, when in practice, none exists; both cost the same.

The statement made regarding the cost of 0870 numbers in relation to the cost of “national rate calls” is again misleading.  At the very least 0870 numbers cost 133% more than “national rate numbers”.   The BT UK New National Rate is 3p/min.  The statement made may mislead a caller into believing that 0870 number cost the same as 01 or 02 calls.

01 or 02 numbers, during the day, cost  from 3p/min to 0p/min (depending on the caller's telecom provider)
0845 numbers, during the day, cost from 3p/min to 4p/min
0870 numbers, during the day, cost from 7.5p/min to 10pmin (depending on the caller's telecom provider)

0870 and 0845 are both excluded from all low cost call options.

From a Pay phone:  01 or 02 cost 10p for 7.5 min, and both 0870 and 0845 cost 10p for 55 seconds, both 24/7 (subject to 10p connection fee and 30p min cost)

I agree NGM, their whole objective is to mislead both their customers and consumers from start to finish, and even when they are caught with their trousers down they still attempt to deny everything.

However kk, the ratio which you quote for the difference in call cost is I think no longer true nor representative. The problem is that now you have providers like 18866 offering calls at 0 p per minute the ratio of the call cost difference is directly proportional to the duration of the call. Since this scam is really all about generating lots of revenue from call queuing this is of paramount importance. As therefore most of these calls tend to be long calls the cost difference can be very large. If you call a 0870 number during the day for say 50 minutes with 18866 the ratio of the difference in call cost can be 500 times or more (using a cost of 10 p per minute for the highest 0870 call cost!) It is in fact roughly a ratio of 10 X per minute of the call duration.

and for 0845, this is BT's statement:

"...gives your customers a local call rate number, presenting them with an incentive to contact you."