Quote:


You mean this letter as rushing out to buy a Daily Telegraph would appear unnecessary:-

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?menuId=1588&menuItemId=-1&...

Good letter although it seems to be more of an attack on the quality of Police information available at these call centres rather than primarily an attack on the 08x/087x scam.

I remember quite distinctly that when I spoke to the British Embassy in New York to complain about the 0870 number listed on Saturday that the guy on the phone had a couldn't care whethere I lived or died attitude, even though the people he was speaking to might well have included victims of the bereaved or injured.

I have just received this reply from someone at the Cabinet Office in relation to the complaint I filed on the DirectGov website - www.direct.gov.uk - about their listing of the 0870 Met Police Casualty Bureau number.  Note that even now they still don't list the 020 number on the DirectGov website even though they claim that they hope such numbers will soon be "phased out".

From this reply it would appear that the Cabinet Office believe they have no say in the number used by the Police for this incident so it seems that Mr Blair and his Cabinet colleagues are clearly a lot less powerful than I had foolishly previously imagined them to be.  So I wonder who is really running the country then? ???


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

From: Stephen.Churchill@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk
[mailto:Stephen.Churchill@cabinet-office.gsi.gov.uk]
Sent: 12 July 2005 09:56
Subject: Re: Directgov - 0870 number?

Thank you for your email.

Directgov is a UK government website providing information and advice about
a wide range of public services.

The 0870 number published is the one issued by the Metropolitan Police Casualty Bureau for this series of incidents, which we therefore have no say in. We have reason to believe that they will be phasing this out in the near future for an 0800 number, and once they have done so we will obviously change this on our site. You would need to contact the Metropolitan Police themselves to query them as to their reason for using this number though.

http://www.met.police.uk/contacts/

Regards
Stephen Churchill
Directgov Helpdesk Team

Quote:


You are kidding surely.  I would have thought having worked at senior level for BT would automatically disbar one from such a supposedly indepenedent and advisory position.

Since the pay for this role is peanuts one wonders what the motivation is?  Unless of course it is looking after the value of one's shares in BT?

[quote author=NonGeographicalMan You are kidding surely.   [/quote]

No Mr Derek Hilton was the former head of BT UK Central Region.I notice he declares his BT Shares,but no reference is made about a BT Pension or a deferred one.

Quote:


Having a BT Pension would not I believe count as an interest that needs to be declared for such a post?

I have just received this amazing reply from the below gentleman at the Red Cross.

Although clearly he has no brain of his own and just absorbs the content of BT salesmen 0870 propaganda sheets perhaps you would care to email him or his boss (mastarita@redcross.org.uk) to try to set the record straight.  I am rapidly beginning to run out of energy with keeping up the struggle with these imbeciles.

Yesterday Mr Verden maintained on the phone that the Red Cross did not get a revenue share on their 0870 number although I note that in the reply below he clearly seems to be backtracking on this.

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Verden [mailto:RVerden@redcross.org.uk]
Sent: 12 July 2005 10:12
Cc: Mark Astarita; Nicholas Young; Phil Talbot; Tania Cohen
Subject: London Bombings Donation Line

Thank you for your e-mails of yesterday and the opportunity to discuss your concerns in our telephone conversation.

To highlight the key areas:

We use an 0870 number as it gives us the flexibility to divert calls to different call centres and manage our call volume. It effectively enables us to filter between multiple sites at times of emergency and peak activity. In addition with our main switchboard we similarly use an 0870 number so that it can be diverted to a different location(s) and manage call volumes if required.

The primary aim in using the 0870 number is not as an income generator and we do not attempt to inflate the cost of the call. The revenue that comes to the British Red Cross is used to offset some of the cost of running the donation line.

We will review best practice and advice regarding the use of 0870 numbers (and similar) and also following your comments will certainly look into viable alternatives and indeed the ethical options you referred to.

I trust this goes some way to addressing your concerns.

Yours sincerely

Richard Verden

OK I found the energy from somewhere.

Here is my reply to Mr Verden at the Red Cross.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 12 July 2005 12:58
To: RVerden@redcross.org.uk
Cc: Mark Astarita; Nicholas Young; Phil Talbot; Tania Cohen;
pcollier@redcross.org.uk; alyons@redcross.org.uk;
wslater@redcross.org.uk
Subject: Absurd Attempt to Defend Red Cross Use of 0870 for Bombings
Donation Line

Dear Mr Verden,

Thank you for your email.  I do not intend to waste too much more of my time on you since you quite clearly do not have an open mind of your own capable of understanding these kinds of issues and instead are only capable of handing out the contents of outdated stock BT 0870 salesmen propaganda sheets.  I find the content of your reply to be simply quite incredible in view of the fire which the Police and the Home Office have come under over precisely this same issue.  But perhaps you and Ms Hazel Blears at the home officer really should consider meeting for lunch as you both seem to share the same altered sense of reality of the universe.

With regards to your comments about call filtering between different sites and call logging stats etc this is clearly utter garbage as the NTS system provides precisely the same facilities on an 0800 number or a 1p per minute at all times 0844 number.  In addition all the facilities that you mention can also be provided on a conventional geographic London 020 number by hooking it through into an NTS type call logging system.  In reality the only reason the Red Cross use 0870 is because you seem to believe the nonsense presumably quoted to you by the original BT salespeople that you can easily scam your supporters by claiming 0870 was the ordinary BT national rate whilst subsidising operating costs that should be paid for out of the donations made and/or from the main Red Cross budget.  Your response also makes no attempt to tackle ASA guidance that you must clearly show what the cost of these calls is per minute because it is not the BT standard call rate for normal phone calls.  I also note that when we spoke yesterday you maintained wholly inaccurately that the Red Cross does not get a revenue share on its 0870 number but your email response today now quite clearly admits that it does get such a revenue share.

The Red Cross quite clearly has precisely no concern whatsoever for either best practice or being unethical or you would not be using an 0870 number for your donation line and your main switchboard.  Your comments about using 0870 to route calls to different locations are also rendered senseless by the fact that the geographic phone numbers of your individual branches are all still listed by BT.  But perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that as no doubt you and the great BT 0870 money making machine will now attempt to close out this loophole.

Lastly I am very disappointed that I have not received a reply on this matter from your Chief Executive.

Regards,

The BBC are still advertising the 0870 casualty helpline number on CEEFAX with a note asking people to be patient.