Quote:Although the 0845, standard national (01/02) or other number was dialled the call was stripped out during the billing process. The details were 'dumped' into a special holiding account for internal accounting purposes but the caller was never charged.
This was to ensure that the bill payer would not see calls made to such helplines which could lead to problems in the home.
If this was their objective they would have used an 0800 number which achieves exactly the end you suggest on a number marketed as free.
It is more likely The Samaritans were not charged because they have a special deal where they get the whole revenue share on their 0845 or 0870 calls because they are an especially worthy charity. It would have been the usual con where their stupid marketing director was persuaded these were only ordinary local and national calls and of course they needed the money.
What you say about 0845 calls makes no sense. 0845 calls are charged and itemised to the caller in every case.
I tried pursuing this with The Samaritans a while ago but they were totally evasive and unhelpful over the matter. They used the worst kind of avoid the truth tactics so favoured by the worst 0845 and 0870 call centre scammers.