I quote from a letter I have today received from Kelly Godwin of NatWest's central ServiceLine/Customer Relations Unit in response to my complaint that staff on their telephone banking Actionline were inaccurately claiming that 0845 calls were charged at BT local rate when I complained about the use of the 0845 number.

"I am sorry if you have been provided with conflicting information regarding the cost of calls that you make to the Bank.  I can confirm that if you are calling our 0845 numbers from a BT landline, the call will be charged at local rate.  However, if you are calling from another source the charge may differ and you would have to contact your your provider to confirm the actual cost of the call"

"It appears that the staff you have spoken to were not aware of these charges and I am sorry that this was the case. I have not been able to trace which members of staff you have spoken to you but I will pass the details of your complaint onto the Managers of our Telephony Centres asking them to provide training in this area".

So I complained that staff on the NatWest Actionline were claiming 0845 was BT Local Rate erroneously, she then assures me that 0845 is "local rate" and tells me the staff I spoke to "were not aware of these charges" and need training!  Incredible.

So do NatWest's Customer Relations staff in Borehamwood all have only one brain cell or what exactly. 

Time to take this up with Surrey Trading Standards quoting the Leicester Trading Standards article and Part III of the Consumer Protection Act 1987.  I suspect the latest ASA CAP guidance will not be relevant in this case.

I have also just received a letter from the FSA saying they are still investigating my complaint about their 0845 numbers for customers and businesses and the use of the words "local call rates" to describe them on their website.  They apologise for not responding in 30 days and say they need more time to look into this!

Just how long can it take them to investigate a simple matter!!  In the interim they continue to show "local call rates" on their website.

I copied my email to the Chief Executive but received an auto responder indicating he was on leave for 2 months.

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It's all right for some!

I'd just email them back and quote the 3 URL's above - all three of them basically state that local rate and national rate discriptions can no longer be used and you can no longer remain silent on the call costs either.

Don't mention that ASA/CAP guidelines don't apply though.

I believe it would be difficult for them to say 0845 is still local rate after quoting those 3 URL's unless the person is still in the dark ages and is one of these people that cannot except change.

Our main problem is that because for years 0845 and 0870 was local and national rate, it is very difficult for people to believe that this is no longer true - which to a certain degree I can accept that and without evidence to the contrary no one is simply going to take our word for it.

I have just emailed TV licensing over their use of 0870 and have quoted the three URL's I mentioned above so hopefully when they get round to looking into they will (reluctantly) agree to change their website accordingly otherwise I will take it further with their trading standards.

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I totally agree but we both know this isn't going to happen.

Remember though that most people are genuinely unaware that calls to 0845/0870 are misleading and calls for most people cost the same whether geograhical local or geographical national number.  Due to this lack of awareness and OfCOM reluctant do actually 'educate' these people then nothing is likely to change simply because most are unaware.

I plan on doing a generic email that will mention the misleading descriptions and remaining silent on call costs, etc is no longer allowed and pointing out the relevant websites for them to clarify this information and I'll send this to companies/gov depts that use these numbers.  Obviously to save my time, I'm going to concentrate on government depts more, followed by companies using 0871, then 0870, etc.

My main concern are gov funded depts that rip us off with 0870 numbers though.

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The excuse that I was given for it, Is that the calls are routed a call centre which answers for all the gov departments, and then routes back or gives you another number (in the case of ODPM). Oh and the usual call switch attacking excuse

Voip eh?

Sounds fun NGM 

Just pulling ya leg....

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I never said voip wasn't going to happen but just not at the speed you suggest.

There will only be a big incentive for people to make the move if they are allowed to do away with paying PSTN line rental to BT.  At the moment Ofcom appear to have no plans to require this.

Can anyone in uptodate Phone Tech confirm what multiplesystems has posted about previous Tech - if they could do that then surely Phone Tech hasn't gone into reverse - or is it just greedy Companies that have found a better way of fleecing their Customers instead of honestly putting up their Product Prices for All to see.

Also is there any Gov. ePetions to make the Gov. action all of the EU Directiv 19 - I think - not just the Card Section that is to be Actioned. - if there is could someone post a link and hopefully All on this Site and Friends will Sign