There have been over 1,000 views of this thread up until today. If just half of those people sent an opinion to Ofcom it might have some impact. But they won't as things stand. Why? Because it's too much hassle.

That's where this site comes in. The organisers and contributors have the expertise to make it easy for casual passersby to submit an opinion to Ofcom, without the need to go to all the trouble of reading the consultation documents. People looking at this site already know the issues - they don't need to read hundreds of pages of formal documents to have it explained to them.

So could I suggest that some kind and knowledgeable person sets up a new thread entitled "This is how you send your views on 0870 numbers to Ofcom" (or something along those lines).

The top message would provide two things:

(1) the email address to which a submission can be sent (It has to be email or nine out of ten won't bother)

(2) two (or at most three) of the main points to be made in a submission to Ofcom.

The message should be a maximum of 200 words, if that. Make it as easy as possible for the people who can contribute five minutes but no more.

Finally, remind people to be brief, clear and polite. Abusive, confused messages won't strengthen the case.

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Are we non-elected non-members able to go and  p*ss them off too? I'd enjoy that! For whom does one ask?

Do I get to meet Kip Meek? (especially if he's not asleep or, better still, is feeling abnormally combative...!)

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And with 10,000 numbers on each block, thus thousands of services on each block, how do they fight it out to set the 'price point' for that block?

Ofcom's other solution is to force the service providers to compete by providing different 'pricing points' on 0845/0870 numbers. What a load of rubbish! If they wanted to have different rates they would have chosen 0844/0871 numbers.

The fact is that the document acknowledges that businesses aren't really aware of what their customers are paying to call! Despite this, Ofcom seems insistant on giving them a 'choice' about what the caller pays!

Of course, the consumer doesn't really understand the current setup either, and that coupled with the fact that revenues are that small, it's really not worth companies spending too long 'thinking' about what type of number to use.

Businesses think it's a 'local rate' or 'national rate'. Therefore, I put it to Ofcom that it takes a hint and gives the service providers what they want; that is geographically priced calls on 0845/0870.

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Might work, but if they get hundreds of the same virtually word for word submissions then they wont take notice of them.

ive just about read thru 25% of the document, Its quite handy for getting to sleep at night, allthough I made the mistake of taking the whole doc to bed the first night, woke up with paper everywhere!

I will send in my submission shortly, I agree OfCon wont do anything.
ofcon.org.uk is Available to buy btw.

Dear All,

I wholeheartedly support the comments made by AJR below:

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But equally I disagree with mc661's response:

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Now I know I don't have the expertise or knowledge or experience of many of you, and I know its so easy to be cynical and defeatist, but what choise is there?  Either we try something or we don't, and if we don't wish to try to use this ofcom consultation as an opportunity, then why don't we just close down this whole site!!!

Surely, these consultations are the kind of opportunity that  this site is all about - surely it is the whole point of SAYNOTO0870 to  to try to use this consultation to assist and mobilise the widespread dissatisfaction with the misleading, expensive and just plain rip-off nature of the 0870/0845 etc.

I also disagree that the point that having a standard email complaint is telling people what to think.  Regular users of this site already know the issues but it takes time and effort to put this into sentences and write it all down - having  a set of keypoints (which people can of course add to) makes it easier to get things started.  People could be free to choose which parts of the standard submission they wish to use.

Taking MakeHistoryPoverty as a case in point,  I don't believe standardised complainst will be ignored by Ofcom, especially if the volume of them is high enough.  Such a campaign needs to make it crystal clear the problems of NGNs and also make suggestions for change.  Again, this is where the expertise of you guys come in.  If complaints begin to arrive in their 100s or even 1000s, Ofcom and others will have to start taking notice.

So starting a new thread "How YOU can AFFECT the future of 0870" or something sounds a great idea.  In addition, perhaps this could be linked up with Money Savings Expert where I'm sure there's many who believe in consumer power etc.  Perhaps too, reference could be made to this on sites like PleadgeBank.Com to try to further support.  Finally the viral email ideas that have been mentioned previously could also be employed.

If the deadline is this coming December, there isn't much time so we need to get going.  I for one am keen to complain and encourage others I know to do the same, and I'm sure I'm not alone...

Cheers
Garry

PS Its frustrating just talking about things but not actually doing anything so come on - what are we waiting for?

Thanks NGNMan for your reply.

The newbie in me has to admit I wasn't  fully aware of the earlier submissions to Ofcom, apart from references to it in this thread.

Nevertheless, definately sounds a good idea, having a pop-up window, a thread containing bullet points and links for further information, and a button to send it.

This would take the user probably a matter of minutes to make their point and submit it to Ofcom.  And if only a third of those who have viewed this thread were to do this, that would be 500 complaints to start with, and add to that a proportion of passing visitors seeking alternative numbers...who knows what numbers could be achieved.

Looking forward to seeing this take shape.......

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See also Say no to 0870! Hot Topics for some links to threads discussing this consultation.