The BBC are incorrectly stating in a news article today at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4401900.stm (towards the end) that 0870 is national rate. I've submitted a factual error report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3950000/newsid_3955200/3955259.st... pointing out that 0870 is not national rate. The BBC do update factual errors if enough people point them out. Perhaps if everyone could spend a minute doing this, they might correct the article to perhaps say "premium rate 0870 number" or "revenue generating 0870 number".

Just posted my complaint.

ditto

I'm another who has responded using the BBC link you have so thoughtfully provided.

This is foremost a matter of public perception - I reckon that only one in ten people I meet from day to day are aware of the premium-rate nature of 087/084 numbers.  That's only 10% of the public who share our "perception".  Somehow, we must up that percentage.

The BBC is virtually the best mouthpiece we've got.  Let's use it for all we're worth.

If you had tried to probe the 0870 issue with the BBC as much as I have you would come to realise they are unrepentant quite deliberate serial liars and abusers on the matter of 0870 and in fact in my opinion are the biggest and/or highest profile abusers of 0870 in the UK.

They have endless lines using 0870, including their main BBC Information that takes thousands of listener calls a day.  The staff in this call centre alway claim 0870 is the BT national rate if challenged.  I pushed one of these people very hard one day that surely he wasn't that stupid and that when he went home and picked up his own phone in Belfast he knew perfectly well that 0870 cost loads of money.  Under pressure he cracked and admitted of course he knew this but it was part of his training by Capita Call Ripoffs Inc to always tell callers who complained that 0870 was just the BT National Rate call. And of course thanks to the useless Ofcom they can actually claim it is BT National Rate as indeed it still is on the BT Standard Tariff paid by only Light User customers.

I have pursued the BBC very hard over the BBC Coast series which repeatedly rammed 0870 numbers to be called from mobile phones down viewers throats.  BBC Information at various levels made various trite responses about there being other ways to get the information from their website etc and that one didn't have to call the 0870 number on their coastal walks, even though in fact one would come across huge signs promoting the 0870 number several times during those walks.

Having exhausted all customer service channels on the 0870 issue at the BBC I am about to complain about the BBC Coast's program to the Governors Complaints Committee.  I will probably take up the more general issue of the BBC's overall use of 0870 at the same time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_process.shtml#new

But anyhow since the ASA Stop the Call Confusion Guidance the official BBC position is to not quote a call price at all, since broadcast media are not covered by Stop the Call Confusion requiring cost to be quoted in adverts, but the BBC do now seem to have got a vague inkling that using the term National Rate is no longer publicly acceptable.  However the brain washed culture of lying about 0870 at the BBC is so deep and ingrained that its very hard indeed to get them out of the habit.  And what's the betting that if 0870 is changed to geographic rates the BBC will then move over to 0845>

I think a majority part of the BBC, its employees, its associates and their employees, are merely reflecting the fog that has been generated for years on this issue aimed at defrauding the general public. If your average Call Centre employee knows no better and is (deliberately?) not trained better then clearly their replies are going to be woolly or just plain wrong. Such employees are not encouraged to think for themselves. How would anyone know the difference between 'national', 'trunk', 'standard', 'universal', 'normal', 'general', and other similar words.

However if we must have a word to describe rates, 'premium' has struck a chord with people effectively, through premium rate sex lines, unsolicited reverse-charge text messages, scam switching internet diallers etc. That’s why it has been encouraging of late to see London BBC TV local news describe 0870 as premium, and of course, we have the BBC Watchdog climbdown. We are not likely to get much better publicity on this issue than on BBC1 television at 7pm in the evening, although as a consumer programme they did miss a golden opportunity to expand their change of number into an item to explain why they were changing their contact number from an 0870 and exactly what difference it will mean. We will see what mention is made of this on the more specialised Money programme 'The Great Phone Call Con' this Friday 11th Nov BBC2 at 7pm, although the previews do suggest they are examining just the premium rate issues as defined above.

The other part of BBC and its associates DOES know exactly what they're doing and saying re 0870 numbers.
You're right I guess it does have to be mainly management. Now that we are beginning to hit home in some areas, we need to expose the management in the other areas for the hypocrites they are.

And as we hit home the number of other ways to describe 0870 rates is actually increasing:
to mix metaphors  - if the fog thins, generate more wool!

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Steady on the champagne there as they are still using an 0870 number.

However the BBC's various program teams do seem to be slowly getting the message that they cannot go on using the term National Rate.  But unfortunately it seems to be erratic and some parts of the BBC are still continuing with the National Rate lie.

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The BBC are only trying to follow the ASA's Stop the Call Confusion guidance which only asks that the maximum call cost from a BT landline to 0870 be quoted.

Suggest you complain to Virgin about why they charge extra for 0870, although I would have to say that as mobile phone operators go being asked to pay 10p per minute for calling 0870 is cheap!

After all they aren't charging any more in the weekday daytime than the Post Office are for their landline service.