Three cheers for ink4-u
You're a hero.
It just goes to show how much of this stuff is driven by willful misinformation. My hunch is it all goes back to BT and the recalcitrant way they've held on to local call revenue and the peculiar piecemeal way they've accepted change slowly but surely over the years.
Certainly, for a business that wants to oblige its customers the simply inclusion of a geographic number along with whatever other weird and wonderful numbers they want to employ is all this contributor to saynoto0870.com would ask. That way I get to choose.
The use of 0800 freefone numbers is part of business culture in the states. It is thought to increase customer calls and hence sales. The attitutude in general towards consumers in this country seems to me at least to be quite different.
It would be really great if all businesses would be as kind as ink4-u, and, at least if they don't want to give us convenient 0800 numbers, give the general public a choice between a non-geographic number, with all its supposed benefits of more efficient customer service through call distribution, and a geographic one, even if it
does mean, in some cases, putting up with some busy signals from time to time.
If consumer choice is such a big thing, let's have the choice when it really matters!
And remember, never attribute to malice, what can be adequately explained by...misinformation.