Received the following e-mail from Cahoot this morning, I have not put the capitals in.


Not me, I have fired off a reply telling them that the number is not local rate, I do not expect a reply.

Your new 0844 contact number (0844 9000 900) is charged at 4p/minute at all times by BT.

That is NOT 'local rate' as you have described it (BT's charges for calls to local numbers are 3p/minute during weekday, daytime and 5.5p for up to an hour evenings and weekends).

As you should be aware, the Advertising Standards Authority have specifically stated that firms should NOT use false descriptions of call charges such as 'lo-call', 'local rate' or 'national rate' and should specify exactly what the call charges are instead.

F.A.O. Mr John Goddard, Managing Director

I am aware that, following a complaint similar to mine of 6/5/06 (copied below) regarding the false 'LOCAL rate phone number' description of the cost of calls to 0844 9000 900 contained in your 5/5/06 e-mail, your Shahnaz Begum has replied to another customer by e-mail saying:-

"In response to your query regarding the new 0844 number I can confirm this is charged at the local rate of 3-4p per minute during the day and 1p per minute at the evenings and weekends. Please contact your service provider for further details on prices."

That information IS FALSE.

I have checked with my service provider (BT) and confirmed that the basis of my original complaint - that calls to 0844 9000 900 are charged at 4p per minute (incl. VAT) AT ALL TIMES - was correct.  If you refer to the BT Price List - http://www.downloads.bt.com/pricing/SpecialisedNos.pdf - you will see that they are charged at g11 rate.

I assume you will be sending another e-mail to all customers to whom you sent your 5/5/06 e-mail correcting the original false information, specifying the actual cost (in accordance with ASA guidance) and refuting the further false information given to at least one customer by a member of your staff - particularly about the alleged 1p/minute evening and weekend cost of calling the number.

Thank you for your correspondence, John Goddard is on annual leave at the moment, in his absence I would like to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail and assure you that we are looking into this and will get back to you as soon as we can.

Kind regards

> Chrissie Millington I PA to John Goddard I e-Commerce Channels
> T: 020 775 66230 I F: 020 775 66124 I L: TS 4B 21
> chrissie.millington@cahoot.com

I'm very excited to announce that we'll be launching the new cahoot website on May 8. We started by redesigning the homepage and product pages, and the secure banking pages will follow in a couple of weeks.

So why did we do it? Well, we've been doing some research over the last several months and customers like you have told us that our site could use a revamp. You said that we should make things easier to find, and, most importantly, simpler to understand. And you said we should more clearly explain the benefits and advantages of our market-leading products, which would allow you to compare us to other banks. So that's what we've done. Don't worry, there aren't any big complicated changes to get to grips with.  All we've done is a lot of listening and a small amount of programming to make the website clearer. We hope you like it.

We know you have many options when looking for a loan, savings account, credit card or current account and we're very happy you've chosen cahoot. We're always interested in understanding from you how we can improve our service, so if you have any ideas please give us a call on our NEW phone number 0844 9000 900 or email us through the 'contact us' section of your personal homepage.

Yours sincerely,

John Goddard
Managing Director

Who would you rather be in cahoots with?

Received the following e-mail from Cahoot this morning, I have not put the capitals in.



Not me, I have fired off a reply telling them that the number is not local rate, I do not expect a reply.

bendipa wrote on May 10^th, 2006 at 9:45pm:
Yes that is the number I ring, but as you say, they do try to con people and I thought it wise to let others know