The cynic in me (surely not!!!) would assume that if enough 'regulatory bodies' are established by Governments then ultimately it will always be possible to 'pass you on' and the circle will eventually be completed - back where you originally started.

Just as I wrote this a hospital appointment letter arrived for me from my local Infirmary, and if I do not like the appointment I can change by ringing "0845......(Local Rate)" !!

Might as well give up.

It would seem that Yell / Yellow Pages are particularly keen to encourage the view that 0845 numbers are nice and cheap to call.

A google search of yellow pages 0845 shows one result which is Yellow Pages Terms & Conditions. Scroll down that page and you'll see the Call Counter Programme gives Yell customers an 0845 number, so they can monitor usage/stats.

Maybe not such an error or accident on the part of YP to have these (non)advertisments splashed all over the book.

My local Yellow Pages from 2006/07 did not show the "Local call rates" rubbish.

However, this year it does show something similar. On the front cover in the bottom right there is a box that says "0845 = Low call rates", and refers the reader to the "Consumer Information" section:

Quote:


Within the listings there is the rubbish that "0845=Low call rates", with small print "Call charge from most landlines is 3p per minute, call charges may vary depending on network". This is in boxes to pad out where gaps would otherwise be. And they used to use these spaces to promote other sections within the Yellow Pages.

Whilst those local small businesses that use 0845 numbers are in the minority, there are certainly more than I would of expected. There are also quite a few that persist in lying about it being "local rate" or "low-call rate" or something similar.

It is also noticeable that there are far less 0870s than 0845s. It appears that 0845 is the new 0870!

As you will see from post I made to this threasd sometime ago I complained to Yellow Pages about this - to no effect! I think this is important as a vast number of people use Yellow Pages and the message was plastered in bold on about every other page that 0845 = Local Rate.

Up until the last post I assumed this was a cock up. After all everyone believe 0845 is local rate and I couldn't see any benefit to YP in doing this. However the last post shows there is a financial benefit to Yellow Pages to mislead. This is disgraceful. is there anything we can do.

Surely this is a complaint that can be made to the ASA? or even Trading Standards,(good luck with TS), however it is not the case in our YPs,

a very nice man wrote on Mar 7^th, 2007 at 7:23am:

That's funny because that thought did cross my mind when I was looking. Especially as quite a few quote "local rate" and that there must be some party that has perpetrated these lies (other than Ofcom and communications providers, that is).

Apart from all the misleading adverts, I think that the Yellow Pages is not misleading as such. They have replaced the word 'local' with the similar sounding 'low', which is, of course, subjective.

The size of the adverts shows that they were probably offered graphical ones in boxes rather than the plain listings.

I don't know about 0845 = Low call rates, but Yellow Pages = Rip off con merchants sounds better!

Keith wrote on Mar 7^th, 2007 at 10:32pm:

I am referring to the 2007/08 editions that state "0845 = Low call rate".

I understand that some of last year's (2006/07) showed "0845 = Local rate"

Mine says :- 0845=Local Call Rates
Note the plural, Rates.
Is this supposed to cloud the issue even further?