Hi All,
Although the recent publicity that was in several big newspapers and on TV as well is good for us so we can highlight the fact that 084x/087x numbers are premium rate numbers in disguise and very few consumers are aware of this, it does have a some drawbacks.
One of these drawbacks is that some numbers listed in the main
verified database, or as mentioned in any thread we have of a company/organisation/government department in the
Geographical Requests section you may unfortunately notice will no longer work.
The likely reason for this is that the company/organisation/government department concerned has gone through all the trouble of removing any such geographical number or freephone number so as to force you to ring their premium rate 084x/087x numbers instead so they can more than likely continue to earn revenue for every minute you are on the phone to them via their normal contact method (084x/087x). A perfect example of this is Sky and I'm sure a lot of other companies now check this site periodically and find out what, if any, geographical number have been found and take steps to remove this number.
I believe this is very underhanded of the company concerned as it costs them money to remove such a number from existence but shows how bad these companies actually are at wanting to keep these revenue-generating numbers and force you to ring them.
If anyone finds that a number that no longer works then please let us know so we can remove it. This can be done by one of several methods:-
- Posting in the relevant thread for that company concerned in the Geographical Requests section and mention which geographical/freephone number no longer works;
- or if no thread exists, create a new thread in the Geographical Requests section and mention the company name and geographical number/freephone that is no longer working
I believe the only way these companies will give-in or stop going through all the trouble of removing geographical numbers we may find, is to write a letter/e-mail the company concerned and complain.
Hopefully, if enough people ring then consumer-driven power may cause these companies to rethink their decision to have a stealth premium rate number.
Below is a (currently draft) letter/email you may wish to send to such a company who has deliberately removed their geographical numbers...
Pages: 1
Recent publicity (including Sample Letters) (Read 7,120 times)
