NGMsGhost wrote on Nov 7
th, 2006 at 5:45pm:
It is only a widespread practice because useless Ofcom created a system where for ages callers didn't realise they were paying extra.
That's exactly it.
If there are legitimate reasons for having these numbers then that is fine for which we can't do nothing about but what I find is that in general consumers don't know they are in fact ringing a number where the end company is earning money (in most cases) from each minute we are on the phone to them.
Even the 0871 is going to be rebranded without the use of "premium" so it seems just so consumers still have no idea they are ringing a premium rate number and this is all thanks to Ofcom who are constantly putting teleco's (and companies) and the money they make first in front of us joe public.
If Ofcom wanted to be fair about this from both our (consumer) point of view and that of teleco's and companies then at the very least Ofcom should admit and announce that 084x/087x are in fact premium rate albeit lower amount than 09x but yet 09x are regulated to prevent misuse and abuse (in most cases) compared to 084x/087x numbers which aren't.
Imagine if Ofcom did the very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very unusual step of putting us consumers first and did make an announcement that 084x/087x are in fact stealth premium rate numbers, just how many companies would continue to use them? I can imagine most would be forced to use geographical numbers or the new 03x simply because the amount of customers that would complain.