FAX GOING....

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
Millbank Tower
Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP


Message

Dear Sir / Madam

Use of Premium rate telephone numbers
Why do you insist on using a premium rate 0845 telephone number, yet you can still provide a geographical telephone number for your fax machine which I am using now?

0845 numbers are not ‘local rate’ as is commonly thought.  The distinction between ‘national’ and ‘local rate doesn’t exist anymore. They are also specifically precluded from ‘fixed rate’ all inclusive telephone calling plans and are often hideously expensive to ring from mobile telephones.

I find it unacceptable that you would wish to profit by way of ‘kick-back’ revenue from members of the public using the phone to make a complaint about one of the other numerous government departments or NHS that also use ‘premium rate’ revenue generating numbers.

Sending you this fax is free of charge because you have provided a geographical number, but if I rang you on your 0845 number, it would cost me money – including both holding and transfer time.  Not good or fair.

Please change your advertised 0845 to a geographical number beginning 020.  You can do it for your fax machine, so why not for your main number?


                                   Yours faithfully




           

I have amended my fax and it has now been sent.  I have modified the posting so you can all see what I have sent.  I shall keep my powder dry....I will use the links to the ASA etc when I get the inevitable reply which either disregards everything I say or comes up with the usual nonsense that it's a local rate call....

Alt

Quote:


Whenever I have occasion to call the Halifax I always use their callback service.  I can confirm that it works for savings and insurance. In case the of the latter it is insurance sales, but they will put you through to, say, renewals.

By the way, Halifax insurance correspondence gives contact details similar to the Ombudsman: 0845 for calls and a geog. number for faxes. However, this can be bypassed using the callback service.

mikeinnc wrote on Nov 11^th, 2006 at 10:06pm:


I just phoned them up on their geographical number to ask if they had a policy of discouraging or preventing calls that don't use the 0870 number, like Alliance and Leicester. I was told they had no problem with use of the geographical number and the person I was talking to said that in any case he couldn't tell which number I'd called on.

He also helpfully suggested that if I couldn't find the geographical number I could look it up on a website called "Ihate0870.com" or something like that!

I'm sure everyone will say there is never any excuse for using an 0870 number nowadays but to be fair to smile there is the slight benefit that their number is easily memorable - 0870 THE BANK (with THE BANK equating to their number 843 2265). If you had to contact them in an emergency and had no way of looking up their number you might be grateful that you could remember even the 0870 number. Your first question when they answered, of course, might be "What's the geographical number?"