I got fed up of ringing them up and getting the usual "We dont have a geographical number" or "Whats That"... THEY WORK FOR AN ELECTRICAL GOODS COMPANY AND DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT A GEO NUMBER IS!!!!!!!!
So I sent a nice email, thanks to the pre-typed one but made a few alterations and sent it to them... hopefully they will respond, but I mean what I said, I would rather pay PC World's extortionate prices to have someone I can speak to for free over the counter...
Dear Sir(s),
Your Contact Number
Lately there has been a lot of newspaper articles and news items on TV about companies such as yourself that use numbers beginning 084x/087x.
In most cases a company using such numbers actually earns a revenue from each minute that us consumers are on the phone to you. This revenue you receive varies depending on the number but can be up to around 4p/min (higher in some high usage cases).
These numbers are commonly misleadingly advertised as 'local' or 'national' rate and Ofcom, the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and Trading Standards have agreed that describing any number beginning 084x/087x as either 'local rate' or 'national rate' is misleading. The reason is that the cost of the calling these numbers varies and in most cases costs more than a normal geographical (those beginning 01 or 02) calls. In fact, it can cost anywhere up to 40p/min (on some mobile networks) to ring these numbers.
The newspaper articles about the use of these numbers are available in the following links:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5405620.stm http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2389087,00.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=4086 60&in_page_id=1770
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005300000-2006460369,,00.html and a BBC news video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi?redirect=st.s tm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=5410232
I would hereby like to make a complaint about your number, 0871 521 33 00, and the fact that you are most likely are receiving revenue from us calling on these expensive numbers as mentioned in the above newspaper/TV articles. I would also like to make it clear that I will not be purchasing anything from yourselves and I will recommend my friends and family to do the same until you stop using this premium rate number...
Looking at your call stats, it states yesterday the longest wait was 12 minutes, If I had called from a mobile, through the day it would cost me £4.80 just to be put through to an adviser, then only to be put on hold again. I do not understand why you can’t put your geographical number on your website for customers like myself, who would rather pay extortionate prices at PC World than pay extortionate prices to listen to music for 12 minutes... and pay nearly £5 for the privilege!!!
Due to continuing use of these numbers, Ofcom has announced that a new number range beginning 03x should be available from January/February 2007. This new number range will offer the exact same facilities/network features like IVR (Interactive Voice Response), Intelligent Call Routings, etc that are available now on existing 084x/087x numbers EXCEPT these new numbers will not cost us consumers anymore money than a normal geographical call and will actually be free for us consumers that have inclusive call plans (the existing 084x/087x numbers in most cases isn't included in any plans).
I would also like to ask for your procedures for starting an internal review into the extortionate use of these numbers
Yours faithfully
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E-Mail sent to E-Buyer (Read 29,988 times)
