Heinz wrote on Dec 9^th, 2006 at 8:20pm:


I couldn't agree more.  The only problem is that the Tory party is now led by someone specialising in precisely the same vacuous techniques.

I arrived home tonight to find a mailing saying that the Tory Party will be having a new weekly national lottery and that the jackpot will be a stunning £1,000

But incredibly they have managed to spin themselves into believing that their party members are all just going to be falling over themselves to buy tickets in the same way as the real National Lottery.  Even if the £1,000 rather than £20,000,000 prize were not enough of a deterrent you would think they might have figured out that crusty church going Tory party members are on the whole precisely the kind of people who do not in the main buy tickets in the National Lottery.

Icstis are still claiming that 0845 numbers are local rate on their website.  A few examples

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT)
0845 050 1614 (Local rate)

Office of the Telecocommunications Ombudsum (OTEB)
0845 050 1614  (Local rate)

Telephone Preference Service (TPS)
0845 070 0707 (Local rate)

It beggers belief that the people in charge have no idea.

Well just noticed that ICSTIS state that 084 is local and 087 is national rate in their pdf brochure here which comes under the heading, 'Consumer Guide to protecting yourself against Premium rate scams'.

I found it in on their Consumer Publications webpage.

Look at last page (bottom left hand side) - it reads:

Quote:

derrick wrote on Apr 25^th, 2007 at 3:27pm:


The phrase "its like putting the kids in charge of the sweet shop" springs to mind for some strange reason.

Just look at Ofcom's new "Communications Director".  He joins them hotfoot from a job at principal 0870 scammer boys BSkyB.........

PremiumRateFighter wrote on May 23^rd, 2007 at 9:24am:


ICSTIS is merely a body for legalising the existing of as many of these scamming lines as possible and only takes action against the behaviour of its most extreme and out of control members.

I hope you will be responding to their current consultation on their future regulation of 0871 numbers saying it is outrageous they propose no maximum queuing time on hold.  Also that it is outrageous that the number range is to be allowe to remain as 0871 and not forced to change to an 09 prefixed code.

PremiumRateFighter wrote on May 24^th, 2007 at 5:04pm:


Complaining quite often works with those who have made a genuine error throught stupidity and ignorance (undoubtedly the case with the ICSTIS person who wrote this and is clearly working in the wrong job if they aren't interested in telecoms prices) but as fast as we correct one set of sp called "errors" new "errors" emerge because the whole 084/7 system is inherently crooked and designed to stop people realising easily and automatically that these are are Premium Rate numbers.

The only thing that would stop this would be forcing all revenue share numbers to move to 09, all normal rate non geographic numbers to 03 and then 08 would then be returned to Freephone only.  There would then be no further confusion as to what is Premium Rate.

Heinz wrote on May 24^th, 2007 at 6:31pm:


I bet you don't bar Number Unavailable numbers or otherwise you would hardly hear from any UK businesses at all.

While admiring your principled stand it strikes me that you are rather cutting off your nose to spite your face here.

I certainly minimise 084 and 087 calls and always try to find the alternatives (including emailing if I  think there is any chance they may reply to the email) but if its an organisation I still need to deal with for other practical reasons then I do on rare occasions call them while always making sure to complain about the number and usually firing off an email pointing out the error of their ways to their Chief Executive.

Heinz wrote on May 24^th, 2007 at 8:03pm:

Heinz,

Even though I consider myself something of an extremist on the question of 084/7 numbers you carry the fight against these numbers to heights of extremism that I could not even begin to contemplate.

ACR would be no good to me since even calls from my mother using 1899 would be barred.  And to be honest about 75% of my daytime calls have no caller id so I know that taking your extreme position would mean that people I want to contact me simply could not.  Also it is usually not the fault of the person calling me that their company has number withheld or unavailable displayed.

Finaly ACR is a chargeable service so would render it out of the question from my point of view.