Sadly there is not alot more you can do to pursue this. In future the best thing you can do if you do do business with companies that persist with these expensive numbers is visit this site to see if there is an alternative listed.

Had you spent money on your credit card and not received the service or product that you ordered, you would be due a refund from your credit card provider. This does not happen with 0870 numbers which charge a premium for a service which you have no guarantee of receiving.

Yes I did try the geographical numbers listed on this site but they went unanswered. There was also a 0800 (freephone) number that was, surprise, surprise answered straight away but that was just for Thomson Fly for booking a flight but could not deal with my problem. I understand someone suggesting to avoid such companies in future but most of the holiday companies now use these rip-off numbers. I would not mind paying 8 pence per minute if it was answered straight away by someone who I can talk to but what I don't like is listening to music at 8 pence per minute.

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I tried the 024 762 82930 number just now and they did answer, at least there was a menu and one of the options was "if you booked a holiday with us press...".

Whether they will deal with your specific query I don't know, but worth giving it a try.

at least you are paying significantly less for listening to the music at the end of which presumably somebody will answer the call.  They are probably unaware that they are not collecting revenue from the call, that is why they keep you waiting.  

Hiswasp wrote on Jan 21^st, 2007 at 1:19pm:


With the greatest of respect was there no alternative to the 0870 telephone based "Select A Seat" option such as an online "Select A Seat" option or a request a seat by email option?  If not and an 0870 number was used and the call queue was long I would have just hung up after 3 minutes and decided to put up with whatever seat I was given at the airport.  I certainly wouldn't have called back repeatedly time after time and queued for 30 minutes at a time.

I would however have emailed the managing director and board directors of the company and copied it to all board members at Ofcom, members of the Ofcom Consumer Panel and leading travel journalists on major daily and Sunday newspapers.

Succumbing to using an 0870 ripoff service that it is not essential to interact with and that is clearly designed as a ripoff is not something I would have done.  Apart from the con that 0870 is National Rate when it is not the other utterly unbelievable con Ofcom allows is queues lasting up to an hour at up to £6.00 an hour to call 0870 numbers when the caller has no idea at the outset how long they are waiting.

While you are at it tell your MP and MEP how unhappy you are at Ofcom's failure to stop this scam using www.writetothem.com ; Ofcom is almost certainly in breach of its duties under EU competition legislation and the misleading advertising directive in failing to stop the 084/7 calls scam.

wacs wrote on Jan 29^th, 2007 at 3:23pm:


Actually perhaps I should have suggested you copy in the personal finance or consumer rights journalists of the national newspapers.  They have a lot of column inches to fill and seem increasingly interested in the 084/7 story.

Travel journalists might be more interested in their next Gin and Tonic I fear although there have been stories about Trailfinders and their stand against using 0870 numbers previously.

The story you describe is a front page newspaper story.  Far more mundane stuff gets printed on the inner pages.

Another newsworthy angle to look into might be the companies providing the services (and their profits), because I have a feeling they are driving the agenda.  (I could be wrong)