blutak wrote on Apr 18^th, 2011 at 3:04pm:


Of course it was a Business Decision bluetak - the AA as we used to know it is being asset stripped by several private equity firms - 3 firms I think to date although I have just heard that it has been sold again very recently - also their Insurance run by Saga since 2007 is through their Call Centre which is not Dedicated but manned by Temp. Agency staff who wouldnt know one end of a policy from the other - All this was inside info.

I once did 2 days at an unrelated Call Centre and was given a script and list of Products of which I knew nothing and told to get on with it - because I felt I couldnt be the sort of help I wanted to be I asked the Agency to withdraw me, which they did after admiting they had to withdraw several other people for the same reason, so we cant entirely blame the people on the end of the Phone.

Incidently I have just last Friday the 16th left AA after 60 years of Family involvement because of their 0844 Breakdown Number and have sent a very strong email pointing this out on their Complaints Section also saying that I Dare Them to Reply I also pointed out that Members were leaving in droves and stating AA would be dead in 3 years - so far I have had an auto out of office from the Holding Company and will update this post if and when I get a proper reply.

If bluetak had protracted corresp. I wouldnt hold my breath - or we might not be around to see it 

trickyd wrote on May 21^st, 2012 at 12:59pm:

Thanks trickyd. I've added this to the Hall of Shame.

speedy wrote on Jun 5^th, 2012 at 1:29am:

This is a very sensible move by the Carphone Warehouse Group, which uses its own (Talk Talk) 0870 and 0843 numbers. Since 1 August 2009 it has ceased to benefit from inflated termination rates on calls to the 0870 numbers, even though many callers continue to pay premium rates. Its stores have indeed now switched to type g6 0843 numbers which provide the highest termination rates available without being subject to "Premium Rate Service" designation and regulation.

Where a telephone network provider is using its own 084 numbers, this is not simply subsidy of external costs, but direct revenue at the expense of callers. This is more "shameful" than is the case for most of those listed in this thread.


It may be noted that Carphone Warehouse Group is the provider of 82% of the 084 numbers used by NHS GPs in the UK (97% of the 0844's).


Where call cost information for 0843 numbers is provided on the Carphone Warehouse website (for mobile phone networks - not its own stores) it is as follows:
Quote:

I would be interested to hear a justification for use of the word "may" in this context. It is true to say that telcos will have lots of information about their services - but not one of them will be able to advise that calls to 0843 numbers are free, on any call plan.

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speedy wrote on Jun 5^th, 2012 at 1:29am:

Were it not for the fact that a personal visit is worthwhile, one can call T-Mobile on 0845 412 5000 - this is "charged at local rate" (see Phone Us). According to the T-Mobile Check a Call Cost page, its "local rate" is 40p per minute for pre-pay and 33.3p per minute for post-pay.

The T-Mobile Dartford store has a geographical number. Somewhat surprisingly, it is cheaper than "local rate" to call this, or indeed the store serving Dartmouth, from anywhere in the UK!

As the other high street presence of "Everything Everywhere", one may also look at the Orange shops - which have 0845 numbers. I think it may be truer to say that they are "all over the place"!

Discussion about Co-operative Bank's shameful move from 0845 numbers to 0844 numbers has been split off from this thread and can now be found here.

CJT-80 wrote on May 9^th, 2013 at 9:45pm:

Thanks for pointing this out. I've removed the entry from our Hall of Shame and added the 020 number to the database.

britters191 wrote on May 22^nd, 2007 at 10:02am:


I have obtained my own 0844 number and have it pointing to my home number. If I ever find a company that doesn't have or give an alternative to a non-geographic, I give them my 0844 as a contact for me. 

Does that make me as bad as them? I don't know, but it sure makes me feel goooood!

The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester has happily reverted to its 0161 number.