NGMsGhost wrote on May 21
st, 2007 at 5:20pm:
If it can be done for bank charges there has to be a way it can be done for 084 and 087 numbers using fair trading legislation of one form and another.
I wish I had the legal expertise to attack this.
From a background in retail, it feels like the Telecoms arena badly needs a dose of the consumer legislation introduced in the late 60s/early 70s, such as the Sale of Goods Act, Unfair Contract Terms Act and whichever Act introduced the OFT
As I understand it, before the introduction of some or all of those 3, it was pretty much the wild west - retailers could put a ticket on an item saying £1 each and then charge you £10 each, OR pretend something had been reduced when it had never been sold at the higher price, and many other scams. Nowadays, whilst far from perfect, laws prevent that sort of blatant deception.
Unfortunately it seems telecoms companies are able to dodge all that consumer protection, as they are only answerable to their fellow schemers at OFCOM (Trading Standards Offices seem to refuse to get involved because OFCOM is supposed to be the regulator). OFCOM of course is answerable to no-one
I did manage to get £5 out of BT about a year ago, after I kicked and screamed about 0845 items labelled on my bill as LOCAL RATE, so it can be done, but it's a painful process. They've since changed that wording as well