As none of the rest you have so far posted on this matter I seem to be the only one that was watching last night's (Tuesday 18th September) 10.35pm showing of Skins on Channel 4.
Towards the end of the program the delectable but scatty Cassie (Hannah Murray) was shown as making an unsuccessful suicide attempt after Sid showed no interest in her attempts to get him to become her boyfriend and she then overheard him asking out another girl. As a result of this during the closing credits of the program a large turquoise box popped up in the right of the screen saying samaritans.org.uk and quoting the number 08457 90 90 90 (their spacing) with the statement
"For the cost of a local call" and with this number also being confirmed by the C4 announcer saying the Samaritans were there for you 24 hours a day if you were in distress but without confirming the on screen
"For the cost of a local call" statement.
The graphic with the Samaritans number and the statement "for the cost of a local call" seems to have been supplied directly by the Samaritan as on their website at
www.samaritans.org/talk/phoneus.shtm they again state
"In the UK dial 08457 90 90 90, for the cost of a local call."We already know the Samaritans are longstanding, systematic and unapologetic 0845 misusers but this scale of misleading statement about their 0845 24 hour contact line being a "local call" after all the very clear guidances by the ASA will surely get a finding against them by the ASA this time. As I understand the rules they are not forced to give a price indication in broadcast advertising but if they do it cannot be a misleading one since this in itself contravenes the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and ASA rules have a general requirement that television advertisements should not be misleading.
I therefore filed an official complaint on the ASA website and fired off the following email to the CEO of The Samaritans and other senior board members. I then found the Samaritans didn't support firstname.lastname@samaritans.org and then when I called them at 10am their phone kept going repeatedly to voicemail on no rings saying they were closed and to ring back in office hours. I then called the press out of hours mobile number where some idiot press officer gave me the wrong email format and claimed there was no problem with their switchboard. Only later still did I get through to the switchboard and then the CEO's secretary who claimed they did have a major switchboard problem but no one had realised (wouldn't you notice not getting any calls for 2 hours if you were a receptionist) and told me the email address format was the completely non-standard a.lastnamename@samaritans.org where a is the initial of the person. In the days when asurname was a more popular email format no one else I have seen ever used a dot between the initial and the surname. Also why doesn't any large organisation always now support firstname.surname email address format as industry standard, even if they also support legacy format email addresses for their longer standing staff and/or have short name alternatives as well.
In any event below is my email to Samaritans CEO Dominic Rudd:-
Quote:-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Misleading Claims That Inappropriate Samaritans 0845 Number is Local Rate
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:25:53 +0100
To: d.rudd@samaritans.org, ian.hargreaves@ofcom.org.uk, stephanie.liston@ofcom.org.uk, tessa.jowell@culture.gov.uk, john.fingleton@oft.gov.uk, sean.williams@oft.gov, jonathan.may@oft.gov.uk, vincent.smith@oft.gov.uk, martin.stanley@competition-commission.org.uk, david.roberts@competition-commission.org.uk, bob.tolliday@which.co.uk
CC: s.evans@samaritans.org, p.collins@samaritans.org, j.payne@samaritans.org, j.field@samaritans.co.org, s.evans@samaritans.org, p.lamplugh@samaritans.org, ed.richards@ofcom.org.uk, jill.ainscough@ofcom.org.uk, steve.roberts@ofcom.org.uk, tim.suter@ofcom.org.uk, peter.culham@ofcom.org.uk, claudio.pollack@ofcom.org.uk, steve.unger@ofcom.org.uk, colette.bowe@ofcomconsumerpanel.org.uk, ChristopherG@asa.org.uk, GuyP@asa.org.uk, RogerW@asa.org.uk, consumer.panel@ofcom.org.uk, consumerpanel@ofcom.org.uk, andy.duncan@channel4.com, luke.johnson@channel4.com, suzie.hanson@channel4.com, bryan.eisley@channel4.com, george.faber@channel4.com, charles.pattinson@channel4.com, trustees@samaritans.org, ian.livingston@bt.com, ben.verwaayen@bt.com
Dear Mr Rudd,
I am writing to you in your position as Chief Executive of The Samaritans, as a result of watching the Channel 4 tv program Skins broadcast at 10.45pm last night (Tuesday 18th September) to complain about the 0845 7909090 number still quite unbelievably being used by the Samaritans as its main point of contact for distressed or depressed callers and which was displayed during the closing credits of the program. I believe the Samaritan's number was given out by Channel 4 because one of the main characters in the program, Cassie, was shown as making an unsuccessful suicide attempt on her life during the latter part of the show.
Cont/...