There are a couple of alternative 020 7 numbers for the 0870 428 4009 number in the unverified database:

Quote:

Details here:

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/transportandstreets/parking/cashlesspromo.cfm

Looks like it's an automated system.

Someone could submit a FOI request. I wonder how much telephone revenue the number generates.... 

Keith wrote on Dec 13^th, 2007 at 3:54pm:


And also that it is charged and has enough credit to make a several minute long 0870 call!!.  All of which is outrageous when you consider the consequences of not being able to pay for your parking meter bay.

Since the system is wholly designed for use from mobiles how can they possibly have used an 0870 number.  The system vastly cuts their costs in no longer having parking equipment on the street and by stopping one driver picking up the expired time of another driver (on a meter as used to happen) and yet they try to further increase the parking charge by prohibitively expensive 0870 calls from mobiles and take a rakeoff on those 0870 calls.

Quite unbelievable.  Are their councillors asleep on Westminster City Council.

Presumably the thought seems to be that as you will already be paying £8 per day (although local residents only pay 80p per day) so won't care about it costing £1 or more in mobile charges just to pay for your parking time!).  The only time to visit and park in the Congestion Charge Area is on a Sunday when it is all entirely free.

bbb_uk wrote on Dec 16^th, 2007 at 9:27pm:


And why would they need a "national rate" number to call round the corner? It's not as if you are calling to the other end of the Country!

Don't all shout the answer together 

I've seen this but haven't (yet) used it. On all the signs I've seen you can also pay by text message and the number for this looks like an ordinary 07xxx mobile. The 3rd digit is 7 or 8 or 9 so it isn't an 07000 type scam.

I don't like this method of paying (phone or text) but it does solve the problem of failed pay and display machines and prevents money being nicked from them. I've also noticed P&D machines that only take cards, not cash.

I just hope the infrastructure all works OK because there's no bit of paper to display and if the warden's machine claims you haven't paid and they ticket/clamp/remove your car you will rightly feel annoyed.

irrelevant wrote on Dec 18^th, 2007 at 8:38am:


You can however set most mobile phones to provide a read receipt when your message is downloaded to the receiving party's phone (or phone system in this case) but that message just appears on your phone screen and does not remain in your message box and it only guarantees the message was received and does not show when it was read.

To make mobile phone 0870 payment the only means of payment is simply outraegous.

Quote:


Vodafone has a system callled Call Catcher that you can use if you don't use Voicemail that sends you texts when you next turn on a phone that was off or when a phone comes back in to network coverage that was out of coverage and the texts tell you the numbers of people who tried to call you during that period and the time and date.  Generally these messages come through straigh away when you turn your phone on but sometimes they turn up 12 or 18 hours later due to a crashed Vodafone application or server somewhere.

This technology is not a safe way to pay for parking when you bear in mind what happens to your car if it is not parked legally with a valid ticket.

Small wonder it has been deployed by Westminster City Council who have one of the most aggressive and nasty parking enforcement divisions in the country.  I am sure their occupancy statistics for these bays show that they are much less used than bays deploying normal technology for paying for parking.

OT, but to get a read receipt with O2, prefix the text message with *0# (just that).