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complain EVERY time you call - pass it on (Read 9,801 times)
Bubblz
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complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Jan 28th, 2008 at 10:57am
 
I personally don't have a problem with NHS using 0870 numbers. I have a MAJOR gripe against profit makers using them. TIMES HAVE CHANGED. There was a time when they were doing us a favour because of long distance daytime call costs. In today's world, we are paying them!

I lodge an official complaint EVERY time I speak to a profit making company. My last phone bill was nearly doubled by these pesky numbers.

We need to start up a campaign where everyone complains EVERY time they call. We have to persuade them to give out 01/02 numbers - if we complain enough, the employees themselves will start complaining to their management. Let's be the squeaky wheel!

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Heinz
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Re: complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Reply #1 - Jan 28th, 2008 at 2:17pm
 
Welcome to the SayNo forums.

Two things spring to mind.

(1). Very few people on here actually phone 0845/087 numbers (either using alternative numbers or having chosen to boycott such firms as their 'silent protest');

(2). Complaining to call centre operatives is pointless.  They're just doing a job and have no control over the numbers their employer uses.
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After years of ignoring govt. guidelines & RIPPING OFF Council Tax payers using 0845 numbers, Essex County Council changed to 0345 numbers on 2 November 2015
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SilentCallsVictim
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Re: complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Reply #2 - Jan 29th, 2008 at 1:33am
 
Good topic - Two further points.

It is a valid political position to believe that users should pay directly for public services, even up to the full cost. One must however surely agree that any charge should be clearly advised in advance.
This cannot yet happen with most NHS services (excluding those subject to clearly presented fees that only apply to some users), because these are proudly delivered "free at the point of need". Many of us wish it to remain that way, even after 60 years, although argue that a change back to the previous consumerist situation is overdue.

If required to call a revenue sharing number, I always make a polite comment and ask if it is possible to call me back. Some, but not all, will do so happily. It is always fair enough to register a calmly-presented complaint, even if this is unlikely to compel an immediate change of policy. If one simply attacks the call centre agent, accusing them personally of robbery or worse, they are more likely to hang up on you than call you back.


Notwithstanding any assumptions that may be drawn from my nickname, I am not a great believer in the "silent protest" as a means of achieving change. It is very good for the soul (and perhaps the pocket) of the protester, and that is OK so far as it goes - indeed, that is the laudable main purpose of saynoto0870. If intended to exercise consumer power to actually affect a market, a company would only change its ways in order to increase its turnover and profit if the silent protesters are sufficiently numerous and "loud" to be noticed and understood.

David
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catcoddler
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Re: complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Reply #3 - Feb 3rd, 2008 at 8:50pm
 
You say you only have a gripe with profit makers using 0870 - well your GP surgery is effectively a business, service providers who supply 'NHS' services are effectively businesses and are run on such lines.  Books have to be balanced - ie income v expenditure.  You will find that your GP practice will have a practice manager.  There will be a person or persons whose job it is to bring in more money and more business - eg payment for getting jab rates etc up to meet a certain target.  The public pays for the services provided through the NHS - it is incredibly galling to have to then pay a premium to access some of those services (which we have already paid for) because we are forced to call an 0845 or 0870 number.   If a medical practitioner is being paid a sum (because you are on their lists) then why on earth should you have to pay a premium to access the very service that they have been paid (on your behalf) to provide????
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christb
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Re: complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Reply #4 - Feb 6th, 2008 at 5:21pm
 
I agree that these numbers are now revenue earners.  Could we ask, as an initial measure, that the phone providers DO NOT charge callers until they have come to the end of 'Our call is important to you....' and/or have been connected to the person they want to speak to.  It might speed up calls a bit!!!  Smiley
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jgxenite
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Re: complain EVERY time you call - pass it on
Reply #5 - Feb 7th, 2008 at 3:26pm
 
I suspect that that would be technically impossible, as the call provider would have no idea when the "your call is important to us" stage had ended. That would probably involve some major re-hash of the telephone network (where the called party had control of the price of the call to the caller) and that would probably then mean that if you called the switchboard on a normal number, they could transfer you to an 09 number (and then charge you the 09 price!)
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