jamesbond wrote on Jul 31^st, 2008 at 8:22pm:

We must be a little careful here. This is not the same situation as with the call type "g6" 0844 numbers. It is only those with inclusive landline packages in effect at the time and callers from mobiles who pay more than for calling a 01603 number, others pay less.

I share the view that this was a daft decision that needs to be criticised, a 03xx number would have been far more suitable and would probably have cost council-tax payers little or no more.

It will probably have to wait until the people of the "Fine City" of Norwich start getting their inclusive package and mobile telephone bills listing charges for calls to this number before the issue explodes locally. This is when the local media will be able to pick up on it.

Internal review now requested due to the original question not being answered.

What a waste of time an effort just to obtain something as simple as a telephone number.

Source: Norwich Evening News

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=N...

New council number will make a big difference

David Bale
01 June 2009 17:00

Norwich City Council is changing its telephone number from Monday, August 3 - to make it cheaper for customers to call.

The new number - 0344 980 3333 - is very similar to the existing one - 0844 980 3333 - as it only has one digit that is different, but will make a big difference to customers.

A council spokeswoman said: “Changing the number from an 08 to an 03 number has three important benefits.

“Our customers told us it was too expensive to call us so we are changing our number to address the problem.

“Most of our customers will be able to call us at low cost regardless of the phone they are calling on. Many customers can use their mobile or landline 'inclusive' minutes package to call us for free.”

Steve Morphew, leader of the council, said the 0844 number was introduced last year as it appeared to be the most cost effective way forward for customers and the council.

But he added: “But due to the pricing structure and call charges of some phone companies, lots of our customers who only have pay-as-you-go mobile phones were paying over the odds when they called us.

“We thought this rip-off would have ended by now but phone companies haven't changed their pricing structure as expected so we have found an alternative way forward which is to introduce an 0344 number.”

Under the existing 0844 number the customer bears all the call costs, but once the new number is adopted, the city council will pay a share of the cost for inbound calls.

NGMsGhost wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 12:17pm:

The cost of calling an 0844 number from a BT line is down to the respective telephone provider. The vast majority of these charges are passed to this telephone provider and BT keeps a tiny part.

The customer of the telephone provider operating Norwich City Council's 0844 number is the Council. So it is directly responsible for selecting the amount callers pay for its own benefit!

This is the "rip-off" that Councillor Morphew refers to and it is his council that opted in to it.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2009 at 9:12pm:


On those two points I find myself in agreement with you.

Source: Norwich City Council

http://www.norwich.gov.uk/intranet_docs/corporate/public/committee/reports/2009/...

COUNCIL
9 June 2009
Questions to Executive Members and Committee Chairs

Question 13
Councillor Brian Watkins to the Leader of the Council:-

‘Last July Councillor Morphew launched the council's new 0844 number saying 'We are committed to getting it right first time, every time'. Would he explain why the council failed in this goal and why proper research was not carried out into the cost of the 0844 number before the switch from the old numbers? Would he also inform council of what the full cost (advertising, reprinting of literature, staff time etc) of changing telephone numbers twice in a year has been and where this money is coming from?’

Councillor Steve Morphew, Leader of the Council’s reply:-

‘Introducing the 0844 number was the means of making significant improvements to front line delivery of services to our customers. This was achieved by having the menu behind the single number and this has given us the tools to drastically improve the time it takes to handle a customer’s query, and has proved to greatly reduce the amount of customers that need to call us back for issues as they are dealt with at first point of contact. It has reduced our average waiting times from 1 minute 33 seconds (July 2008) to 51 seconds (April 2009).

At the time of the original change, both options of 08 and 03 were investigated. Although we fully expected to improve service delivery in the long term, the installation of a 03 number at the very beginning would have had a significant cost attached to it, as the council would be paying for every second that a customer was sat waiting in a queue, had to call us back, or had to be redirected. We also tried to lobby the telecom providers to include 0844 numbers in packages and not to make them premium rate calls.

Now that the new system has been implemented, and service delivery is greatly improved, we have re-evaluated our position, and reworked the costs. We also recognised from feedback that some of our customers were unhappy with the cost of their calls, mainly due to the telecoms companies’ reluctance to include 0844 numbers as part of their inclusive minute’s packages. In recognition of concerns raised, the telecoms providers not making changes, and the recession, we are reducing costs to our customers by introducing the 03 number. However, although they have now changed arrangements for 0845 numbers, they have not made changes for the 0844 numbers. The 03 numbers are included in any customers free minutes package, landline or mobile, and calls can also be dialled directly from outside the UK.

There are no telephony set up charges for changing from the 08 to the 03 number and both numbers will be running side by side initially, so this reduces the need to change leaflets etc. until they need replacing. Changes to signs for the one digit change together with associated publicity will be covered by existing budgets.’

Maybe a briefing, perhaps by SCV, to the Local Government Association would be useful?   That is often a main point of contact and advice for local councils.  I don't know if the LGA has any current position or advice on this matter but it would be helpful if they had the facts as there is a danger they, too, would rely on the telecoms companies for information.