Bill_M wrote on Sep 5
th, 2009 at 9:41am:
90661100 answered on Saturday morning by what sounded like security at Danesfort - was told that it cannot be connected to Customer Services (for bill payments, etc.)
- maybe better during the week...
Looking at pages with NIE's numbers on suggests that they may have numbers 028 9068 9xxx. Extensions are three digits as some answer with a voicemail system which identify that the xxx is the extension number.
028 9068 9188 goes straight to hold music...
Northern Ireland Electricity has a contract with SpeechStorm for its call centre:
http://www.speechstorm.com/AboutUs.aspx?id=34
NIE has been using its 08457 numbers (formally 0345) for over 10 years now. The Internet Archive has a
http://www.nie.co.uk/customer/index.htm]snapshot of its website from January 1997[/url] which shows enquiries was 0345 455455 and the service helpline was 0345 643643. These 0345 numbers were migrated to 08457 as part of Oftel's telephone numbering plan. Also, the number for other enquiries was 01232 661100 which is now 028 9066 1100 which is posted elsewhere in this thread.
When the 0845 (then 0345) numbers were introduced, they were local rate and national calls cost more. Indeed, the NIE page from 1997 states the number are charged at "local call rates from anywhere in Northern Ireland." Now they have a tendancy to disadvantage customers.
Maybe NIE would like to consider switching to new 03 numbers to reduce the cost of calls.