My complaints about the way in which Ramla handled my complaint today are as follows:-

1. Although I believe I made it clear to her that I had already reported this matter on your website but now wished to add to my complaint the fact that the company also did not announce the cost of the call when its automated call equipment answered my call Ramla told me that I would have to post a copy of the advertisement containing the 0871 number to you before my complaint could be investigated.  I therefore asked her why she had made such a requirement when the advertisement I objected to was on a website which PhonePayPlus could view electronically and when my complaint about the lack of information about the call price on the phone line and the length of the queue could only be substantiated by calling the 0871 number in question.  I also complained that the ASA did not make it compulsory for a complainant to provide a copy of the misleading advertising they were complaining about.  Ramla simply claimed in response that this was "standard procedure" but her entire attitude towards me as a complainant throughout the call was smug, arrogant and dismissive as though I was being a nuisance and I did not at any time feel that I was not treated as though I was a valuable information resource to PhonePayPlus to help it ensure that regulatory standards were being adhered to.

2. At this point Ramla incredibly went on to tell me that 0871 phone numbers were "national rate numbers" and when I assured Ramla that they had never been charged at such a rate she then went on to claim that some 0871 numbers were charged at 8p per minute and that this was the same as BT's "National Rate".  In other words Ramla seems to be completely mistrained about the nature of 0871 call costs and the fact that their regulation was transferred to PhonePayPlus by Ofcom specifically because their call cost was considered to be a form of premium rate.  It was as though Ramla was an employee of a telephone company that sells these NTS numbers to call centres and that deliberately peddles the lie that they are "National Rate" when they are not.

3. Finally when I indicated to Ramla my total and utter dissatisfaction with her misdescription of the cost of calling 0871 numbers and asked for her name she would only give me her first name and refused to provide her surname.  Yet when I called your switchboard to ask who I could complain to about her behaviour they happily told me that her last name was Sirat.  It does not therefore appear to be official PhonePayPlus policy for staff to withhold their last names.

As you may know from my previous responses to ICSTIS consultations on its 0871 regulatory proposals I do not regard your current rules about 0871 numbers as in any way adequate since they do not ban call queuing on these numbers and do not provide for automatic substantial fines for those who deliberately fail to provide advance call cost information or who cynically allow long queues to accumulate but here I had a legitimate complaint about the cost of the 0871 number not being published in accordance with your regulations and yet still your call adviser did not take my complaint seriously and lied to me (either through deliberate mistraining or due to personal ignorance that is not acceptable in someone undertaking this job function) about the call costs of 0871 numbers by claiming they were National Rate.

Since all of PhonePayPlus's income is provided by the organisations who attempt to scam the public through operating premium rate numbers I have always been deeply sceptical that you would be able to do your job properly in the way that a regulator that is not commercially in bed with the industry that it allegedly controls could and this incident seems to show that my fears in this regard are indeed well placed.

I would therefore be most grateful if you could investigate why Ramla does not seem to have been properly trained to handle calls about 0871 numbers that do not provide the required call cost information to consumers (including the fact that Ramla claimed during the call that 0871 numbers were only charged at "national rate" and also attempted to obstruct my complaint by demanding that a copy of the advert needed to be posted to PhonePayPlus) and also investigate my specific complaint against the operators of the aegonchampionships.co.uk website and/or www.Seetickets.com website or www.lta.org.uk websites in terms of failing to provide the required call cost information about the AEGON Championships booking line on 0871 231 0829 or the www.eco.co.uk car park line on 0871 871 9809.

I look forward to hearing from you about this matter in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Three months is more than enough time for a thorough investigation by PPP and a comprehensive reply to your complaint.

What was the result?