Thanks Dave and Big John,
That was very helpful and does indeed seem to provide the answer I was looking for from the t-mobile manager. I have a mind to go back to him and let him know. He gave the impression of being quite sincere.
Just in passing, he did refer to saynoto0870 indirectly. He told me that if I get an android phone I can download an app called "no0845" and it will give me the geographic number for most non-geographic ones. I asked him was that connected to the site saynoto0845 (I misremembered the name) and he said probably. I explained to him, however, that in my experience most of the time the website doesn't work because companies refused to accept enquiries on geographic numbers. I even told him about how companies may install equipment to make sure customers couldn't get round it by pretending to be calling from abroad.
Also just in passing, he said that a lot of people were asking about the cost of calling 08 numbers and he wished he had a sheet he could just give to them. I thought that was interesting because it shows increasing public awareness of the issue.
Back to the matter at hand, Dave, the
page you link to links to another page, which links to a
table of Pay Monthly tariffs for these numbers[PDF]. As you can see it is immensely complex. There is one column for each of 070, 08, 09, and 118 numbers. The good news is the column we are interested in, the 08 column, only runs to just over two pages.
Unfortunately however, it is incomplete. Close inspection reveals it fails to mention the tariffs for all but two specific 0870 numbers. What price are we going to pay for all the others? There is no mention of a tariff for 0870 numbers in general, unless I've missed it.
Compounding my concern is that in my experience this instance of tariff table incompleteness is not isolated. I have discovered the same in the past with Asda mobile. When I emailed them for answers they came back with a more complicated tariff table which was itself also incomplete. When I asked them the tariff for a particular number I wanted to call they simply did not reply to my email. As a customer it seemed impossible to discover the cost of the number I needed to call. I gave up.
For now, though, I'm interested in comparing the tariffs for 08 numbers of the major networks to help me decide which smartphone to go for. It seems to me that now that I am a prospective buyer, rather than an existing customer, I should have more power to find out what these tariffs are. Perhaps I will have a go at that today by asking a few more store sales people.
Failing that, however, I'm not sure what step to take next. Ofcom have failed to do their job. Telecoms providers refuse to comply with the law. They have moved from hiding behind increasing degress of complexity to straghtforward concealment of pricing information. In a practical sense the store manager was correct. For all practical purposes we must simply open our wallets and count the change when they are given back to us.
But for a stubborn nerd like me, prepared to ferret around for this information, what is the next step in the procedure, or do you think perhaps I am being unkind and the authors of the tariff table meant to include 0870 numbers at the top at the same rate as all the other 08nn ranges in general, that is, 41ppm? Perhaps I should email T-mobile to check.
Best Wishes,
Stephen
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Are companies required to publish "08" prices (Read 8,723 times)
