Interesting, a postcode check for who's at Unit 10 shows:

COASTAL DATA SYSTEMS LTD, Unit 10, Invicta Way, Manston Park, Ramsgate, Kent  CT12 5FD

http://www.coastaldata.co.uk/pages/contactcoastaldata.html

I wonder whether they have a sideline?

Checking further, Spirit Adventures and the domain is owned by Sarah Tanner.

Information on Sarah Tanner incl. her publications is here:

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Tanner

Hello,
I am the owner of Spirit Adventures and I happened to stumble across this debate. I just wanted to say that unfortunately I do not have a geographical based number. It is only me running the business and as well as working and looking after a baby, I am unable to commit 8 hours a day to sitting by the phone for one or two phone calls a week. However, I am more than happy to phone you back if you leave me your phone number either by answer message or email.
Also, Spirit Adventures is not a ?side line? of coastal data. I rent a storage room from them and use this as my business correspondence address. I work part from home and part there and it would be physically and financially difficult to offer a land line number, unless I offer a home number, which I have had in the past. I then get people phoning at 2am in the morning to ask if there has been dispatched yet etc?
I pay BT the privilege to have this number and have no financial gain at all from it. The main purpose is for people to ask me to call them back to place a phone order or for emergency problems as 95% of communications and sales are made through the website.
I just wanted to write this post to show I am a legitimate website and business and have been for nearly the past 9 years. I am more than happy to give you a call back on your own phone so it does not cost you any money and I like to think that you would have a worry-free personal shopping experience using my business. It may take up to 24 hours (in very rare cases) but I will always get back to you as a matter of urgency if there has been any problems and I am always happy to refund any orders that have been lost or damaged in the post (subject to the normal terms and conditions set by Distant Selling Regs.)
Thank you!
Sarah

Thanks for the reply, but my point is that the majority of my customers (I would say over 95%) conduct their trade online. I am not blind to the fact that 0844 may put off a small minority of customers, in fact, the “answer phone” itself may put off a small minority of customers. However, the cost and disturbance of installing a business line just for 1-2 phone calls a week outweighs the small demand for such a line.

The phone system is VPS/VOI and there is no “physical” phone line or answer phone. It is not so simple as just transferring a phone line to an answer phone. VPS gives me the flexibility to communicate with my customers where ever I am and not tied to a physical landline or disturbed by an answer phone at 2am in the morning.

I am sympathetic to the fact that people may have to pay to use this number. However, the purpose of 0844 is to provide a local tariff number instead of  national one on a BT land line. It is the phone service providers and Ofcom that need to modify these tariffs. In the mean time, small business holders such as myself will carry on using these numbers because they offer efficient communication solutions at prices small business owners could not afford if a physical phone system was installed.

Also, it is not like this is the only point of contact people are forced to pay to use. Email is free, you can even order on my website and request me to phone for payment which is entirely free. I do not advertise this number as a “sales hotline” or anything like that. It is purely there a contact point for people who wish to call.

Thanks for reading.

Hello Freespirit1079 and welcome to SAYNOTO0870.COM.

ALL users of 084 numbers benefit and this is due to their design. I blogged about this previously: How do 084x numbers work?

My primary interest in this campaign is for this to be made clear to all service users and service providers, such as yourself.

Others on here wish to see all companies stop using Business Rate numbers. My belief is that once companies have to declare the subsidy they get, then many will move away from these numbers because the benefit is so small.


In response to the points you make:

Today there are many different providers of telephony in the UK. The cost of 0844 calls from BT varies from other providers because of regulation imposed on it a number of years due to its market position. This results in BT's call rates being lower than others. For a further explanation, see the NHS Patient blog: BT charges may vary from others

You say that the phone companies need to "modify these tariffs". Earlier this year, Ofcom ran a consultation at which it proposed that call pricing for 0844 and similar numbers would be a split tariff whereby the number user would declare its Service Charge and originating telephone providers (the telcos we make our calls with) would advise their Access Charge. At present the BT Access Charge (where a call is made from BT) for 0844 calls is effectively zero.


I am not particularly interested in whether the 0844 number is the only way your business can operate; that is your concern. All I'd like to see is that you make clear the 3 or 4 pence per minute subsidy you get from its use.

If you're not happy at doing this, then give it up and move to a 01, 02 or 03 number !!!


Local and national calls don't generally cost different amounts on any individual tariff. This is a relic from the days prior to competition, when BT was the only provider of telecommunications.

If this is the justification for a Business Rate number, then I must point out that you're disadvantaging many to offer a tiny benefit to so few. As a private enterprise, you can do this if you wish. I abhor this type of favourtism for public sector services.

As I say, prior to competition in the market there was only BT. The rates it charged then still exist today for all but a handful of its customers. These are known as "non-discounted" rates which have differing local and national call rates.

In the early 2000s it introduced "discounted" rates (chiefly in the form of BT Together) to compete with the offerings from other providers. In 2004 it discontinued its mainstream residential non-discounted tariff, moving some 9 million customers on to BT Together. By this time, BT Together had aligned local and national call rates.

The cost of your 0844 number is 4.084 pence per minute at all times from BT lines (plus a Call Set-up fee of 12.5 pence). BT's most popular residential Calling Plan is Anytime, on which local and national calls cost nothing. You are evidently one of those people who maintain that there can be two "local" call rates on a particular tariff so as to suit your own cause.


I speak as someone who has little first-hand experience of such services, but from what you say, you use the number mainly as an answerphone service. I am wondering why you do not get a 01, 02 or 03 number which from certain suppliers could cost you a few pounds a month and offer an answerphone service which e-mails you messages as well as allowing calls to be received using a VoIP phone for no extra charge.

Hello and thank you for your comments.

In response, I apologise about the local tarriff comment. I have a very ill and teething daughter and so my brain was a bit fried at the moment and I dont know why I wrote that last night, I think I was confused with the number originally being a "lo call" number.

However, I am incrdibly angry and upset that you are accusing me of making money from this number? I have always prided myself on giving a genuine and transparant service to my customers. How dare you make an accusation like this! I PAY to have that phone number! I make absolutely nothing for it! Just to prove it, here is the service I use:

http://www.ringcentral.co.uk

Please state anywhere on here where I make money from my phone number as I am yet to receive an income from it.

Dear CJT-80,
Thank you, I am now looking into a geographical number myself.
However, it is Dave's comment that I am upset about:

Dave wrote on Oct 21^st, 2011 at 11:00pm:


The fact is that SOME 0844 companies make revenue, not ALL, I am certainly not one of these.