Solicitors claim 0845 is Freephone!

I have sent a complaint to the ASA.

Advert from our local raf;-

bazzerfewi wrote on Nov 19^th, 2011 at 2:03pm:



Not sure, but on the same page an adjacent advert by the same solicitors for similar services has for contact:-
Freephone: 0808 131 0451
From a mobile: 01623 782082

So it would seem they do know the difference!

.

kasg wrote on Nov 19^th, 2011 at 4:27pm:


I am of the same opinion maybe if you contacted them they would alter it to an elternative number

derrick wrote on Nov 19^th, 2011 at 1:39pm:


Derrick,

Have you had no answer or resolution as yet on this from the ASA?

If not you might also like to consider trying to report them to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (www.sra.org.uk) or the new Legal Ombudsman service (http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk) who you will be pleased to hear use an 0300 number for all customer contact with them.

Speaking as one who has another of these bank account leeches without a conscience (aka solicitors) recently cost me a very large amount of money whilst operating in the most morally questionable manner possible I find it particularly disgusting that people who charge £175 per hour and upwards for their services cannot afford to take their phone calls without expecting to benefit from a revenue share!

By the way I do not think a solicitor should ever be let off for making a so called "mistake" of this kind when it is not ever their habit to encourage their clients to ever be generous over genuine mistakes committed by other people.  If solicitors aren't supposed to be people who can get things right under the rules then I don't know who exactly is?!!!

Dave wrote on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 11:05am:


I believe most UK Police forces also fail to look at all the evidence and simply work on a basis of guilty till proven innocent when it comes to the very questionable basis on which tickets are issued for alleged speeding offence by mobile speed camera vans often parked half way round blind bends in violation of most of their own guidelines.

Surrey Police also seem to cheerfully and repeatedly ignore all the compelling evidence put in front of them for swithching from an 0845 number to an 0345 number put in front of them both by myself and other campaigners against the misuse of 084/7 numbers.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 4:03pm:


And what does 101 cost or does it depend on your telco? And no doubt that now includes the massive and iniquitous connection fee pioneered by BT.  Also 101 can't be used if you are calling from outside Surrey even though you may have experienced a crime there.  So again is the other reason why I think 101 doesn't work at all as a concept unlike 112/999 where the system simply routes you to the nearest call centre for urgent assistance to your point of calling and you will not be calling out of area on a non urgent basis.

Surrey Police were one of the worst not just for 0845 number but also for mobile camera vans parled on the apexes of blind bends.  Happily due to Police cutbacks they no longer have the funding to operate the majority of these.

G7MZH wrote on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:


The Home Office believes that every telephone company is committed to the 15p per call agreement. There has been a problem with Telefonica (o2 and BeUnlimited) but this is being sorted - I am told that as it may take some time to adjust the tariff, calls to 101 will be free of charge for the time being.

I believe that resolution of the Telefonica problem was initially triggered by a report in this forum. I am sure that the Home Office officials will be pleased to receive other reports of exceptions and will seek to resolve them, as I understand that they have in this case.

BT public payphones offer calls to 101 at no charge. If other payphone operators are found to charge more than 15p per call, I am sure that the Home Office would be pleased to address this.

G7MZH wrote on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 11:01pm:

Calls to 101 will, like 999, 111 and many other services, always connect you to the service local to where you are calling from (be it from a landline or mobile). With 101, there is the option of being redirected, as already stated.

Surrey, as should all other Police services, offer a direct geographic number for direct calls from outside the area and from overseas. This number is also available to be used as an alternative by callers within Surrey.

We may believe that the Home Office should have put up the money to make 101 calls free of charge, but apart from this it is very hard to criticise the telephone arrangements. There are some Police services which have not yet complied with the Home Office guidance by publishing the geographic alternative clearly alongside 101. We hope that this failing will shortly be corrected.


There is of course much to criticise about other aspects of Police operations and policy.

I personally have an issue with the fact that the reporting of crime is treated as an "administrative" matter, as dealt with by calls to 101. Not all reporting of crime requires an emergency ("blue light") response, which is what 999 is for. I do however feel uncomfortable with the fact that it is regarded as sufficiently insignificant so as not to justify public expenditure on a free to caller number.

Well done Derrick good result, you pursued it to the very end