Is it illegal or just dishonest to call an 0844 number a local call rate?
Incidentally I forgot my password and had a horrendous time with your verification codes. What are these. supposed to test and why are they almost illegible?

I decided to contact the company and give them a chance  to put things right however I did enquire about the legality of the claim from tha ASA and have received this somewhat wishy washy reply
Thank you for your enquiry to the Advertising Standards Authority.



Calls to 0843, 0844 and 0871 numbers are charged at a higher rate than standard calls on BT’s most popular call plan (BT Unlimited Weekend) and we advise advertisers to make the cost of calling those numbers clear in ads. Calls to 0843, 0844 and 0871 numbers are charged at different rates depending on the numbers that follow the first four digits so without knowing the cost of the call and the context of the ad, I can’t advise on whether the description is misleading.



If you’re concerned about whether an ad that you’ve seen is misleading, please feel free to log a complaint on our website and we’ll look into it for you.



If you’re thinking about advertising an 0844 number and want to know how to describe it in an ad, please visit the www.copyadvice.org.uk website where you can find searchable guidance and tips on this specific topic. If you’re still not sure, you can log a request with one of the team to review your advertising.
They totally miss the point that there is no such thing as a local call rate.

catj wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 5:58pm:

And 0873.

Nita wrote on Feb 24^th, 2012 at 5:17pm:

Because of the penalty charges applied to weekday daytime calls to geographic numbers, the statement made is not actually correct.

In fact, the statement is made irrelevant because "Unlimited Weekend" is no longer BT's most popular call plan.

I quote from a BT press release of 27 August 2011.
Quote:

Expensive

Have a look here

http://www.08direct.co.uk/numbers/0872_numbers.html

I was originally going to suggest reading
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-geographic_telephone_numbers_in_the_United_King... but it doesn't appear to be 100% complete or up to date.

How far do you think I will get with the ASA complaining about the fact that TomTom's main customer service IVR system plays a message to all customers telling them that their 0845 number is a "local rate" one.?

Won't the ASA just say "oh well as 0845 is the cheapest daytime call rate for out of bundle calls its not unreasonable for them to make such a claim.

I suppose I ought to at least try filing the complaint to find out.

NGMsGhost wrote on Mar 5^th, 2012 at 9:08am:

The ASA will take action on a whole range of issues, not just radio, TV and print advertising. They also cover the web, and have even taken action over details printed on A-boards, etc.