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.