Rip off Britain yesterday mentioned TPS, (Telephone Preference Service),and called their number, 0845 0700707, "local rate", link to the comment:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01n2qdr/?t=39m34s

I wonder why they never mentioned the freephone number? 0800 398893.

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And they are now calling 0370 "local rate from a landline", on Points of View, http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01n5y4k/?t=14m12s

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Quote:


In my opinion none of these descriptions are correct or complete in their present form.

What the BBC need to say is something like "calls to this number are charged at standard BT geographic rates and will therefore also be treated as inclusive minutes within any landline or mobile phone inclusive calls bundles covering calls at that time of day".

However as even my above suggestion may be thought too complicated or confusing what is really needed is an active and ongoing public information campaign by Ofcom to educate people about different types of telephone number code and those number codes which qualify as standard minutes within calling plans and those which do not.

Ofcom also need to make an effort to educate people that where they make a call outside a call bundle that the cost of the call is becoming ever more expensive.

Of course on their latter point it was their own stupid mistake at Ofcom in totally deregulating BT prices on the incorrect basis that they no longer had Significant Market Power that has led to the current disgraceful abuses of Connection fees designed to blackmail customers in to taking a monthly calling package.  This abuse of connection fees is unfortunately a European wide problem although in Spain it manifests itself more frequently on mobiles where connection fees are now between 17 cents and 25 cents a call (depending on provider) in order to try and blackmail phone users in to subscribing to a monthly calls package.

All of these moves to introduce connection fees are in my opinions disgracefully uncompetitive (as with the ripoff Easyjet booking Administration fee that discriminates against solo passengers and one way travellers) and so should be banned by the OFT.

Can you imagine the fuss for instance if petrol stations were allowed to introduce a £5 per tank filling charge to any customer who had not contracted to buy 2,000 litres of petrol a year from that company's forecourts but this in effect is what the telephone companies are being allowed to do.

Dave wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 3:46pm:


I think my suggested statement still works if you drop BT from it.

Also please note it was Ofcom and not me who invented the idea of doing price comparisons with BT's calling prices.

NGMsGhost wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 3:32pm:

That was essentially my point.

It has taken a long time for the general position of seeing 084 numbers as being equivalent to “local rate”, and that term having any meaning, to come under doubt and suspicion - the SayNoTo0870 campaign has made a terrific contribution to that, but people (on both sides) are very slow to pick up the point.

Ofcom has, finally and far too late, decided to take on the job of simplifying non-geographic numbers and will have to come up with some simple and memorable terms to describe the various categories. It may then be many more years before these come to be adopted and understood.

Given the plural nature of the telecoms market, any attempt to give a comprehensive description of the cost of calling a number will either be inaccurate, incomplete, complete nonsense or all three (see “up to … an additional charge may apply” here). If one has to use more than a few simple words, then one might just as well show a cost hazard warning symbol, because that is all that is being achieved for the vast majority.

The question is - will Ofcom succeed?

catj wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 11:57pm:

Not so - see the table of graphics and words in this summary of its latest proposals.

catj wrote on Nov 5^th, 2012 at 11:57pm:

Let us not get too hung up on “enforcement”. The first step is to offer an easy route for those who are keen to “do the right thing” - even they are in a terrible muddle at present.

catj wrote on Nov 6^th, 2012 at 7:52am:

There is no problem-free way of doing this.

What is interesting from our perspective is that 084 and 087 are grouped together. It was previously proposed that they be described as "Business Rate".

It is of interest to compare the Ofcom 2010 proposals with those from 2012.

View this image

The issue is still open. Informal representations are still being made to Ofcom.

kasg wrote on Nov 6^th, 2012 at 11:49am:

Good point - I could have explained.

The various 05s and 076 are also missing. These are being covered by consultations which are separate from those from which the graphics were taken, although all within the same project. Whatever remains of these ranges will have to feature in the final version.