catj wrote on Dec 9
th, 2012 at 5:02pm:
The problem arises that everyone hopped on it as a cash cow for penalising customers needing customer service or needing to complain - both of which should not incur additional charge.
I believe it is fair to say that, in many cases, this was done unwittingly.
When offering a telephone service to a business, a telco is able to present a more competitive proposition if a 084/087 number is used. A buyer will naturally be drawn to the cheapest offer and may be reassured about the consequences, in terms of the cost to callers, in ways which (shall we say) "look on the bright side". A lot of the garbage about call costs found on web sites is unthinkingly reproduced from unreliable sources.
Many of the people I speak with are genuinely unaware of what they are doing to their callers. Of course that is an unacceptable failure in their duty, so it in no way lets them off the hook. It does perhaps give us hope that when they are forced to acknowledge what is going on, they will have to recognise that they must change their ways.
This is not easy. There are very few people who, when realising that they have unintentionally been ripping people off, would immediately own up to it and put the situation right by proposing that their business allows its costs to increase. It may not be possible to distinguish between the well-meaning, but irresponsible, incompetent and the deliberate rogue.
When they are forced to consider the likely reaction to declaring a "Service Charge", that could be the tipping point.