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Originally Posted by nffc
<snip...>And the whole point of the numbers is that they allow everyone in the country to pay the same. If our call centre used the 0115 numbers it would be cheap for local people to call, people in the Midlands, but for people in the south west or in the North of Scotland it would be expensive - so everyone pays the same. The fact that the 0870s etc are not included in talk plans is more the fault of the customers not checking the deals properly or the phone providers for misleading them, or not including them in the package to begin with. Plus especially for places with so many options the list of numbers would mean customers would need to be provided with a list the size of yellow pages to then find the right one... difficult. We also do not have anything other than internal extensions because otherwise, that would mean way way too many numbers to use especially bearing in mind the number of staff!
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Wrong and its not often I say it so bluntly. 0870 is allways dearer than any uk geographical number from any uk location. Has been for a long time. 0870 is profit for both the telco's and the company with the 0870. You are correct on one point, everyone pays the same, which is well over the odds. When 0870 first came out it
was the equivalent of the geographic national rate, the same with 0845 and local rate. The problem is 0870 numbers has not reduced in accordance with regular national rate, therefore expect customers to be peeved and expect websites to get set up with databases of numbers, also expect ofcom to be lobied till change happens.
0870 is no longer what it advertises to be "national rate" and that is the be all and end all of the number. It is now a money spinner with busted robots and endless loops or huge ques. As it is not a national rate number anymore but a special rate this is also the reason why virtually all telco plans do not include them. The customers have been forced into taking the action, so I should say, ye reap what ye sow, and a scam will allways bite you in the ass, one way or another.