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From Yahoo news:
LONDON (Reuters) - Consumers are oblivious to the exorbitant costs they incur when phoning some customer service departments and help-lines, a survey has shown.
Which? asked around 1,000 people how much they thought they would be charged for dialling so-called revenue-sharing phone codes with prefixes like 0870 or 0845.
Most answered incorrectly or did not know the costs involved in calling 0870 -- one of the most expensive numbers.
Organisations that use 0845, 0844 and the higher-charging 0870 and 0871 numbers can share revenues from calls with phone service providers -- resulting in hugely inflated costs.
A 10-minute daytime call from a BT landline to a geographic number (starting with 01 or 02) could cost as little as 3 pence, but the same call could cost about 80 pence to an 0870 number.
Consumers spend more than 300 million pounds a year dialling 0871 numbers, according to premium-rate regulator Icstis.
Customers sometimes have to call a revenue-sharing number even to complain about a problem of a company's own making. And some banks, including Alliance and Leicester and Lloyds TSB, use 0870 lines to give advice to people with debt problems.
The Department for Work and Pensions, meanwhile, made 268,000 pounds last year from 0845 hotlines to advise those on low incomes about benefit and winter fuel payments.
Researchers also found that many companies are boosting profits by leaving customers waiting for calls to be answered.
It called help-lines run by eight broadband companies, five energy firms and five government agencies and found energy companies -- which use 0845 numbers -- had the longest waiting times, at an average 3-1/2 minutes.
Utility firm npower was the worst culprit, keeping researchers waiting an average of seven minutes -- a call that would cost 24 pence from a BT landline, but up to 1.05 pounds on a mobile phone.
Neil Fowler, editor of Which?, said: "Revenue-sharing is a stealth tax of the worst kind.
"Tales of customers hanging on for ages at huge expense when they are trying to place an order -- or even make a complaint -- are numerous.
"Where once businesses paid to look after customers, it now seems that customers must pay for the privilege of businesses looking after them."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070607/tuk-uk-britain-phone-fa6b408.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Consumers are oblivious to the exorbitant costs they incur when phoning some customer service departments and help-lines, a survey has shown.
Which? asked around 1,000 people how much they thought they would be charged for dialling so-called revenue-sharing phone codes with prefixes like 0870 or 0845.
Most answered incorrectly or did not know the costs involved in calling 0870 -- one of the most expensive numbers.
Organisations that use 0845, 0844 and the higher-charging 0870 and 0871 numbers can share revenues from calls with phone service providers -- resulting in hugely inflated costs.
A 10-minute daytime call from a BT landline to a geographic number (starting with 01 or 02) could cost as little as 3 pence, but the same call could cost about 80 pence to an 0870 number.
Consumers spend more than 300 million pounds a year dialling 0871 numbers, according to premium-rate regulator Icstis.
Customers sometimes have to call a revenue-sharing number even to complain about a problem of a company's own making. And some banks, including Alliance and Leicester and Lloyds TSB, use 0870 lines to give advice to people with debt problems.
The Department for Work and Pensions, meanwhile, made 268,000 pounds last year from 0845 hotlines to advise those on low incomes about benefit and winter fuel payments.
Researchers also found that many companies are boosting profits by leaving customers waiting for calls to be answered.
It called help-lines run by eight broadband companies, five energy firms and five government agencies and found energy companies -- which use 0845 numbers -- had the longest waiting times, at an average 3-1/2 minutes.
Utility firm npower was the worst culprit, keeping researchers waiting an average of seven minutes -- a call that would cost 24 pence from a BT landline, but up to 1.05 pounds on a mobile phone.
Neil Fowler, editor of Which?, said: "Revenue-sharing is a stealth tax of the worst kind.
"Tales of customers hanging on for ages at huge expense when they are trying to place an order -- or even make a complaint -- are numerous.
"Where once businesses paid to look after customers, it now seems that customers must pay for the privilege of businesses looking after them."
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070607/tuk-uk-britain-phone-fa6b408.html
