Radio Lacashire broadcast an 0845 number for callers to their "action line"  and described it as "local rate", I told them about the describing this as "local rate" was wrong and against all the guidlines, I got the usual response and they would not alter it, I contacted Ofcon and this morning received the following reply by letter, and Radio Lancashire now omit the reference to "local rate", they just do not tell you the cost of the call.

                                                                                                                                                    OFFICE  OF  COMMUNICATIONS
Ref. 2650112
20 Mar 2006
                                                                                                                                                                                  Steven Turner
                                                                                                                                                                         Broadcast Associate
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Direct Line: 020 7783 4416
                                                                                                                                           DireCt FaX: 020 7981 3334
                                                                                                                                                             steven.turner@ofcom.org.uk

Dear Mr ******

BBC Radio Lancashire

Thank you for contacting us. We have noted your complaint about the stipulation of costs for the above radio station's "action line".

In its review of Number Translation Services, Ofcom made it clear that the 'local' and 'national' rate terms as applied to 0845 and 0870 numbers may be misleading and should not be used by advertisers. We have also contributed to the Advertising Standards Authority's and the Committee of Advertising Practice's guidance on the use of these terms. This guidance similarly states that charges for these numbers should not be described in this way.

Your complaint relates to a promotion of a phone-in service within a BBC programme and as such, is not technically classified as advertising. We have, however, notified BBC Radio Lancaster to make them aware that this promotion could potentially be misleading.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Yours sincerely,

Steven Turner

Broadcast Support Team

Well done derrick, some progress.
Now for BBC You&Yours stating calls to 08700 etc "cost no more than 8p per minute".  >:(

Tanllan wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2006 at 3:48pm:

Well done derrick, some progress. Now for BBC You&Yours stating calls to 08700 etc "cost no more than 8p per minute".  >:(

But at least that is nearer the truth than "national rate" and at least tells you the cost is expensive.

Yep well done Derrick for doing this.

A caller to the Steven Rodes consumer programme on BBC 3 counties radio was complaining about NTL and withdrawal of the 0800 number and having to call expensive 0870 and 0845 numbers.

Steven Rodes considered phoning 'the company' but then decided not to take it up in the end saying you win some you lose some, you can always change provider. He also defended the 0845 number saying that the BBC radio station uses their 0845 number so that every body in the region pays the same rate!!

When will people get it into thier heads that regional charges were dropped ages ago and national call charges are now the same as local on most packages. The BBC is one of the worst offenders of the 0870 and 0845 scams, but their consumer programmes use these! Apart from Watchdog...