Interesting exchange with the company trading as Cadbury Gifts Direct who seem to be disavowing the number on their own website when tackled.

Original email from me:

Quote:

Dear Sir/Madam, I was about to place an order on your website when I noticed that the only contact telephone number you give is an expensive 0845 number. Of course, the hope is that any order I place will go smoothly and there would be no need to contact you. However, I would expect that if I did need to contact you, I could do so via a standard rate telephone number, not one that attracts a surcharge. In particular, I am very surprised that a reputable brand such as Cadbury does appear to use such a number for after-sales enquiries, given that this is now illegal under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Perhaps you could reassure me that you do in fact offer a legally compliant, standard rate phone number for after sales that you provide during the order process? Or perhaps this is an oversight and you will be changing your number soon? I would be interested to hear your response on this.

Bizarre response:

Quote:

Good Afternoon, Thank you for your email below. Please be advised that the telephone number is owned by Mondelez who manufacture the products. We are the online gifting arm of Cadbury’s. If you would prefer to contact us by other means you can do so by either email or live chat which is available on our Website. Kind Regards, [Name] Customer Solutions Cadbury Gifts Direct Tel: 0845 6003113

So, the customer service number they refer to all over their own site is somebody else's issue, apparently...

Given that the person who reply can't even get the company name right (they've referred to themselves as Cadbury rather than Cadbury's for decades) I suspect cluelessness!

Try 01895 615 000 .   They own Cadburys and that's UK Head Office in Uxbridge.

Good Morning NumberMoose

Welcome to SayNoTo0870.com

Looking into this in more detail, Cadbury Gifts Direct is actually operated by Hemingways Marketing Services Ltd.

This is advised here

Quote:

Cadbury Gifts Direct and Cadbury Gifts Direct for Business are operated, under licence from Mondelēz International by Hemingways Marketing Services Ltd.

Hemingways Marketing Services Ltd can be contacted here (contact e-mail and number at bottom of page)

Note that on the Hemmingways website they predominantly have 03 numbers, including for the Cadbury Gifts Corporate department, but NOT for consumer.


Quote:

Cadbury Gifts Direct (consumer)T: +44 (0) 845 6003113 Cadbury Gifts Direct (corporate)T: +44 (0) 333 2070780

Additionally they do not display the costs of contacting the 084 number on either their website or the Cadbury Gifts Direct website.

Lastly having checked online, Hemmingways previously used 0871 numbers, and appear to have moved to the 03 equivalent, they have NOT however taken the 03 equivalent of their 0845 number.

Perhaps you may wish to suggest that they move from 0845 600 3113 to 0345 600 3113.

I apologise for the length of this post, but I hope it helps.

:)

If the number is owned by Mondolez as suggested surely you should be talking to Mondolez the owner.   on the 01895 Head Office Number and not it's licence holder.

Disagree. Hemingways are who my contract would be with as a customer. They are advertising an 0845 number to contact them with enquiries about orders already made - indeed, it's in the email signature of the person there who replied to me and in their T&Cs. That is not permitted.

While the number may have been provisioned for Hemingways via Cadbury, surely that is a matter for them to debate between themselves?

CJT-80 wrote on Sep 1^st, 2017 at 11:52am:

Good Morning NumberMoose... (post snipped)

Thank CJT-80. Helpful input. Not going to push this one too far, but thought it was an interesting example of buck passing being used as an excuse for using inappropriate numbers!

Do push this as far as is necessary to get the number changed. Sometimes the trail is torturous to reach success.

More than three years after the Consumer Contracts Regulations came into force there is really now no excuse for non-compliance.

Good Afternoon,

Not that I was to hijack this thread with another company, but it would appear they also run the Green and Blacks delivery service. That uses an 0870 number.  I will start a new post with that info in.  :)