Having stumbled accross this website about 3 or 4 weeks ago it was VERY interesting to hear what people had to say on all aspects of telephone numbers.

I operate a business which DID have 0870's about 4 or 5 years ago and until this month operated 0845 numbers for the last 4 years.  Years ago before the easier and better method of transfer your calls away from BT these numbers had their place.  If you were ringing nationally then 0870 came out about the same, and if a company like mine offered 0845 then a local rate is what you paid.

I agree with everything people are saying regards TODAYS costs of ringing these NGN numbers.  I think I should point out that I offered an 0845 because I DID want to try and offer my customers (who are all nationally calling) a cheaper method ( and NO I didn't receive any revenue share).  Running an 0800 number was too expensive so I thought this would be better FOR ME!

Having recently moved house and looked into cheaper GAS and ELECTRICITY I thought best to look at my telephone supplier as well.  Having changed to Onetel for both calls and line rental I now see the disadvantages to NGN.  Hence I have returned to my standard 01 numbers for sales.

My point I'm trying to make is, yes there are firms out there earning hugh revenues on 0870 and some who probably keep you hanging on longer than you should.  But please remember I (and hopefully a lot of other business) offered these types of numbers for the correct reasons and now the benefit to the customer has gone! So therefore have these types of numbers in my case! 

I do feel that if some of you had your way I would be "shot" along with the rest of them!!!!

I thought it best to make my point now before the firing squad came knocking!!

Well, I certainly won't be in the firing squad.  You have clearly demonstrated that you understood the situation with 0870, and 0845 numbers, and took the correct action straight away, and I'm sure your customers appreciate being able to phone a geo number instead.

There are alot of businesses around who are in the same situation.  They got their NGN number in good faith, and there was a time when 0845 was cheaper than 01/02.

However, this is no longer the case, and the only benefits for having NGN numbers are clearly profit driven now.  With all the bad publicity surrounding these numbers, anybody that changes over now, or has done in the last year or so, clearly knew what they were doing, or been very badly advised from telco reps!!

Today, I sent an e-mail to one of the worse offenders of 0870 numbers, for a simple customer service issue, which in my opinion could easily be dealt with over e-mail, but instead they told me to call their customer services if I wanted to sort it out, because dealing with it via e-mail might be insecure, and they might fall foul of data protection laws!!  Just as well O2 do inclusive minutes to 0870 numbers, and my mobile has loud speakers so I don't have to hold my phone for half an hour!!

Thanks for your post, TelephoneNut.

I was heartened and encouraged to read of a company acknowledging how much more expensive is it to expect customers to use 0870 numbers and then actually doing something about it!  Offering geographic numbers is surely the best practice for good customer care these days.

Keep it up and let's hope many others follow your lead - it is time to change!