Dave wrote on Oct 14^th, 2006 at 8:20pm:

I've been told that - and that the antiquated 'whole minute charging' applies to all calls - by staff at the CEO's office.  So who knows which is correct?

In any case, it makes very little difference for anything except a call on which you immediately hang up.

Have been reading the latest comments and I know NEG appears in a number of threads.  Has anyone contacted them to draw attention to the misleading info they give?   I am sure this has been done but maybe all forum members interested could try it as a concerted campaign?   Would such campaigning be a way forward generally?   Members could be alerted to targets by PMs so the concerted nature of the complaints would be disguised.   Also are there any lawyers who are members of the forum who could take action on such misdescriptions?   I expect I am way behind and this has already been tried but thought it worth a post.

The ASA have stated to me in a letter that they are hoping to deal with the issue of their various codes not covering advertising on websites at some point in the near future.

bbb_uk wrote on Dec 20^th, 2006 at 10:36pm:


They did a formal adjudication on my complaint against Sky Travel Shop on Sky Three's claim that their 0870 calls were charged "at the National Rate of up to 8p per minute" or words to that effect.  They didn't formally rule against Sky on the basis that they had used the correct rate per minute, even though they had also used the words National Rate.  The ASA's letter said something along the lines of hoping that Sky wouldn't use the term National Rate in the future and to be fair I see they now don't make this claim on Sky Travel Shop.

Anyhow my complaint broke new ground in that the ASA decided they did have the power to review a tv program on the basis of a price claim made about an 0870 number.  It is unfortunate that Sky didn't get a formal ruling against them though.

The adjudication should be somewhere on the ASA website.

Just found it at www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_41766.htm

Annoyingly I emailed the ASA before the adjudication to complain that the pricing information on BT's website that Sky referred to was inaccurate and also pointing to The MD of BT Retail's (Ian Livingston) comments that 084/7 numbers were a scam and extra charging should be ended but these were not taken into account at the adjudication.

I suppose this really needs breaking off into a new thread entitled "ASA Ruling On Sky Travel Shop Claim 0870 is National Rate"

Dave,

Where did you get this stuff from - NEG's website?

If you could get sent NEG's leaflets and these lies are in the leaflets then you can file a complaint with the ASA about it which NEG will obviously lose.  If its only on their website then trading standards is the only form of redress sadly.

Quote:


Dave, couldn't find any actual case studies on the NEG website only general blurb about Bank of England, YMCA, etc. Might they have removed it, or am I just not sufficiently computer literate?

Could you provide a link?

Having read various incorrect postings re NEG, and quite frankly an offensive posting from user idb I felt compelled to register and post a response. I use the word 'offensive' as idb feels that a) he has the right to make assumptions about me and how I 'bull s**t' my customers and b) he assumes to know Surgery Line - when in fact this person has never even discussed our service with us.

Just to clarify; after 13 years in this business and a holder of both a degree and Masters I feel no need to go out and 'scam' people in order to make a living.

OK - personal feelings to one side;

It makes no odds to us at all if a surgery queues calls for 20mins or 1min or not at all and continues to give the engaged tone as we do not make money from this element.

The SURGERY makes this choice, and can change the queue duration at any time, as Surgery Line is bespoke it can often take about 3-6months before it fits the environment of the practice, list size and patient demographic.

Many practices conduct patient surveys, and this always bring up the problem of access, esp first thing in the morning.

The practice can either continue to give the engaged tone, meaning no one can get through - even if they wanted to cancel their appt, or employ another person to ans calls for the first 1.5 hours, OR adopt a queue facility which TELLS THE PATIENT WHERE THEY ARE IN THE QUEUE - so they have a choice.

I am also a patient, and before my own GP moved to Surgery Line it was a total nightmare to get through. I am far too busy to keep ringing an engaged tone in the hope I can get through. For this reason I often didn't bother to cancel my appts as I couldn't reach them. It also cost me 50p to use BT ring back.

It probably costs me about £1 a year to ring my doctor - lets get things in perspective shall we?

We are the preferred supplier to GP in the UK and again we don't make out money from the length of call, but the rental for the hardware of the system. Practices have a choice - THEY decide how it is set up, not us.

Rather than speculate about NEG - wouldn't it be far better to speak to us and get a true picture?