Dear Mr xxx,

Thank you for your recent email regarding our use of an 0845 number for Dial-a-Ride bookings. The service introduced this number for our new centralised booking service because it provides us with disaster recovery facilities that are not available with an ordinary 0207 or 0208 number, as we can very quicky redirect the phone lines should a flood/ fire or other emergency mean that we cannot operate from our London call centre.

Normally 0845 numbers are charged as if they are local calls, so in theory should not be more expensive that our previous booking numbers. We have, however received a number of complaints from customers who have experienced an increase in their telephone bills related to the way that some phone providers charge for 0845 numbers.

Dial-a-Ride fully appreciates that the charging policies of some telephone providers is causing difficulty for some of our customers and so we have decided to provide customers with an 0207 number that they can use to contact us as an alternative to the 0845 number. This number is 0207 394 5800. I would be grateful if you could pass this information to your mother and advise her that she can use this number to make her bookings in the future. We will be shortly issuing this number to all customers to use if they prefer.

I do hope that this will resolve the problems that your mother has been experiencing. Please do not hesitate to contact me if she has any other issues she would like to raise relating to her Dial-a-Ride service.

Yours sincerely

Joyce Mamode
Head of Passenger Services
London Dial-a-Ride
joyce.mamode@tfl-buses.co.uk

Normally 0845 numbers are charged as if they are local calls, so in theory should not be more expensive that our previous booking numbers. We have, however received a number of complaints from customers who have experienced an increase in their telephone bills related to the way that some phone providers charge for 0845 numbers.