Most people in the UK are now signed up to some form of telephone service that has an inclusive calls package, even if it is just evenings and weekends. These packages usually include free calls at the specified times to all landline numbers. They may include other types of call, but rarely if ever include the cost of calls to 0845 numbers.
However, numerous companies, especially national ones, only provide 0845 numbers as their contact telephone numbers, especially for their "customer service" contact. This means that all calls to those companies incur a charge over and above the charge for your call package.
The effect of this is worsened still further when that number takes you to a call routing/queuing system, where charges are incurred during the (not insignificant) time during which you are taken through numerous option selection menus, and can become huge if that is followed by music on hold waiting periods.
The irony of this whole state of affairs is that 0845 was originally introduced by BT in roughly 1988 (give or take a couple of years) as a means of allowing companies to offer local rate calls to their customers rather than requiring them to call the (then) more expensive "trunk" rate number of a national STD number. The use of the number incurred (and still does) a charge to the business using it, which was, at that time, intended as a way of the business picking up the cost that would otherwise have been picked up by the customer. This was introduced for those companies that wanted to make a customer-friendly gesture to their customers, particularly suited to companies offering centralised call centres.
Now, as we all know, call centres have since proliferated since that time, and along with them, the use of 0845 has also done so. However, during the last few years, with the increased liberalisation of retail telecoms, and the increased competition that has come with it, there are now very few, if any, packages that do not have inclusive call costs to any national telephone number (i.e. the very numbers that they were trying to avoid when 0845 was introduced) for at least some of the time, and if you have opted for a anytime package, then dialing the straight national STD number will always be free.
Consequently, this means that those companies that continue to offer 0845, rather than publish their national STD number are causing their customers to incur call charges, above and beyond their call package, that they would otherwise not have to incur.
The additional irony of this is that the companies are also having to pay for this privilege, one that actually increases their customer's costs rather than decreasing them. BT tries to sell this option to businesses with the statement that "Callers now always pay lower than the cost of a standard call on BT's most popular residential package, Unlimited Weekend Plan." The point that is missed by that statement is that, even on that package, this standard call rate is only chargeable in the week, and for BT customers who select the unlimited anytime package, they would not have to pay for standard calls, so they will always pay more. It also misses the point that more and more people are taking their call packages from other companies than BT.
So if both business and customer are paying more, then why are companies still using these numbers? Good question - read the next post.
