0870 bad press

[Snorkerz]

Originally Posted by bizal

If having an 0870 number puts even a few people of calling why bother and not just have an 0845?

part of selling is making it easy to buy so we would recommend an 0845 number every time.

I guess it's a cost thing - although you can get 0845s with no call charges, most companies expect the business to pay iro 1½p per minute to take an 0845, and pay a setup fee / annual cost. Using an 0870 number there is no per-call cost to the business, indeed it's possible to find them with no-setup fees and with a payment to you iro 2p per minute.

[bizal]

UK2Numbers charge 1 off fee and no call costs, extra fees etc ever. This is for less than £20.00 1 off payment.

So why risk it. Everyone likes 0845 numbers

[numnutz]

I do not mind paying to call a company - however I do not expect to be put on hold "until one of our agents is free" Why should I pay money out of my pocket to make an enquiry. If a companys number is 0800 I do not mind hanging on the phone for a couple of minutes.

Ebay (who own Skype) are going to put a Skype link on all auction pages to enable buyers and sellers to communicate with each other. I would suggest for a small trader It may be worth while setting up a Skype account to offer free contact to customers. If you wish some privacy you can always stop the software from running.

PS There are other VOIP services available but Skype seems to give the best quality and ease of use so far.


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[garyk]

I dont like 0870s and used to work for a telco reselling 0800/0845/0870. They *are* poorly perceived and the competition in this market is huge and there are lots of telcos that will give you an 0845 completely FOC so no real need to use an 0870 unless you want to a few pence for your time perhaps on a support line.

Gary

[monaghan]

I've never understood the idea behind these (other than revenue generation), even our local theatre now has an 0870 number and they're unlikely to get many bookings from outside our local area.

Most people I've met seem to be frustrated that these numbers cost more as they're not included in most inclusive calls plans.

At the end of the day, most of the of the easy to remember number sequences went long time ago, so 0870 XXXXXX is no more difficult to remember than 0208 XXX XXXX.

Some companies are now actually playing on the fact that they offer a real local number rather than an 08XX number.

[Natkits]

Both 0870 and 0845 have become widely perceived by customers as just another way of making money.

I know that in reality 0845's are generally setup so customers can contact you for the cost of a local call, but Joe Public doesn't see it like that.... mainly because so many residential telephone companies now give 'free minutes' as part of the package, and 0845, 0870 etc are generally NOT included in the free minutes!

I gather new regs are being introduced and new numbers, specifically a 'lo-call' prefix that must be included in 'free minute packages'.

In the mean time, I tihnk we're going to opt for a freephone 0800 number. It appears that theyre not as expensive as I previously thought they might be