Is there any1 there uthinks that the 0870 numbers used by co's to 'field' their c. pl ts from cstmrs is Fair.

Question

I have tried twice and no satisfaction, their phones are in other towns and not in the actual vicinity of the store concerned.I feel that the companies use these numbers to make money from the complaints of their customers, or hope that because of the cost involved actually deter peolple from complaining.

Answer 1

Its very unfair. I use
http://www.saynoto0870.com/search.php

Answer 2

I have saved a small fortune by finding alternative numbers from the website below.
I think it is a con, charging people to get to customer services, I did it today at a friends house for her, and it was on the phone a good 10 minutes, AND they refused to talk to me, because I wastn't the customer, I was in fact the person paying their customers money to them. My friend isn't on the internet so I couldn't look up the number on the web site.
I pay a fixed amount to cover all geographical UK calls, non geographical number such as 0845, 0870, etc, are not included.
Not all numbers have alternatives on this site but a lot do.
http://www.saynoto0870.com/

Answer 3

Many people don't realise that there are many phone providers offering cheaper calls to standard telephone numbers (those beginning with 01 or 02), which don't apply to 0844, 0845, 0870 or 0871 telephone numbers. - Please see the links page and click on Cheapest Call Provider for price details. This shows that by using multiple providers, you can reduce your call cost on standard telephone numbers to as little as 3p fixed cost (regardless of duration), whereas the cheapest provider to 0870 numbers during the day that I am aware of charges 4p/min (+ 3p connection fee) to call.

Worst still some companies that use these numbers are actually receiving a cut of the phone call costs.

If you have an 'inclusive landline calls' phone package, then it is very rare that 0844, 0845, 0870, or 0871 numbers are are included in your 'free minutes' allocation, unlike normal numbers. Many mobile phone packages also exclude freephone 0800 and 0808 numbers for your bundled minutes.

Many companies advertise a separate number that can be used when calling from abroad - This usually begins in the format +44 - There is nothing to stop you using this number from the UK (as it is a normal rate telephone call), and will be included in any inclusive minutes provided by your landline or mobile phone provider. Many others will give you a standard number if you ask.

Answer 4

Its a fact of life.

Companies are far too big now to want to have individual complaint departments at store level.

Several reasons why:

Different Manufacturers. Chances are the store didn't "make" the item you are complaining about. If you bought it, and the store's exchange period has lapsed, then your legal recourse is to complain to the manufacturer.

Uniformity of Policy. Having ONE group of people handle all complaint issues helps ths company have a uniform policy for handling them. It would be bad to have one store giving refunds or replacements when another store doesn't.

Economics. This is the biggie. It is much much cheaper to maintain a single customer service/ complaint department than to have dozen or hundreds of separate groups.

Face it-- the "Mayberry" era where local folks all looked after each other are gone. There are simply too many billions of us to have that work any more.

Answer 5

Yeah, sometimes it seems like companies do not care about complaints, but these companies eventually do not succeed, the customer is always right.