High cost helpline rip-off

In a report published today, Which? names and shames companies and government agencies that use expensive phone helplines to make money at the expense of consumers.

More than 30 organisations are named in Which?'s ‘hall of shame', including Tiscali, British Gas and Barclays, and government agencies TV Licensing and the DVLA. They all use higher-charging 0871, 0870, 0844 or 0845 numbers for customer service or technical support lines.

Organisations that use these numbers can share the revenue from calls with the phone service provider. That means that the longer a customer stays on the line, the more the organisation earns.

Ofcom introduced 03 numbers last year, which cost the same as calling a geographic (01 or 02) number, and it plans to stop organisations making money from 0870 numbers. But none of the organisations checked by Which? had switched to 03, and some have simply switched from 0870 to other high cost numbers.

Which? called customer helplines at broadband and utility companies and government agencies, to find out how long callers are kept waiting to speak to someone. British Gas, AOL and DVLA kept people hanging on longest, with average waiting times of around three minutes. One call to AOL was held for over 15 minutes, at a cost of 75p from a BT landline.

The DVLA made £3.4 million from its 0870 number in the last financial year. It says it plans to switch to a cheaper number but it hasn't said when. Which? wants all companies to switch their helplines and technical support from expensive numbers to cheaper 03, 0800 or geographic numbers.

Neil Fowler, Editor, Which? magazine, says: "Why should you pay for the privilege of making a complaint or getting a problem fixed? It's unacceptable that companies and government agencies can make big money from people calling helplines. Check if there's a cheaper phone number or ask the company to refund the call cost - it's the least they can do if you're calling about a faulty product or bad service."