SayNoTo1890.com

Many thanks to the SayNoTo1890.com reader who went so far as to approach their local TD, Alan Shatter, to have a question asked of the Minister for Energy and Natural Resource,  Eamonn Ryan, TD.

Unfortunately, as we’re finding out from any organisation that’s being approached about this issue, no one is taking responsibility – instead leaving it down to the telecoms operators, all of whom have too much money to lose by doing anything different.

Question

To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will take the necessary steps to ensure that an area code fixed line number must be provided alongside an 1890 or 1850 telephone number where such numbers are provided for members of the public to contact any organisation or business to enable such calls to be included in a bundle of inclusive minutes as currently offered by various telecom providers; his views on whether the practice of State bodies and businesses to exclusively use 1890 or 1850 numbers is contrary to the public interest and results in consumers incurring unnecessary expense; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Answer

The matters raised by the Deputy are a customer service issue for the organisation or business concerned. The use and display of telephone numbers is an area in which I have no statutory function.   In relation to the wider public sector,  I will ask my officials to contact the Quality Customer Service Officers Network, which is managed by the Department of the Taoiseach, requesting that they advise Government Departments and State Agencies to display and use both local and lo-call numbers.

My own Department uses both a lo-call number and a standard local number to facilitate a choice for members of the public. These numbers are published on the Department’s website and in telephone directories.

Its interesting to see the referal of the issue to whatever that "Quality Customer Service Officers Network" is. As I wrote about last week, there are still some Departments and government organisations that don’t provide geographical alternative numbers. I wonder will these officers

Following on from a story in the previous weeks edition, Conor Pope referenced SayNoTo1890.com in his Pricewatch column on Monday May 18th.

The article, Just Say No Lo , went as follows:

Just say no Lo

Our item about lo-call numbers attracted a large response from readers who were similarly annoyed by the practice of mobile and landline operators not including 1850 or 1890 numbers as part of their bundled minutes and charging as much as 35 cent a minute for calls to them.

“This is the first time I have encountered anyone who has the same sentiment I have about these numbers,” writes a reader by the name of Valerie. She has an Eircom bundle which gives her free local and national calls but not free lo-calls. She has a plan to circumvent the problem, however.

“Being retired, I check websites first to see if they provide numbers for people ringing from outside Ireland, then ring that landline number. It works. It drives me crazy when I’m told it’s lo-call when I actually have the option of it being a free call. My view is that it is another way of conning the public and I’m amazed no one has taken this up with Government departments,” she concludes.

Another reader named Richard said the best way around lo-call numbers was to use the alternative local number.

“It can be a little bit of work finding it, but I normally use the excellent Say No to 1890 website www.saynoto1890.com/a-to-z/ ”.

He was just one of a number of readers to cite the website, which has also featured on this page in the past.

And a third reader from Kerry says that, when it comes to over-priced 1890 calls, the “worst culprit is the Government”. He says it is “nearly impossible to contact any Government department”, but when he called Comreg and his local TDs he got the runaround.

Nice to get the mention, and nice to see that the reaction of the users of the site. Thanks to whomever made contact with Conor.

This story in Wednesdays Irish Independent, Child safety fears spark soft-drink recall , provides contact details for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland at the end:

Consumers are asked to contact the Food Safety Authority on 1890 33 66 77 should they require further information.

The geographical alternative for this 1890 number is 01 817 1300 as per their website and our SayNoTo1890.com A-Z page .

Following on from this post I wrote earlier in the week , I realised that my original post about the Fine Gael 1890 research must have been lost in the recent problems that I’ve had with this site.

Basically, some time ago now, Fine Gael added a new campaign item to their RipOff.ie which highlighted the fact that many Government departments provided 1890 numbers for us to call, but very few of them highlighted the fact that if you were calling from a mobile or in some cases from a landline with a minutes bundle package, that you could end up more than might be suggested when calling a LOCALL number.

The Fine Gael research highlighted 21 Government departments and helpline numbers with 1890 contact numbers.

At the time, I did a check and found 19 geographical alternative numbers for the 21 numbers. They’re all included in the A-Z listing page here .

Calling these geographical alternative numbers for these departments from a mobile or a landline with a minutes bundle will mean that you’ll avoid the ridiculous higher charges from service providers when calling 1890 numbers.

This article from Mondays Pricewatch column in the Irish Times from Conor Pope highlights a reader, Mannix, who takes issue with the fact that many government departments provide 1890 contact numbers. While these numbers appear to be cheaper, given their LOCALL and CALLSAVE descriptions, for the reader who uses an O2 mobile, it actually costs significantly more.

This is an issue that I’m constantly highlighting on this website. In fact, a very committed reader has been chasing many of the regulatory organisations within the country to see if anything can be done about this issue, but without any success. ComReg, the National Consumer Agency, the Competition Authority, and the Minister at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamonn Ryan, all say its not their problem. And obviously, the mobile companies who make a huge profit from these calls don’t want to know either.

The research, referred to in Conors article, carried out by Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael is available on their RipOff.ie website here .

The SayNoTo1890.com A-Z geographical alternative telephone number page on the site provides landline numbers for many government departments, including all but 2 of the 21 departments referenced on the Fine Gael website. Calling these numbers instead of the 1890 numbers means that people can call from their mobile without incurring the higher costs.

I’m constantly on the look out for more of these geographical alternative numbers, so if you know of any others, please let me know and I’ll add them to the list. The two from the Fine Gael listing that I don’t have are the National Treatment Purchase Fund and bizarrely given that it’s most likely to be called from a mobile, the Garda Traffic Watch hotline.

Many thanks to the SayNoTo1890.com reader who sent in these few geographical alternative numbers for a few departments.

Revenue Forms and Leaflets Service

• 1890 306 706 – Call 01 7023050

Revenue Collector General’s Division

• 1890 203 070 – Call 01 6330600

Revenue Online Service (ROS) Information Desk

• 1890 20 11 06 – Call 01 7023021

Earlier in the week I published a request from a reader for the geographical alternative for the itsforwomen.ie insurance website, and referred to 25plus.ie and MCL Insurance as being related companies.

Many thanks to the reader who posted the following comment:

Phone number for itsforwomen.com; 25plus.ie and MCL Insurance is a NI number. 0044 28 7055 8182

And to the reader who posted the follow up comment:

Maybe you don’t realise that here in the south we can phone any NI number by replacing the 028 with 048 and it counts as an Irish landline call.

So there you have it, we now have geographical alternatives for the numbers requeste as follows:

itsforwomen.ie

• 1890 886 227 – Call 048 28 7055 8182

25plus.ie

• 1890 927 334 – Call 048 28 7055 8182

Thanks to everyone for helping out.