SayNoTo1890.com

Back in the early days of SayNoTo1890.com, I wrote this post where I’d noticed that some government quangos were not providing geographical alternatives for their consumer helplines, but that they did provide such alternatives for corporate helplines.

At the time, the two culprits were the National Consumer Agency and the Financial Regulator.

Following an e-mail from a reader this week who provided us with a geographical alternative for NERA (the National Employment Rights Authority), I noticed that their contacts page had the very same situation.

Information
NERA Information Service Lo-Call 1890 80 80 90*

So, normal employees and consumers are subjected to having to use this 1890 number, but corporates get to call a normal geographical phone number.

Corporate enquires
Telephone: +353 59 917 8800

Why is it that consumers are treated differently in this way, and put at a possible disadvantage - as even they recognise by using the *

• Note that the rates charged for the use of 1890 (LoCall) numbers may vary among different service providers.

Why not just provide another 059 number, as our reader found for us?

Many thanks to the reader who e-mailed in the following geographical alternative numbers earlier in the week.

• NERA - National Employment Rights Authority 1890 80 80 90 - Call 059 917 8990

• Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment - Employment Permits 1890 201 616  - Call 01 417 5333

According to the response to my Freedom of Information request last month, ComReg have told me that they in fact don’t make any money from their 1890 customer help lines.

This is contrary to the comments from a ComReg member of staff in an e-mail that I had sight of back in August.

When I get the scanner working, I’ll upload the ComReg FOI response details.

Many thanks to the reader who provided us with this geographical alternative number for the Data Protection Commissioner.

• Data Protection Commissioner 1890 252231 - Call 057 8684800

The Government page above has now been updated with this number.

Thanks to the reader who sent in these alternative geographical numbers for the Central Statistics Office. This number has also been added to the Government page above.

Central Statistics Office - 1890 313 414

• Cork - Call 021 4535000 Ext. 5028 or 5029
• Dublin - Call 01 4984000

For some reason that doesn’t make sense to me yet, whenever you make a call to ComReg, be it looking for information or trying to complain about something, you’re helping ComReg make money for themselves. They’re there supposedly to be of service to consumers, yet you call them and they make money from your phone call.

From a SayNoTo1890.com reader, we were provided with the following snippet of an e-mail from a ComReg employee:

The Locall number we advertise is a minor source of revenue for us – the bulk comes from levies imposed on those firms we regulate.

If that’s the case, I wonder how much money other Government organisations are making from making us consumers ring them on their 1890.

I say I don’t understand this because normally businesses who have these 1890 numbers end up paying the balance of whatever the call would cost. It’s normally only 0818 numbers that a business would make money one.

A reader has been in contact with us regarding their communication of their displeasure regarding 1890 and 1850 call to with ComReg.

A couple of items came from this communication - including the following ridiculous last line:

Should you have any other queries or require any other assistance from me you can call our Consumer Team on 1890 229668.

However. earlier in the e-mail, they did provide an alternative geographical number for anyone wishing to contact ComReg:

• ComReg 1890 229 668 - Call 01 8049600

The Government page has been updated above.

If you’re unfortunate to have been caught speeding, or any other traffic offence, and you receive your Fixed Charge Notification, your ticket fine, then this alternative geographic number for contacting the Fixed Charge Processing Office might be of use to you.

• Fixed Charge Processing Office 1890 30 40 60 - Call 01 666 8500

This number has been filed under the Government numbers above.

Thanks to the users who have contacted us in the past week or so with some number updates. These have been reflected in the relevant pages, but here’s the summary:

• Panda Recycling 1850 62 62 62 - Call 046 9024111

• Department of Social & Family Affairs - main switch changed from 01 874 8444 to 01 704 3000

• The Call Costs page has been updated for Perlico.

• DELL General Sales Enquiries and Printer Supplies 1850 333 200 – Call 01 279 5000

Many thanks to those that have e-mailed us. If you have any geographical alternative numbers for 1890, 1850 or 0818 numbers, please contact us by clicking here.

• Our Aer Lingus number apparently no longer works. Anyone have an alternative that will work for their 0818 numbers?
• We have been provided with an updated number for Ryanair.
• Updated numbers have also been provided for Chorus/NTL/UPC
• We have been provided an alternative for the Driver Testing Centre section of the RSA
• SellItYourSelf.ie have provided us with their geographical number also