SayNoTo1890.com

Back at the start of the month, I published a request to see if anyone can help out by letting us know the geographical alternatives for a series of numbers.

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much of a response so far.

So, check out the listing here, and contact me or post a comment below if you can help out. Thank you!

Just a note to some people who think that SayNoTo1890.com can be used for free advertising. If you think about it, being listed on this site is really a reason for shame rather than self-promotion.

If you’re a company that only provides an 1890, 1850 or 0818 number (or makes it almost impossible to find a geographical alternative), and thereby makes it more expensive for many of your companies to contact you, then you’re pretty much failing at your customer service.

So, if you’re a company that doesn’t actually have an 1890, 1850 or 0818 number, then there’s really no point e-mailing me your phone number to get it listed here – we don’t need it as people can already find it on your website.

Thanks.

Many thanks to all the SayNoTo1890.com users who’ve e-mailed the site in the past 6-8 weeks with geographical alternatives for 1890, 1850 and 0818 numbers. The A-Z page has now been updated with the following numbers:

• St Rapheals Garda Credit Union 0818247365 – Call 01 4092863
• MABS (Money Advice and Budgeting Service) 1890283438 – Call 01 8129350
• Sheridan Insurances 0818 27 99 99 – Call 046 907 9999
• The Physio Company 1890 749746 – Call 01 6799685
• Rabodirect Customer Service – 1850 88 22 22 – Call 01 659 9731
• Magnet Customer Service 1890 809 000 – Call 01 681 1601
• Allied Irish Windscreen 1850 512 345 – Call freephone 1800 512 345
• Department of Social and Family Affairs
• Illness Benefit 1890 928400 – Call 01 7043000
• White Smiles Clinic 1890 333 312 – Call local numbers on website
• Tesco Car Insurance 1890 812 123 – Call 01 290 1000 (RSA Insurance)
• RSA Insurance Group 1890 290 100 – Call 01 290 1000
• 25plus.ie Car Insurance 1890 927 334 – Call 048 7032 5100 (MCL Insurance Ltd)
• Dunnes Stores Value Club Card 1890 678 999 – 1800 678 999 (freephone)
• Lenovo Support 1890 252 967 – Call 01 881 1444
• DublinBikes.ie 1850 777 070 – Call 01 426 4954
• Topaz Fuel Card Services 1890 323232 – Call 091 482900
• Hoover / Candy Repair Centre 0818 200021 – Call 01 852 9200

Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland

• Home Energy Saving scheme 1850 927 000 – Call 01 8082100 (head office, ask for area you need)
• Greener Homes Scheme enquiries 1850 734 734 – Call 01 8082100 (head office, ask for area you need)
• Building Energy Rating (BER) enquiries 1890 734 237 – Call 01 8082100 (head office, ask for area you need)
• General Consumer enquiries 1850 376 666 – Call 01 8082100 (head office, ask for area you need)

Road Safety Authority

• Driver Testing Centre 1890 40 60 40 – Call 096 78289
• NCT Bookings SPSV (i.e. Taxi) 1890 412 413 – Call 01 413 5960
• NCT Bookings Private Cars 1890 412 413 – Call 01 413 5900 or 01 413 5994

I’ve written on Monday and Tuesday about the new ComReg consultation paper that is looking to deal with the reason behind this site – the increased cost of calling 1890/1850/0818 numbers from mobile phones and landline users using bundles of minutes.

Firstly, let me apologise for inviting you to read the consultation paper itself. Having read through it myself, it’s a nightmare to try to understand. Whether that’s done on purpose, or not, it’s hard to know.

However, the heart of the matter resides on page 40 out of 42 where the paper reviews “Impact assessment and preferred option”.

According to the paper, this is the preferred option:

9.6.1 Preferred option – Bundling
ComReg considers that the most appropriate and consumer-friendly way to address all of the issues associated with more transparent consumer call charges is to include calls to 1850, 1890, 0818 and 076 in tariff bundles offered by fixed and mobile operators.

This move would greatly enhance transparency as customers could then be able to call these numbers with confidence knowing that the cost would be deducted from their remaining minutes. ComReg considers that the issue of bundling lies within the realm of the operator‟s commercial freedom and it therefore limits itself, for the moment, to encouraging operators to implement this option without delay.

Are people in agreement? In what seems like the simplest solution in the document, a change is made that requires operators to include calls made to these numbers in bundled minutes rather than separately charge.

At least when it comes to 1850 and 1890 numbers? The fact that these were originally excluded from bundles was the key reason for setting up this website in the first place.

From my perspective, I would personally call for abolishing the 0818 numbers – these are basically a “poor mans” premium rate number. Consumers calling these numbers are paying money directly into the pocket of the company they’re calling, as well as paying for the cost of the call as well. Do away with it, prevent businesses from providing customer care lines on premium rate lines, and be done with the 0818 completed.

The impact analysis in the document doesn’t see any “down side” to this proposal for 1890 and 1850 numbers.

In fact, it highlights what could be a marketing opportunity for telecoms operators – “Consumers may opt to switch to those operators offering enhanced inclusive minutes bundles.”

Let me know your thoughts. If people are in agreement, I’ll submit a response on behalf of the users of this website in favour of their preferred option – with the extra suggestion that 0818 numbers be done away with completely.

In the three years since I set up the SayNoTo1890.com website, many people have talked a good game with regards to the misleading descriptions given to Lo Call and Call Save telephone numbers for those calling on landlines and mobiles using bundled minutes, and the extra costs incurred by consumers.

In the course of those 3 years, the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, the Consumers Association of Ireland, the National Consumer Agency and Leo Varadkar of Fine Gael have all talked about this issue, generally passed the buck, and universally done nothing.

Now it their chance to actually do something concrete on behalf of Irish consumers.

I’m calling on these four organisations to follow the lead of SayNoTo1890.com and to submit their own feedback to ComReg on the back of the Consultation Paper that I wrote about here yesterday.

As users of this site, if you want to be part of the SayNoTo1890.com submission, please contact me here with your thoughts and comments on the proposals in the Consultation Paper and I’ll included them in the feedback I send ComReg.

ComReg have recently published a Consultation paper for review and response by interested parties before close of business, Friday September 17th. This consultation paper is extremely relevant to this particular site as it relates to the usage, advertising and charging related to 1890, 1850 and 0818 numbers.

As part of this, ComRegs “Sixth Review of the National Numbering Conventions”, the main issues on which views are sought in this current consultation includes:

Changes addressing tariff ceilings associated with the non-geographic number ranges 1850, 1890, 0818, 0700 and 076, in particular by being more specific about the tariffs affecting mobile callers;

In fact, this website gets a specific mention in the paper:

ComReg has received a continuous flow of complaints from service providers and consumers about the cost of 1850 and 1890 numbers in recent years and has engaged with industry to attempt to improve the situation, with very limited results. Eircom, which is one of the main hosts for 1850/1890, has adjusted its charges and this has brought some improvements that help service providers but the main problems remain.

Whilst service providers are dissatisfied with the cost burden associated with terminating 1850 calls, the apparent dissatisfaction amongst end-users is mainly with the origination9 charges associated with calling 1890 numbers when calls are made using a mobile phone. This dissatisfaction is exemplified by the rise over some years of a web-based campaign called “Say „No‟ to 1890”. This campaign identifies many major companies using 1890 and advises customers to ring alternative geographic numbers – which are provided on the web site – to reach those companies.

This is obviously a very welcome move if it addresses the issues that have necessitated the creation of this website in the first place.

I’m still in the process of reviewing the documentation myself as it’s obviously of key importance to what this website was set up to address.

I’m not sure I fully appreciate, on first reading, what’s being proposed in this document, but more examination is necessary.

For users of this site, I’d invite you to have a read through of the document also, and please contact me here and let me know your thoughts and feedback. I’ll compile a single response on behalf of the users of SayNoTo1890.com.

The consultation paper can be downloaded from this link (pdf document).

Over the past couple of months, SayNoTo1890.com users have e-mailed the site with requests for geographical alternatives to 1890, 1850 and 0818 numbers for certain companies who seem to want to make it hard for their customers to call them in the most cost efficient manner.

• Nokia Ireland http://www.nokia.ie/support/contact-us – 1890 946 245
• Apple Ireland Customer Service 1850 946 191
• Nononsense Insurance 1890 252 737
• HSE Helpline 1850 241 850
• Boots Advantage Card 1890 200 085
• Eircom Broadband Technical Support – 1890 260 260
• Taxi Regulator Consumer Helpline 1890 60 60 90
• IKEA Dublin 1890 987 938
• Halifax Credit Card 1890 818 181

Others, are looking to make a few extra quid from their customers by making them use an 0818 number from which the companies make money from every call.

• Aer Lingus Customer Service (again) 0818 365000

I’ve done some checking, but I can’t find any geographical alternative numbers for the ones listed above.

Can you help out? Do you have alternative numbers? Do you work for any of those companies and know an alternative number?

E-mail me here and I’ll publish the alternatives – and if you’re working for the companies in question, I’ll obviously keep the source of the information completely private.

Many thanks.

Many thanks to everyone who has sent e-mails in the past 6-8 weeks to me here. I am currently making my way through them and hope to respond via some new blog posts on the website here in the next week or so.

My apologies if you’ve been waiting some time for a response.