SayNoTo1890.com

This is the contents of a letter that was sent to, and published by, the Consumer Association of Ireland in their Consumer Choice magazine. It highlights the frustrations concerned when we’re being forced to spend extra money calling companies and government organisations through their use of 1850 and 1890 numbers.

My issue is that most of the telephone providers now offer packages where we pay a single fee for line rental and calls where calls are being made to another landline. However, many businesses and government departments elected to provide a Locall number for clients so that we would only incur a local call charge when we made contact with them. This is fine if a telephone subscriber is paying for each individual call. I and many others, however, pay an additional charge to call Locall numbers as Locall is a premium rate service.

For example, my monthly service charge for all calls 24/7 for any single call with a duration of less than 59 minutes to landlines in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK, along with Broadband and line rental, is about €50 per month. If, during the month, I call a business using the regular landline, this call will be included in my monthly subscription; if, however, I call using the Locall number, then there would be an additional charge on my next bill. Unfortunately, not all businesses and offices provide the normal landline number in addition to the Locall number.

I, like other subscribers with similar packages, am being asked to pay an additional charge for a phone call that should have been included in the Telephone Service Package because businesses are only supplying Premium Rate Numbers. This is most unfair to consumers.