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Wrong number

Declan Curry | 18:49 UK time, Tuesday, 16 June 2009

I'm the last person to complain about other people making mistakes, or giving out dodgy information.

If you've - er - enjoyed my reports on TV, radio or online over the years you'll know that I've had more than my fair share of them.

I once missed the start of my own programme, by lingering too long over a last-minute script change.

I also forgot the name of a guest while introducing him at the start of a live interview, and had to ask him to remind me who he was and why I was talking to him.

I laugh about it now (in a high-pitched, nervous way) but at the time it was taken very seriously. Rightly so.

We don't like mistakes, and we do everything in our power to prevent them.

Our aim is always to bring you relevant information that correct every time. Even though we all face deadlines, we value accuracy over speed. That's as it should be.

But sometimes errors are made - both by us, and by the people we ask for information. When we do get it wrong, it's important we put it right quickly, and with an appropriate sense of apology.

So - here goes.

We brought you a report yesterday on the cost of calling government helplines if you've only got a mobile phone.

These are helplines that you would call when you need to make your first claim for unemployment benefit if you lose your job, or if you're a parent tracking down your child benefit that's been cancelled by an administrative blunder, or if you need to apply for a crisis loan if you find yourself in a financial emergency.

But the very helplines that are meant to assist you could end up making your money troubles worse, if you call from a mobile.

Those 0845 and 0800 numbers could cost you for every minute you're on the line. If you're put on hold this could add up as the minutes soon whizz by.

Why would you ever call these numbers from a mobile? Well, according to Ofcom, in 2008 11% of households didn't have a landline at all - they only had mobile phones.

If you're strapped for cash and need to make the choice between one and the other, many opt for the mobile phone instead. It's more useful and practical.

Telling you this story is one thing.

But you've told us you also want practical advice. Tips that make life cheaper or easier. So we compiled a few, including the very obvious point that it's much cheaper to call these numbers from a fixed landline than from a mobile.

That is true.

But how much cheaper?

We went straight to BT to ask. It referred us to an old news announcement which proclaimed that "BT had offered ... cheer to 14 million customers by becoming the first UK telephone company to make calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers free."

That looked fairly straight up-and-down to us, so we broadcast that as part of our report.

Unfortunately it's not quite true - as a flood of emails from you pointed out. Many of you have been charged for calls from your BT phone to these very numbers.

That's because they're not "free" for everyone.

What BT has done is include these numbers in its existing call packages.

So if you're on a deal that gives you free calls anytime, your calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers are free, any time of the day or night.

But if you are on a deal that only gives you free calls at evenings and weekends, then 0845 and 0870 numbers will only be free at evenings and weekends too.

And if your calling package is for free calls at weekends only, then 0845 and 0870 calls will only be free at weekends.

To be fair to BT, even though their headline and the first part of the news announcement proclaimed "free" calls, the detail showing they were not exactly free was in the later paragraphs.

So - we're sorry to have confused you. And we're grateful to you for pointing our mistake out so quickly.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    No worries, it's happening ALL the time...

    /blogs/theeditors/2009/06/what_really_happened.html

    Those darn cuts.

  • Comment number 2.

    banking changes needed.

    What is needed is an honest referee in banking
    who applies the rules and every one knows
    the rules.

    In the long term no one will put money in a
    bank that is fraud the bank is run only to maximize
    profits for managers at the expense of others.

    UK Banking needs a government bank that packs up
    banking loans fairly and sells on a market, a securities
    market. This must be fair and honestly run.

    Uk should not listen to banking crooks, quality system
    will give the best long term results, all bad banks
    should be encourage to leave the UK or be shut down
    over time.

    Complex products are usually fraud and customers will
    lose over time, the secret world of banking is stealing.

    Subprime mortgages where AAA or green light low risk in
    fact they where high risk. Banks will make risky products
    green light by fraud.


  • Comment number 3.

    There's an old adage , "there are no free meals." This holds true especially for all of Britain's utility companies. The customer comes last, has no protection, no means of complainlng effectively and is ripped off at every turn by companies that are not just intent on making profit but intent on making obscene amounts of profit at the expence of the consumer. This problem is compounded by a weak government which would rather have the tax take from these companies than take the action required to stop the consumer being exploited.

  • Comment number 4.

    Well soon be another month of silence outside twitial (Twitter trivial).

    WHY? Oh why do you media types fall for the professional out of real work complainers over so called gender equality of pay?
    Average pay comparisons are a total and utter farce and anyone with half a brain cell knows it. Including the fools who make their living out of the 'industry' of invented gender inequalities.
    The truth is there is NO, to all intents and purposes, pay differentials for the Exact same job in the same company. That is the ONLY acceptable comparison.
    The same let alone so called similar jobs, across different companies can never be compared.
    Come on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ grow UP dump these easy pat stories generated by campaigners who long ago ran out of any cause to exist but now invent garbage numbers to justify their pay and job at all.


    Besides the tide of history is going towards woman's work being more valued. Proper male areas are in decline. Soft brain and communication work is the future. Like the media.

    So what next, average age wage discrimination? Come on, Must be far far worse a 'problem' if you do the same trick of average pay con measurements! lol

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