Directory enquiries costing up to £20 for a 90 second call!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cupid_stunt]

When was the last time you used directory inquiries? I can't remember myself, I think at least 20-25 years ago.

I've been shocked by the news that it can cost up to £20 for a 90-second call!

I have this unpleasant feeling that my mother could still be using one of these services every so often, so when I next see her, I'll tell her to call me & I'll google it for her.

OFCOM are going to cap charges next year at £3.65, which still seems outrageous to me.

WARN any elderly people you know, spread the word!

The price of directory inquiries calls will be capped from April to protect consumers from excessively high charges, with some firms currently charging almost £20 for a 90-second call.

Directory inquiries numbers – which all begin with 118 – are still used by more than 1 million people, many of them elderly, with nearly two-thirds unaware of how much the calls cost.

The most commonly dialled directory inquiries number is 118 118, which charges £11.23 for a 90-second call. Ofcom said while cheaper services were available, consumers tended to use the numbers they remembered.

Watchdog hangs up on excessive directory inquiries charges

 

[Nivag]

No wonder that 118 lot are in the loan shark business now to launder their ill gotten gains!

 

[maomao]

That's what happens when you privatise something that was only popular because it was free. You have to charge through the fucking nose for it to get anywhere near a profit. Given that anyone using it now is likely to be someone who has difficulty using the Internet it's just straight up preying on the vulnerable.

 

[Spymaster]

I stopped using these chiselling fuckers years ago when they started offering to connect you to the desired number at £3.50/minute or something similarly insane.

Hope they go out of business. Cunts.

 

[cupid_stunt]

This is shocking:

If you call 'The Number' [118 118] it costs a fortune, but if you call 'The Number' [0800 118 3733] it's FREE, but you have to listen to an ad first.

If you call BT [118 500] it costs a fortune, but if you call BT [118 707] it's a flat rate of 75p.

Fucking cunts.

How to call directory enquires 118 for free - Money To The Masses

 

[skyscraper101]

Stopped using it pretty much around the time they ditched 192. I think on the very few occasions where I had to use a 118 I went with 118 500 the BT one on principle because of the stupid annoying TV ads from 118 118, but I never had them connect me.

 

[twentythreedom]

Robbing cunts, fuck them

 

[Edie]

Robbing cunts, fuck them

Robbing old people, double cunts.

 

[Casual Observer]

I tried to report a bent solicitor to the government's Action Fraud 'helpline' last week. A pre-recorded message greeted me and I was then put on hold. I gave up after 10 minutes as it was costing me 35p per minute. Even the anti-fraudsters are defrauding us. I then had a crack at reporting the fraud online to the same people - you have to go through a painfully long registration process before making the complaint. I gave up when the website gave me a choice of emoticons to reflect how sad the fraud made me feel.

 

[cupid_stunt]

I've got a 118 118 fancy dress costume.

It's related to an old photo of my brother & me, taken in the early 80s, both with longish hair & moustaches, wearing T-shirts from the radio station I worked for at the time, which happened to have a red & black logo.

When his eldest daughter & her eldest son saw the photo, they laughed at us for looking like the 118 118 guys, so on their next visit, I took the joke one step further, to much amusement.

 

[SpookyFrank]

That's what happens when you privatise something that was only popular because it was free. You have to charge through the fucking nose for it to get anywhere near a profit. Given that anyone using it now is likely to be someone who has difficulty using the Internet it's just straight up preying on the vulnerable.

The logic at the time was that lack of competition was bad for consumers. The current situation where you have a choice of ludicrously overpriced services instead of one free one is clearly a vast improvement.

Still, it's better than being able to switch to a different shit and overpriced water board or train company by simply moving to another part of the country.

 

[skyscraper101]

Wasn't 192 free for a long time? I seem to remember calling the number from payphones in the 90s.

 

[cupid_stunt]

People mention 192 was free, but a 25p charge was levied from the early 90s, raising to 40p by the time the regulator decided BT was abusing its position, and opened it to competition, which seemed fair enough.

Some how the various regulators since have missed the fact that what seemed like a good idea at the time, has since gone totally tits-up.

Having said that, there's still free or cheap options (75p flat rate), but most people wouldn't know that.

 

[skyscraper101]

I once used 411 in the USA which is the equivalent of what was 192 here, hence the slang 411 meaning 'information' that nobody on this side of the pond uses:

"After this commercial break, we'll give you the 411 on the hip new singer...etc"

 

[binka]

I once used 411 in the USA which is the equivalent of what was 192 here, hence the slang 411 meaning 'information' that nobody on this side of the pond uses:

"After this commercial break, we'll give you the 411 on the hip new singer...etc"

Informative

 

[Throbbing Angel]

I once used 411 in the USA which is the equivalent of what was 192 here, hence the slang 411 meaning 'information' that nobody on this side of the pond uses:

"After this commercial break, we'll give you the 411 on the hip new singer...etc"

How do you say it? FourEleven, four-one-one?

 

[skyscraper101]

How do you say it? FourEleven, four-one-one?

I used to say four one one, like nine one one, but really I have no idea because they also call blink 182 "blink one eighty two"

 

[kebabking]

I'm given to understand M'lud, that 'the 411' was a short lived popular beat combo...

 

[weltweit]

I have a mobile phone, it cannot access the internet, a couple of years ago I had to get a phone number so I called one of these operations (might have been 118118) it cost me about £5.00 .. lesson learnt, never again!

 

[DotCommunist]

and opened it to competition, which seemed fair enough.

has since gone totally tits-up.

'Alexa, what is neoliberalism?'

 

[moochedit]

This is shocking:

If you call 'The Number' [118 118] it costs a fortune, but if you call 'The Number' [0800 118 3733] it's FREE, but you have to listen to an ad first.

If you call BT [118 500] it costs a fortune, but if you call BT [118 707] it's a flat rate of 75p.

I'm guessing the easier to remember 118 numbers have the worst rip off prices.

 

[moochedit]

I remember when 118 numbers came in that someone at my work (in the habit of using 192) was calling 118 xxx and asking to be put "straight through" to the people they were trying to call. The managers soon stopped it when they saw the phone bill.

Not used directory enquiries myself since i learned how to google.

 

[Fez909]

I used to work for 118 500. I was the fastest operator in our call centre, averaging about 15 seconds per call.

The price at the time was 60p/min, "more from mobiles" - because we didn't know their operator we couldn't say for certain, but it was around £1.50/min usually.

I used to tell people to go to the BT website where they could do the search for free.

Mobile internet want a thing then, so if you were out and about, you were screwed.

The operators would often give the wrong information out and the customer would call back to complain.

We paid them a flat fee, "no quibble" refund of £1.50, which was sent to them in offsp postage stamps to their address. All of this was explained to them and managed on the same 118 number, so it would cost more to complain than you got back. And you can't even spend the thing you got back.

Cunts.

 

[Fez909]

I remember when 118 numbers came in that someone at my work (in the habit of using 192) was calling 118 xxx and asking to be put "straight through" to the people they were trying to call. The managers soon stopped it when they saw the phone bill.

Not used directory enquiries myself since i learned how to google.

If you were "put straight through" you paid the 118 price for the duration of both your calls.

Hideously expensive.

 

[moochedit]

If you were "put straight through" you paid the 118 price for the duration of both your calls.

Hideously expensive.

Yeah i know. A right scam.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I'm given to understand M'lud, that 'the 411' was a short lived popular beat combo...

They stepped in to support Ruddy Yurts when Haemorrhoid Unguent had to pull out cos of that incident behind the Town & Country Club.

Pickman's model etc

 

[skyscraper101]

I'm given to understand M'lud, that 'the 411' was a short lived popular beat combo...

They were a girl group signed to Sony back when I worked there, soon dropped after their album tanked.

 

[MickiQ]

I haven't used directory enquiries pretty much since 118 numbers were introduced, I express my surprise that any of them are still in business.
The one thing I can remember about 118 118 was that they used to "sponsor" Lost when it was on the telly and had tese stupid little adverts at the start and end of each ad break

 

[treelover]

That's what happens when you privatise something that was only popular because it was free. You have to charge through the fucking nose for it to get anywhere near a profit. Given that anyone using it now is likely to be someone who has difficulty using the Internet it's just straight up preying on the vulnerable.

I hear it on Today, it is disgusting and very revealing it has been allowed to carry on for so long.

 

[treelover]

I tried to report a bent solicitor to the government's Action Fraud 'helpline' last week. A pre-recorded message greeted me and I was then put on hold. I gave up after 10 minutes as it was costing me 35p per minute. Even the anti-fraudsters are defrauding us. I then had a crack at reporting the fraud online to the same people - you have to go through a painfully long registration process before making the complaint. I gave up when the website gave me a choice of emoticons to reflect how sad the fraud made me feel.

Action Fraud is rubbish, I believe the police think so too.