[nffc]

Originally Posted by NitroNutter

Its not that they are wrong, most often they are just out of date. Look at it like this the Geographical number is an IP and the 08xx numbers are domain names. Both are easy to change and often do. Shame but theres no way the site could ever be 100% correct and as more companies change thier numbers its likely to get worse.

What you should do is demand the companies geographical number from the company, use the reason I call from my mobile and the geographical number is included in the plan. If they arent prepared to give it they are more interested in phone profits than customers.

That may well be true, but I'd say most CC staff don't know of, or don't have access to a list of the geographical numbers - or at least equivalents to the correct line.

The whole idea of saynoto0870 is good, but as with any directory or resource that relies on user submissions some incorrect ones will sneak in.

For instance, I had a look at the DSG ones. Some of the numbers there are NOT customer facing or even correct, I can pretty much say that using those numbers will not get the result you need.

For our call centres it's likely the IVR will redirect to geographicals, well, pretty much cast iron since all 0870s/0845s/0800s etc are just redirectors anyway - but we don't know them, the IVR probably redirects to literally tens of them, and then straight into the queue anyway if there is one. And surely that defeats the point of the menu - to get you through easily to someone who can deal with your query. If you have to try tens and tens of geographical numbers then get told it's the wrong one, and keep trying - you will get ****ed off, and also run up a phone bill that you probably would have saved anyway.

And the whole point of the numbers is that they allow everyone in the country to pay the same. If our call centre used the 0115 numbers it would be cheap for local people to call, people in the Midlands, but for people in the south west or in the North of Scotland it would be expensive - so everyone pays the same. The fact that the 0870s etc are not included in talk plans is more the fault of the customers not checking the deals properly or the phone providers for misleading them, or not including them in the package to begin with. Plus especially for places with so many options the list of numbers would mean customers would need to be provided with a list the size of yellow pages to then find the right one... difficult. We also do not have anything other than internal extensions because otherwise, that would mean way way too many numbers to use especially bearing in mind the number of staff!

Wrong because they just don't serve the intended purpose, or wrong because it's old... the fact a number is listed means little and has no indication of its real purpose.
Imagine if your business number was posted on there and you were flooded with customers wanting something you were unable to offer on a number they shouldn't have...