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High-cost call 'culprits' named
Consumers often do not know the cost of calling companies
A list of companies and government agencies using costly phone helplines to make money at customers' expense has been published by a consumer group.
Which? names more than 30 bodies using higher-cost 0870 or 0845 numbers for customer service or technical support.
These include Tiscali, British Gas, TV Licensing and the DVLA - which all receive part of the cost of each call.
Which? says the DVLA made £3.4m from its 0870 line last year. The DVLA says it plans to switch to a cheaper number.
Ofcom introduced 03 numbers last year, which cost the same as calling an geographic (01 or 02) number. The watchdog plans to stop organisations making money from 0870 numbers but Which? said none of the organisations it checked with had switched to 03.
Some had simply switched from 0870 to other high-cost numbers.
The consumer organisation called customer helplines for broadband and utility companies and government agencies to see how long callers were kept waiting to speak to an agent.
It found British Gas, AOL and the DVLA kept people hanging on the longest, with average waiting times of around three minutes.
HIGHER-COST HELPLINES
0871: Admiral Insurance, Bell Insurance, Elephant Insurance, Diamond Insurance, Nikon, Tiscali
0870: Apple (tech support), Carphone Warehouse/Talk Talk, DVLA, Gladiator Insurance, Lexmark, Philips, Sony, Zanussi-Electrolux
0844: AOL, Orange, Panasonic, Sky, TV Licensing
0845: Barclays, British Gas, Consumer Direct, Direct Line, Eon, Green Flag, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Miele, Npower, Philips, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power, TV Licensing, Virgin Media
Source: Which?
One call to AOL was held for more than 15 minutes, at a cost of 75p from a BT landline.
Which? is calling for all companies to switch their helplines and technical support lines from expensive numbers to cheaper 03, 0800 or geographic numbers.
The organisation's Nicola Frame told BBC News, a 10-minute call from a BT landline to a normal geographic line cost about 40p at most, compared with as much as £1 for an 0870 or 0871 number.
She said: "That doesn't sound like a huge amount but when you think about how long people are hanging on the phone on some of these phone lines, it really adds up."
Whilst she acknowledged it was up to customers whether they called the higher-cost lines or not, she said it could often be hard to find a cheaper alternative.
However, she said many companies did have cheaper phone numbers and it was worth checking for these before calling, or finding out whether a query could be made by e-mail instead of by phone.
She said customers calling to complain about a faulty product or bad service who were kept waiting a long time on an expensive number should ask the company to refund the cost.
"A lot of the time people who are calling these numbers are making a complaint or asking for some support with the product and really we don't think customers should be paying big sums of money for that sort of help."
Consumers often do not know the cost of calling companies
A list of companies and government agencies using costly phone helplines to make money at customers' expense has been published by a consumer group.
Which? names more than 30 bodies using higher-cost 0870 or 0845 numbers for customer service or technical support.
These include Tiscali, British Gas, TV Licensing and the DVLA - which all receive part of the cost of each call.
Which? says the DVLA made £3.4m from its 0870 line last year. The DVLA says it plans to switch to a cheaper number.
Ofcom introduced 03 numbers last year, which cost the same as calling an geographic (01 or 02) number. The watchdog plans to stop organisations making money from 0870 numbers but Which? said none of the organisations it checked with had switched to 03.
Some had simply switched from 0870 to other high-cost numbers.
The consumer organisation called customer helplines for broadband and utility companies and government agencies to see how long callers were kept waiting to speak to an agent.
It found British Gas, AOL and the DVLA kept people hanging on the longest, with average waiting times of around three minutes.
HIGHER-COST HELPLINES 0871: Admiral Insurance, Bell Insurance, Elephant Insurance, Diamond Insurance, Nikon, Tiscali
0870: Apple (tech support), Carphone Warehouse/Talk Talk, DVLA, Gladiator Insurance, Lexmark, Philips, Sony, Zanussi-Electrolux
0844: AOL, Orange, Panasonic, Sky, TV Licensing
0845: Barclays, British Gas, Consumer Direct, Direct Line, Eon, Green Flag, Halifax, Lloyds TSB, Miele, Npower, Philips, Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power, TV Licensing, Virgin Media
Source: Which?
One call to AOL was held for more than 15 minutes, at a cost of 75p from a BT landline.
Which? is calling for all companies to switch their helplines and technical support lines from expensive numbers to cheaper 03, 0800 or geographic numbers.
The organisation's Nicola Frame told BBC News, a 10-minute call from a BT landline to a normal geographic line cost about 40p at most, compared with as much as £1 for an 0870 or 0871 number.
She said: "That doesn't sound like a huge amount but when you think about how long people are hanging on the phone on some of these phone lines, it really adds up."
Whilst she acknowledged it was up to customers whether they called the higher-cost lines or not, she said it could often be hard to find a cheaper alternative.
However, she said many companies did have cheaper phone numbers and it was worth checking for these before calling, or finding out whether a query could be made by e-mail instead of by phone.
She said customers calling to complain about a faulty product or bad service who were kept waiting a long time on an expensive number should ask the company to refund the cost.
"A lot of the time people who are calling these numbers are making a complaint or asking for some support with the product and really we don't think customers should be paying big sums of money for that sort of help."
