The Daily Mail has chosen the website "Say No To 0870" as its so-called "Website of the Week". It starts by giving examples of non-geographic numbers as 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871, which it says are more expensive than normal geographic numbers.
It declines to include in this bracket 0800 numbers, which are FREE for customers to call from a landline, and which companies with an 0800 number foot the bill for as a way of encouraging more customers to call them.
When it does go on to mention 0800 numbers, it says "It's also worth noting that some holiday
companies have so-called freephone numbers (0800 etc) for bookings -
but these actually cost a small fortune to call from your mobile". What it fails to mention is that it is the mobile phone companies that charge the small fortune, not the providers of 0800 numbers, and it has clearly failed to note OFCOMs plans to make 0800 numbers free to call from mobile phones.
By failing to do its homework, the article makes companies who spend money so that their customers can call them for free look like they are ripping off their customers, which couldn't be further from the truth.
